Hello, all:
Before I get to the writing update, first a word about stuffies:
Since getting married and having a youngling, we became introduced to Daniel Tiger and learned about stuffies: according to Merriam-Webster, a stuffie is “a toy that is covered in fabric (such as plush) and filled with soft material.” I didn’t know they were called that when I was growing up, to be honest; I just called them stuffed animals. Stuffy sounds like a better name, to be honest.
The first one I had, that I can remember anyway, was Eli; he was an elephant, yellow in color. I don’t actually remember what happened to Eli. I’m afraid, as Edwin Stanton once said of Abraham Lincoln, that now he belongs to the ages. In any event, he was replaced by my next and forever stuffy, Rudolph.
“Rudolph?” you say. “But his nose isn’t red!” To which my childhood self says, “Shush! You’ll hurt his feelings!”
I’ve had Rudolph, aka Rudy, for the better part of three decades. He’s survived two arm wounds and subsequent surgeries (you can barely notice the stitches!), multiple moves, and countless nights being held by, well, me. Of course eventually he was duly retired and while he was introduced to the youngling, she prefers stuffies of her own (a small blue bunny in particular, currently). Rudolph is not offended, I think. After all, he had his time as a proper stuffy, and may I say, with no little gratitude, he did the job well.
If you have any fond memories of your childhood stuffies, or still have the stuffies themselves, comment or email below!
Writing Update
Well, we keep plugging away here at the ‘Stack; this week varied a little in that I had a few more fiction stories and different posts than I usually do, including End of Report, about a character named Will the Teleporting Wonder that I’ve only made vague reference to before now. The inspiration behind that was actually Brian Reindel’s review of Frank Herbert’s classic Dune; said review included Herbert’s thoughts about superheroes, which set me thinking, which led to End of Report. The review is below; I highly recommend it; I haven’t read Dune yet but it’s definitely moved up my (lengthy) to-read list.
In other news, I have author copies of Who Killed Ron Raven on the way for my own enjoyment (yay!). If you order a hard copy and you find yourself in southern Indiana across from Louisville sometime, shoot me an email and I shall be more than happy to sign it for you! (It’s self-published so I gotta promo; besides, signing stuff is fun).
Closing Time
In this week’s episode of Secret Invasion, a character (I won’t say who, spoilers, you know) recites a poem I hadn’t heard before: Late Fragment, by Raymond Carver. It’s a conversation between two people. It’s short, but it’s stuck with me.
And did you get what
you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself
beloved on the earth.
Until next time,
Michael