Flash Fiction Friday: 55 Miles to the Gas Pump

From Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx.

55 Miles to the Gas Pump

Rancher Croom in handmade boots and filthy hat, that walleyed cattleman, stray hairs like curling fiddle string ends, that warm-handed, quick-foot dancer on splintery boards or down the cellar stairs to a rack of bottles of his own strange beer, yeasty, cloudy, bursting out in garlands of foam, Rancher Croom at night galloping drunk over the dark plain, turning off at a place he knows to arrive at a canyon brink where he dismounts and looks down on tumbled rock, waits, then steps out, parting the air with his last roar, sleeves surging up windmill arms, jeans riding over boot tops, but before he hits he rises again to the top of the cliff like a cork in a bucket of milk.

Mrs. Croom on the roof with a saw cutting a hole into the attic where she has not been for twelve years thanks to old Croom’s padlocks and warnings, whets to her desire, and the sweat flies as she exchanges the saw for a chisel and hammer until a ragged slab of peak is free and she can see inside: just as she thought: the corpses of Mr. Croom’s paramours – she recognizes them from their photographs in the paper: MISSING WOMAN – some desiccated as jerky and much the same color, some moldy from lying beneath roof leaks, and all of them used hard, covered with tarry handprints, the marks of boot heels, some bright blue with the remnants of paint used on the shutters years ago, one wrapped in newspaper nipple to knee.

When you live a long way out you make your own fun.

Never give up and good luck will find you.

• Gala Darling poses in Hopeless Lingerie despite hotel screw-ups, blown circuits, and nerves. And the results are breathtaking!
• Design a cover for Borowski’s This Way for the Gas, Ladies and Gentlemen and win $1,000. (Venus febriculosa)
• Check out these galleries of Lolita and The Name of the Rose covers for inspiration.
• Fantasy Magazine reviews The Neverending Story. I knew I wasn’t the only one who thought it stood the test of time. I’ll take skilled puppetry over CGI any day.
• BOOKSHELF PORN!

To: AFA Action Alert
From: PZB

Thank you for alerting me to Home Depot’s admirable policies and respect for other people. I’ll be sure to shop there more often than I already do, and I spent $500 there last week. I’ll also post this information on my blog, which has several thousand readers. You’ve just gained Home Depot a great deal of business.

Very sincerely yours,

P.Z. Brite

• Read what prompted the e-mail above, Sometimes You Love Your Spam Box, and consider making a purchase at your local Home Depot.
• I want my own fairy tale cottage.
• Aromaleigh is closing its doors so everything’s 35% off. I’m sad to see them go. I recently started playing with mineral makeup again and their Glissade formula in 1CL was a perfect match. I’m thinking of sampling some Meow Cosmetics. Has anyone had any luck there?
• BPAL has announced that they are releasing a line inspired by The Last Unicorn. Then I found this thread discussing hypothetical scents for Labyrinth and Legend. Can I say right here that I would buy a bottle of every fragrance from both? A girl can dream.
• And this week’s Etsy finds: The Starshine Company (mineral makeup and perfume oils), Tea For All Reasons, and Sea Unicorn (lockets and jewelry).

All’s sleepy in the hollow

Happy Halloween! I hope everyone is enjoying themselves. I’m curled up, rather uncomfortably, at my desk with a cup of cocoa and a book. Because I’m boring. If you’re still riding the waves of a sugar high and looking for some quick reads, have “Teaching Bigfoot to Read” by Geoffrey W. Cole and “A Stone Woman” by A.S. Byatt. And if you want a cackle, check this out. You may find yourself simultaneously raging. Proceed to the nearest scarecrow and punch its lights out. Then laugh about it.

Covers of the Books I Love: Watership Down

Avon Books, Penguin UK, and Puffin UK.

The Search for the Perfect Bookcase

Cognac Bookcase from Debenhams, Faulkner Library Cabinet from Crate & Barrel, French Victorian Oak Bookcase from Vintage and Modern, Inc., English Bookseller’s Shelf from Victorian Trading Co., and BESTÅ Wall Unit from Ikea.

If there’s one thing I love more than books, it’s bookcases. I have three in my bedroom and they’re packed full. I hate having to store the rest of my babies in boxes, so last night I started searching for unit number four, something affordable that would mesh with the rest of the room. Clearly, I failed. *sigh* I especially love the Faulkner Library Cabinet. Must. Resist. Urge to cry.

Covers of the Books I Love: Tropic of Cancer

Clockwise from top left: First edition printed by Obelisk Press, Flamingo, a Russian edition (if you know the publisher, let me know!), and Grove Press.

A Dream Made Flesh

For more awe-inspiring photos, check out this collection by Curious Expeditions of some of the world’s most aesthetically pleasing libraries. If you’re anything like me, you will spend hours researching the history and location of each and every one of them.