Johnny Murdoc

Jan 12, 2012

Snow day

It’s a good problem to have.

I made the above graphic yesterday, when I fully intended to blog. It still reflects well on today, though in a slightly different way. I find myself having the first snow day of the year. Snow days are interesting, nearly as exciting to me now as they were when I was in school. It’s nice to have an open day that wasn’t planned for, wasn’t scheduled away.

The latest issue of Handbook Magazine is out:

It contains a new essay that I wrote, “Part of that World:”

I have to admit I have a thing for redneck boys in pickup trucks. With cut-off sleeves and fucked up noses. It gets better if they sneer, if they’re just a little bit ignorant. I have to admit I have a thing for the smell of grease and cigarettes. For dirty jeans and workman’s boots. For guys driving shirtless in souped-up shitty cars with shitty music pouring out of their open windows.

It doesn’t take a psychoanalyst to tell you where these desires come from. Where I grew up, in a small town an hour south of St. Louis, MO, there are no gym bunnies or go-go boys. There are no twinks or bears, only lanky guys and big-boned men.

You can buy it at HandbookMen.com.

Last week I finished a story I wasn’t planning on writing. Lately, it feels like everything that I’ve been working on has been in planning stages for quite some time. It’s a natural evolution of my writing career. Stories are getting longer, my plans are getting bigger. The tendrils of friendships that I’ve built have resulted in The Making of Plans with Others, and so the work of writing has to reflect my promises, my intentions, my responsibilities.

But last week, for a few glorious days, I had a new story pop in my head and I found myself with the two or three days it took to write it free. There’s nothing quite like the rush that I get from having pieces tumble together in my brain, to have characters pull together out of almost nothing.