The boy who lost his mother gnarled like a bear— tough bear he. Away from the bestial, he had softness in his eyes that laughed even when he and his words were sharp and sometimes ambiguous. He showed the plumpness of his belly to his closest friends and grunted like a pig and poet laughing … Continue reading The Poet, Poem 006-2023-0112
Tag: creativity
New Year, New Ideas, New Goals
I love writing fiction. It brings out my inner child. The story world of my books is a playground in my mind where my characters can run as fast as they can, jump far, fly if they need to, fall and skin their knees if they must, and end up heroes if I want them … Continue reading New Year, New Ideas, New Goals
Being Funny Again
I began drawing comic strips when I was a boy. I loved to laugh, so my favorite movies and television shows were comedies, and my favorite books were joke books. MAD was my favorite magazine, and The Dr. Demento Show was my favorite radio program, so zany situations and play on words made their way … Continue reading Being Funny Again
A Bit on Writing and Art
With NaNoWriMo in full swing, I’ve been seeing a lot of fiction writers write about plot. I’m a short story writer, but I’ve been through plenty of classes for novelists that teach Aristotle’s 3-act structure of Beginning, Middle, and End, and the popular 4-act structure (which lengthens and halves the Middle section) for novels. I … Continue reading A Bit on Writing and Art
Fantasy Short Story 006-2022-1031
It’s Halloween. “Bones In the Sand” is another short story from the 1990s. I wrote this one in 1991 for my children, especially for my son. Now it’s here for the rest of the world to read. And it has skeletons in it for all you bone lovers to enjoy on this Halloween. Enjoy. It … Continue reading Fantasy Short Story 006-2022-1031
Two Short Stories 004- and 005-2022-1030
Tomorrow is Halloween. To prepare for the occasion, I perused some of my old spooky tales, and now I’m posting two stories for your reading pleasure. “Secrets” is a quickie about someone with secrets sitting with a fortune teller. It began in the 1980s and grew only so far and stopped, so I left it … Continue reading Two Short Stories 004- and 005-2022-1030
Poems 003- and 004-2022-1026
Today I’m treating you to two nocturnal poems. The first one is a nontraditional poem by me. I wrote this whimsical poem many years ago when I was at college and studying the classics in literature. I rarely write rhyming poems, but this one came to me out of the blue, so I jotted it … Continue reading Poems 003- and 004-2022-1026
Poem 002-2022-1022
I wrote a lot of poetry during my teen years in a free-verse style that became coined “Naked Poetry”—a type of poetry where words and cadence are more important than rhyme. I believe the term came from the anthology books Naked Poetry: Recent American Poetry in Open Forms (1969) and The New Naked Poetry (1976). … Continue reading Poem 002-2022-1022
Louie and Bruce 001-2022-1020
I was 9 or 10 when I fell in love with drawing cartoons. I copied everything popular on TV and in the newspapers and comic books. At 13, I began drawing my own “toons.” This allowed me to put on plays between the characters I created. The shows were silly or serious, sublime or nonsensical, … Continue reading Louie and Bruce 001-2022-1020
It Began With Watercolors
Like most kids in the U.S., I began my painting experience with a child’s watercolor pan set, also called a box set by my Canadian cousins. Those sets had a small painter’s brush and six blocks of colors bound by gum arabic inside: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. Even at the high school … Continue reading It Began With Watercolors
Steve Campbell Creations 