Tag Archives: short-story

Let’s get ready to drive to town!

July 28, 2026 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Will I remember how to start the car??

Will I remember how to get there?

How to get home from there?

Most importantly — will I remember to turn on my Prime playlist before hitting the highway at 95mph, so that I will have music wherever I go??

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Wow, gang.

Yesterday was so cool.

In the middle of the afternoon, a guy came to my kitchen door. He was wearing one of those bright orange vests and he had a clipboard and an ID tag.

My first thought was, “This is gonna cost me money…” But I opened the door anyway.

Long story short, he wanted to sign me up for the new fiber optic Internet that has come to Crazeysburg. And it is significantly cheaper than what I’ve had for the last several years, so I did sign up.

But it was really hot and humid out, so I asked him to come into the kitchen while he explained everything and we did the paperwork, wherein, upon entering, he said:

HE: “Wow, your home is so beautiful. It’s hard to believe you have so many cats.”

And as loyal readers of this lofty blog know so well by now, a comment like that means so much to me!!!

Anyway.

Aside from saving me a bunch of money, the cool part was that he was from Utah. And he saw my Joseph Smith magnet on my refrigerator. And as soon as he recognized Joseph Smith, I knew he was a Mormon. And so we had a really long and wonderful chat about Mormons, and about the Kirtland Temple, up by Cleveland, which we both have been to, and how incredible it is.

“The Kirtland Temple was a sacred place of worship and learning for Latter-day Saints in Kirtland, Ohio, during the late 1830s.”

The guy from the Internet company was about 20 years old, but we had such a wonderful chat.

And later this afternoon, the company is coming by to set up the new Internet.

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BTW —

If you saw any news this morning about terrible storms and high wind damage in the State of Ohio last night — it did not reach our part of the State. We had rain last night (and a little more rain right now) but nothing terrible.

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Okay!

When I saw this post yesterday on Instagram my heart sort of flip-flopped and my brain soared!!

If you have ever read my (award-winning!!) erotic novel, Freak Parade, you no doubt recall the character of Tricky Dick Milhouse!!

And if you know me at all, you know that Freak Parade, while fiction, is still heavily based on my actual life in NYC — things that really happened and people I knew.

And you likely also know that I don’t go out of my way to disguise the real identities of the people I write about!! (Except in the singular case of my late great friend, Holly Lane, who said, after reading the completed manuscript of Freak Parade: “If you don’t change that Frankie character and make her a lot less like me, I’m gonna sue your fucking ass off!”)

Well, I won’t print his actual name here (even though if you Google the Fleshtones, you’ll figure out right away which one it is) but I will say that he’s in that band above! “Tricky Dick Milhouse” is looking at you right now! And I Googled him yesterday and he’s STILL ALIVE!! Yay!!

What an awesome little trip down Memory Lane that was for me yesterday, gang!! It brought such a smile to my face.

Oh, and Freak Parade will soon be an audio book on Amazon’s Audible!! I will keep you posted!!

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Okay, here’s this from James Tabor.

My First Catholic Audience: Presenting the Historical Mary to Catholic Sisters (1 hr 17 mins):

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And this was from Charlie Ward this morning. Very interesting.

Japan Financial Shock, Australia EBS Alert & Fed Closed Meeting Charlie Ward Daily News 28 July 2026 (7 mins):

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And here’s this!

Keith smoking with Marlon in London in 1973!!

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And yesterday, the very moment I pushed SEND and posted to the blog and then got on to Instagram, there was yet another announcement from Nick Cave Official about the huge upcoming homecoming bash in Brighton starting on Thursday!!

A treasure hunt!!

And if you are going to be in Brighton this weekend and you DON’T have a good time, there is obviously something really wrong with you!!!!

Okay!

Here’s this, from June 29th!

And here’s this from my desktop stash!

From one of the best nights of my life — back in NYC, in the Autumn of 2019!! Nick Cave In Conversation!!

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And I think that is it for today.

I gotta get into the Honda Civic Sport and head to town and get the groceries!!

And then, I guess, work at my kitchen table today, while the Internet guys set up the new modem, etc. It’s supposed to take 2 hours (!!).

I hope you are having a Terrific Tuesday, wherever you are in the world, gang.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s close with this!!

Only because I love this song so much — doesn’t everybody??

The original video from way back in yesteryear —

“Red Right Hand” by Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds! From their incredible album, Let Love In, 1994! Enjoy, gang!!

"Red Right Hand"

Take a little walk to the edge of town
Go across the tracks
Where the viaduct looms,
Like a bird of doom
As it shifts and cracks
Where secrets lie in the border fires,  in the humming wires
Hey man, you know  you’re never coming back
Past this square, past the bridge,  past the mills, past the stacks
On a gathering storm comes  a tall handsome man
In a dusty black coat with  a red right hand

He’ll wrap you in his arms,  tell you that you’ve been a good boy
He’ll rekindle all those dreams  it took you a lifetime to destroy
He’ll reach deep into the hole,  heal your shrinking soul
Hey buddy, you know you’re  never ever coming back
He’s a ghost, he’s a god,  he’s a man, he’s a guru
They’re whispering his name  across this disappearing land
But hidden in his coat  is a red right hand

You ain’t got no money?
He’ll get you some
You ain’t got no car?
He’ll get you one
You ain’t got no self-respect,  you feel like an insect
Well don’t you worry buddy,  cause here he comes
Through the ghetto and the barrio  and the Bowery and the slum
A shadow is cast wherever he stands
Stacks of green paper in his  red right hand

You’ll see him in your nightmares,  you’ll see him in your dreams
He’ll appear out of nowhere but  he ain’t what he seems
You’ll see him in your head,  on the TV screen
And hey buddy, I’m warning  you to turn it off
He’s a ghost, he’s a god,  he’s a man, he’s a guru
You’re one microscopic cog  in his catastrophic plan
Designed and directed by his red right hand

c - 1994 - Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Thomas Wydler

Almost sort of back to normal

May 6, 2026 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Okay, well, today I’m heading out to see my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man and it will be the first time I’m seeing him since he found out from his daughter that Annie died.

I’m sort of expecting him to be mostly okay with it, since he has a firm belief that: a.) everyone’s spirits live on; and b.) he believes we all go to a better place when we die.

His daughter has already left for the airport to fly back home this morning. So, we will soon see how today goes.

And Friday, my shift with him has been totally turned around. I need to get to his house by 7:30AM, and help him get into his suit and tie . His stepson from Florida will be picking him up at 8:30AM to take him to the funeral.

So, yes, I’ll be driving for an hour, total, to help him for one hour. And then after that, the new normal without Annie in our lives will officially begin.

But, I will have the rest of Friday off. So that’s, you know, I guess nice.

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On Saturday, I’m heading back to this lovely place:

To drop off a review copy of The Curse of Our Profound Disorder for Kevin at his beautiful gallery there:

Even though we’re both kinda thinking the novel will be too extreme for his tastes, too, he wants to at least try to read it, which I appreciate!! So we shall see. But it gives me a great reason to go back to that really beautiful Historic Arcade in downtown Newark.

It is, of course, sort of mystifying to me that I’ve apparently written a novel that a lot of people can’t handle — even my best friend Valerie in Brooklyn gave up on it because she was afraid it was going to give her bad dreams. And Wendy only finished the book because she was trying to be a good friend to me.

But I think back to 1999, when my first book, Neptune & Surf, was just coming out and Barnes & Noble (at first) refused to carry it because of the novella in it, called “Gianni’s Girl”.

But then they changed their minds when The Guardian newspaper in London chose the book as one of their Top 10 Summer Reads that year.

When I had first completed writing “Gianni’s Girl,” I was so thrilled with what I had achieved, I immediately stuck the story in a manila envelope and mailed it downtown to my good friend, (the late) Holly Lane.

She read it and then called me and said, “What the fuck did I just read??? First, they’re bringing in a Great Dane, next it’s an incredible love story?? You have totally fucked with my head!” And then later, out on the street together one night, she said, “You know you’re a sociopath, right?” (Actually, I didn’t know.)

But N&S eventually came out in 6 editions — including trade paper, mass market, Book-of-the-Month hardcover, eBook, and 2 French editions. (And is now in the Internet Archive for eternity.)

And then I think about that French podcast I stumbled upon in the Archive the other day, wherein the podcaster said :

“… I would say the author possesses a gift for sweeping you away, for immersing you in the world she portrays. Yes, for she tells tales of worlds—of entire eras.”

And she was including “Gianni’s Girl,” which takes place among violent Chicago bootleggers in the 1920s.

So, you know, I guess you just gotta go with what comes out of your head and hits the page, and hope that, down the line, you’ll find that there was a reason for it, overall.

Oh, I do have to add that the guy in NYC who’s reading a review copy, is almost done reading the book and, so far, he’s still really liking the book.

So, don’t forget that you can pre-order it, in eBook or print, HERE if you’re interested in seeing if you can handle it or not…

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Okay, here’s this!!

Two guitar heroes — Steve Vai and Joe Satriani — are once again on tour together!!

From Minneapolis the other night:

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Here’s Keith and Patti (early 80s?) having what might be a pizza together?? Hard to tell, it’s tiny!

And I loved this!!

Perhaps they had Keith under constant surveillance, you know, after he’d famously woken up one night in his hotel bed in Florida, put a riff down quickly on a tape recorder, then passed right out again — and later, what he’d composed in his sleep, basically, became the Stones first huge monster mega hit, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”!!

Here’s this, while we’re at it!!

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And here’s this!!

Warren Ellis, ready for his close-up at the Met Gala!! (I think a day late, but I’m not positive!!)

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And a couple of beautiful shots of Nick Cave onstage. I don’t know when, where, or photos-by-whom, but I love them!!

I think this one is in Croatia, actually, but I’m not positive. And I think the photographer’s name is down in the corner.

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And that is it for now!!

I guess I’m gonna get ready to head to town and find out just what this day is gonna bring.

Have a wonder-filled Wednesday, wherever you are in the world.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys, See ya!

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Let’s close with these!

You can pre-order Foreign Tongues, the upcoming new album by the Rolling Stones, HERE!! Enjoy, gang!

“In the Stars”:

“Rough and Twisted”:

Welcome to a Sunny Monday in the Hinterlands!

May 4, 2026 marilyn jaye lewis Leave a comment

Just a gorgeous day, here, gang.

So sunny. A totally blue sky. And going up into the 70s Fahrenheit.

I am definitely going to take a walk — go to the post office and mail my birth mom’s Mother’s Day card. Then walk over to the Dollar Store and — yes! Buy more coffee!

WTF?? Didn’t I just do that? Perhaps I should look into buying a larger can…

The laundry is almost done (it’s my day off) and I’ll probably do some of this today:

And I have absolutely 100% decided that the short story needs to be a novella, so the deadline for that is no longer an issue. I’m not sure what I’ll work on today, but it won’t be that.

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I touched base with my dear friend Wendy yesterday, to see if she was making progress reading the review copy of The Curse of Our Profound Disorder, which I gave to her almost 2 weeks ago.

We knew it was going to be a tough read for her — she’s a sort of straight-laced Jehovah’s Witness. She’s had a very different kind of life than I’ve had. (Although, oddly enough — we’d known each other for about 6 years out here in the Hinterlands, before we discovered that we’d both gone to the same high school — over in Columbus!! But separated by about 8 years. How weird is that?)

Anyway.

She is indeed having trouble with the book. It’s very intense. But she is determined to read it through to the end.

Which I really appreciate. But it brought back those feelings that doing a book launch around here might not be the best idea.

But I guess I’ll wait and see how it goes. The book doesn’t come out until September.

(Oh! And if you enjoy the heck out of intense fiction, you can pre-order it HERE!)

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Well, for the first time in a couple of weeks, I sort of “woke up” at around 3AM, thinking about my favorite 95-year-old Japanese man, but this time, I felt a wave of relief instead of that nagging anxiety!

His daughter arrived last evening, so she’s there with him now. Plus, knowing that he isn’t going to be put into a nursing home anytime soon…

It was just a great feeling of relief. So here’s hoping the free-floating anxiety factor can take a backseat in my life for a while.

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I did indeed start re-watching “20,000 Days On Earth” last evening and I am so glad I did! There is just so much about that film that I had forgotten. I probably haven’t watched it in about 6 or 7 years. (I’m not going to get into that “where did the fucking time go???” business again… we’ll just re-watch it and enjoy it!!)

So I am trying to sort of just relax around here.

I’m waiting to hear from Sandra regarding any work that still needs doing on “”The Guide to Being Fabulous” — the play is already done, we just need to sort of get it staged on paper by November.

And the TV project proposal is on hold until at least the end of June.

So, really, I need to just make myself relax and in a sort of non-anxiety way, decide what I want to focus on in the meantime. (For instance — maybe pull the weeds from the rose garden since it’s so pretty outside today?? Then consider finally actually beginning the writing of my memoir of the 1970s!!)

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Okay.

Here’s this!

What could be better than a couple of photos from Phyllis Stein??

Richard Hell at CBGBs in 1978!

And Johnny Thunders enroute to LA from NYC in 1973!!!!

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And here’s this!!

Keith with a bottle of Jack Daniels!!

And for the record, I would like to add that — NO! — Keith did not introduce me to Jack Daniels. That honor belonged to a Jewish girl named Karen that I was friends with when we were 12.

Her parents loved Jack Daniels and she lived a couple of houses away from a house where I used to babysit all the time.

One night, Karen stole a fifth of JD from her parents and then hid it in the bushes of that house where I was babysitting, even though I told her not to! But she did it anyway.

And the following day, she retrieved the bottle from the bushes, concealed it in the basket on her bike, and then brought it over to my house, to keep it stashed in my bedroom!

Okay. Whatever. She liked drinking Jack Daniels. I had never had it before. I tried it and really liked the aroma and the flavor of it, but it burned like hell going down.

So the fifth just sat there in my closet, so that she could drink it whenever she came over. (And Karen also introduced me to smoking cigarettes…)

But anyway.

That was the beginning of me and whiskey…. I’ll regale you with the rest of the story of Karen & the 5th of JD another day. It will tell you all you need to know about my dad’s parenting skills in 1972 and why I always preferred his skills over my mother’s…

A version of me in 1972. Or at least, my mind in 1972…

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I digress!!

Here’s Keith and Anita and Marlon, in France in 1971!

And a serene sort of photo of Keith onstage somewhere with a Flying V!

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And your guess is as good as mine with this one, gang!

What is Nick Cave holding here?? A gun? A microphone? Something else?? I just don’t know!!

And I love this photo!

His hair. The cigarette. The arch above him. Just the whole feel of it!

Nick Cave, with big hair, a cigarette, and an arch above him:

And I also love this. Something about the jacket…

Nick Cave, onstage in a striped jacket!

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And that is it.

Well, the Agency just texted that my shift for tomorrow is cancelled; the clients will be at doctors’ appointments all day. So now I have two days to figure out what I want to do.

I will begin the thinking process by finishing the laundry and then heading out for that walk.

Enjoy your Monday wherever you are in the world, gang.

Thanks for visiting.

I love you guys. See ya!

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Let’s close with this — if you have an hour and a half.

This stuff is very illuminating, gang.

From Ross K. Nichols Sunday School yesterday:

“Many of humanity’s most ancient stories share a tale as old as time itself: the account of one righteous man, specially chosen to save the human race from a catastrophic flood that nearly ended all life on earth. We know him as Noah in the Hebrew Bible, the Christian New Testament, and the Koran, but other ancient peoples also preserved versions of this man’s story….”

Knowing Noah: The Man Behind the Myths (1 hr 31 mins):