Mixed Bag
A year or two ago I was dropping off a used mattress at a local nonprofit's fundraising garage sale. A friend came up and said, "You can't *sell* a used mattress!" (He's from Massachusetts, where such sales may be illegal.)
I quickly responded, "Why not? I bought it here!"
Actually I didn't respond that quickly. As we all do, I came up with the "quick" response several hours later. But dreaming it up started me thinking about garage sales, which led to my latest Writers on the Range piece, available here to subscribers. Ironically, the mattress anecdote itself didn't make the final cut into the essay.
Also out this month are two other essays (sorry, not available online):
"Caroline Lockhart on the Dryhead: 'Happily-Ever-Aftering' on a Montana Cattle Ranch" is a lengthy piece for Montana: The Magazine of Western History covering the last 30 or so years of Lockhart's life, her final assault on her cowboy dreams. This was one of the more fascinating questions in my research: when a romantic cowboy novelist means to suggest that characters will live happily ever after, she portrays them moving to a cattle ranch. So what happens when she herself makes that move? Though the book will address the issue, I spun off an article on this specific question, in part because the advice of former _Montana_ editor Clark Whitehorn was of such tremendous help to me in researching, conceptualizing, and selling my book manuscript.
Meanwhile, "Mixed Bag" is a lighthearted reflection on trail mix, in Horizon Air magazine. Trail mix, the stuff you eat on backpacking trips -- which I will be doing over the next ten days!
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks...
I quickly responded, "Why not? I bought it here!"
Actually I didn't respond that quickly. As we all do, I came up with the "quick" response several hours later. But dreaming it up started me thinking about garage sales, which led to my latest Writers on the Range piece, available here to subscribers. Ironically, the mattress anecdote itself didn't make the final cut into the essay.
Also out this month are two other essays (sorry, not available online):
"Caroline Lockhart on the Dryhead: 'Happily-Ever-Aftering' on a Montana Cattle Ranch" is a lengthy piece for Montana: The Magazine of Western History covering the last 30 or so years of Lockhart's life, her final assault on her cowboy dreams. This was one of the more fascinating questions in my research: when a romantic cowboy novelist means to suggest that characters will live happily ever after, she portrays them moving to a cattle ranch. So what happens when she herself makes that move? Though the book will address the issue, I spun off an article on this specific question, in part because the advice of former _Montana_ editor Clark Whitehorn was of such tremendous help to me in researching, conceptualizing, and selling my book manuscript.
Meanwhile, "Mixed Bag" is a lighthearted reflection on trail mix, in Horizon Air magazine. Trail mix, the stuff you eat on backpacking trips -- which I will be doing over the next ten days!
I'm always interested in feedback, via info at johnclaytonbooks...
