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June 30, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Painting Naked" by Kimberley Idol
"Look, look, look." The boyfriend turned to show me a strip of masking tape attached to his dick.
"Don't get primer on that," I replied. I think I have painted more than a hundred rooms in my life. I attack the task as I do all tasks, like line drives. Painting in the nude was the best way to avoid washing acrylic off another T-shirt, even if I have dozens. If you travel to Amsterdam and you can not afford the Renoir or the Natchez triple dresser, a T-shirt emblazoned with green people boffing doggy style can substitute as a souvenir. Plus, I run in a lot of 10Ks. This activity nets you shin splints, free orange juice and free T-shirts. Allison and I run them once a month. We go to class together, bar hop together and run together. Last week we entered the Santa Anita Run. Someone miscalculated the length, the race was .75 miles longer than it should have been. When you strategise for 6.2, 6.95 takes a toll. You've spent all you had before the last mile and so you dodder along in the end, like a rented pony. They still owe you the T-shirt however, no matter how late you cross the finish line.
Posted by The Editors at 09:27 PM in Literary Journal
June 25, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Words" by Caroline England
The searing heat of righteousness kept Mrs H company through the night, at least until the early hours, and even then the feeling of having been wronged, indefinable though it was, still burned in her dreams.
During her waking moments, she tried to identify the cause, to concentrate on the nub, but her mind was in spasm, convulsing with thoughts, moments and memories but unable to focus on any one thing. Archaic, antiquated. No longer of relevance, she thought. Mrs H closed her eyes and recounted the books from the well-stocked library of her childhood home.
She slept again, eventually, and woke at dawn feeling thirsty and vaguely bereft. Getting herself out of the lofty bed was more of an effort than usual, and she averted her eyes from the looking glass as she always did. She had been almost beautiful once and didn't need to be reminded of a face consumed and robbed by lonely old age and secret obsession. She cleaned her teeth for longer than usual, focusing on nothing except the swirl of blood in the bowl when she spat.
Posted by The Editors at 10:09 AM in Literary Journal
June 20, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Voice on the Water" by Louis M. Abbey
"How can you say you'd like one? You don't know anything about boats," I said. My father sat on a kitchen chair, a Time magazine on his lap.
"Don't know exactly, but I feel it," he answered, distracted. The Red Sox were on the radio. The commentator's staccato monotone crackled over the hoarse breath of the crowd.
"Feel it. What do you mean by that, Dad?"
"I feel it, David, right here," he punched the center of his stomach. "When Williams smacks a homer, he doesn't feel contact, his gut just knows. Same as me about a boat, I know I'd love one—you would too, holding the wheel, wind in your hair, it just feels right, doesn't it?"
Posted by The Editors at 12:22 PM in Literary Journal
June 16, 2009 | Everything Writers Need to Know about Twitter!
June's Absolute Blank article is "Twitter, Tweet, Twits: How the Hottest Social Media Platform Helps Writers" by TC Guest Author Kristin Baxter.
Posted by The Editors at 03:43 PM in Articles
June 15, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Anniversary" by Michael Zapata
My parents are dancing. Their steps are Venn Diagrams, permanently looped into the oak-wood flooring. Their bodies are concentric hemispheres. They are rocking back and forth and my mother's heels are clicking like Amtrak wheels...
Posted by The Editors at 02:23 PM in Literary Journal
June 10, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Hubris" by David Fulton
Pollock was down to his last two Lucky Strikes
and no one was going out for more wine
and the last of Coleman Hawkins was fading
into a silence like static, like too much
coffee and trying to sleep.
It was day three and the artist
had the shakes. Maybe it was time for lunch.
Posted by The Editors at 12:50 PM in Literary Journal
June 05, 2009 | From TC 9:2 - "Confirmation" by Gale Acuff
In this issue of Lois Lane I rub
her blouse off with my eraser and she's
naked above the waist. I draw circles
for nipples and a couple of Us for
bosoms and she looks like a real woman
now, not that she wasn't before, even
though she's just a comic-book character.
But I'm thirteen and in the seventh grade
Posted by The Editors at 11:28 AM in Literary Journal
June 01, 2009 | Summer Reading from Toasted Cheese!
TC 9:2 features poetry by Gale Acuff, David Fulton & Adam Poltrack; flash fiction by Michael Zapata & Andrew H. Minnick and fiction by Louis M. Abbey, Caroline England, Kimberley Idol, Walter Kraut, Andrew Rivas, Paul Silverman & Ron Arnold.
Also look for Three Cheers and a Tiger Writing Contest winning stories by Nathaniel Tower, Brian Behr Valentine & Amanda Divine.
This issue's Best of the Boards winner is Aaron M. Wilder.
Congratulations to all!
Posted by The Editors at 10:46 PM in Literary Journal