HOLY SMOKE

About the Book

I didn't know but the year I was writing "Holy Smoke", I was writing about the last few months of a friend's life. Still editing at the time of her death, I added her last thoughts and experiences. I dedicate this book to her and what sixteen years of knowing her has meant to me (love, confusion).

Holy Smoke is an expressionistic, absurdist and darkly surreal journey through the holy and the profane (smoke). As she was, she could not possibly have survived. Being doomed, I was likely to fall in love with her...

As I move raggedly through life (which ends abruptly I am told), the gods must be laughing (if there are any). If there are no gods, they are inventing themselves (and let's hope when they grow up they learn to behave reasonably!).

About the Author

Words have their own lives independent from their function as describers of ‘real’ worlds. They hold time and place but also can help us imagine new worlds. They preserve our experience against the dismantling force of death ... This is why I’m fascinated with words. As well as a writer, I am a painter and a poet. I teach college art and film classes and work at a variety of tasks looking for satisfaction.