BUSMAN'S HOLIDAY...

Hi folks,
I have to take a bit of a hiatus this week as I'll be at Phoenix College, appearing at their annual writer's festival, Microburst. I'm pretty pumped about this. On Friday, I'll give a talk centered around the film Thelma & Louise, giving writer's techniques based on this movie, and on Saturday, I'll conduct a writer's workshop on story beginnings. After I leave, I've been invited (and accepted) to teach writing classes for the college online. (BTW, this is Phoenix College, the "real" school; not that pretend school, the University of Phoenix...)

And... I get to stay with one of my best friends, Tom Rough. Tom and I worked a LONG time ago at Michael and Friends Hair Salon in South Bend and I left for New Orleans and the Snobs Salon where I was the artistic director. Tom went to Chicago to work for Sassoon's and became the manager there. He went from there to Scottsdale where he co-founded one of the top salons in the southwest, Taglio's. Here's their webpage in case anyone's in the area and wants the best haircut they'll ever get! (http://www.tagliosalon.com/)

Anyway, Tom's got an extensive wine collection which he promises we'll put a dent in. Plus, I get to hang with Phoenix writers and the director of Microburst, Martin Etchart, a super writer himself. If anybody here is near the Phoenix area, please try to come to the Thelma & Louise presentation--it's open to the public, while the workshop is composed of students at the college.

I'm so looking forward to this trip!

I've got my reading material... Linwood Barclay's No Time for Goodbye. I've read this before, but now I'm studying it for tension techniques. I'd highly recommend any of his work for seeing how a master creates tension on the page. In my opinion, he's the best at doing so. You can get it here. No Time for Goodbye

If I get a chance, I'll try to post stuff while I'm there, but I may (hope!) be too busy to do so.

Blue skies,
Les

At a Notre Dame game they won last year... (There weren't that many...)

P.S. When I go someplace that requires a plane to get there on, I can't help it--feelings of my own frail mortality arise... That's why I'm thankful to Francine P. for giving me this advice....

I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather. Not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car…