Farmington – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

Update: May 14, 2019–Social Life in Farmington

Last night, I had a busy night after work.

First, I went to my first advisory board meeting of the local public radio station KSJE as a member of the advisory board. I was accepted some months ago, but have been unable to attend until last night due to scheduling conflicts. There were only four of us, including general manager Scott Michlin, but it was relaxing and informative. I enjoyed it very much and I enjoyed hearing about the upcoming projects, including the “Zero-Mile Fun Run” on this coming Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at San Juan College. If you are in the Farmington, NM area, I recommend you come. Participants will run about 27 feet and will receive a t-shirt. The “run” is primarily for fun, socializing, and making contacts.

After the meeting at about 5:30, I dropped by Studio 116 to find out what time their concert started. They weren’t starting until 7:00. I mentioned I would pass the time by going to dinner across the street at the Chile Pod. Karen recommended the Nacho Fries appetizer as a whole meal. She was right. They put a lot of Nacho Fries on a plate for a very reasonable price and the fries include Carne Adovada!

After dinner, I went down to Karen Ellsbury’s Studio 116. They host jazz and other bands in their back lot. This summer, they are hosting a free concert by a small band every Wednesday from about 6-8. I plan on attending one tonight. Last night, they had a special guest, Levi Platero’s blues band, which is very popular in the Four Corners area. They were terrific! Incredible soulful blues. You listen to it and think, “This is what the blues is about.” Studio 116 did charge a cover charge for this performance, but it was well worth it. I noticed, as you can see in the accompanying photos, that Levi, the lead singer and guitarist, played his guitar with his eyes closed and seem to be into his playing in a spiritual way. I have seen my share of big name concerts, but the only other performer I have seen play his guitar like this was Eric Clapton in a concert in Seattle in probably the late 80’s-early 90’s. I ran into a few friends from the Farmington Writers Circle and we watched the concert together.

Following the concert, I went to Lucky Break Billiards and Darts, where I shot pool for a little over an hour before picking up some dog food and fruit at Wal-Mart and then heading home.

Tonight, I will probably go back to Karen’s for a free concert (I don’t know who’s playing tonight) preceded by a quick run to Hobby Lobby, where I will pick up a glass jar, probably a faux mason jar, in which to store some small cigars, which have dried out. I found out a few years ago, that dry pipe tobacco can be rejuvenated by putting it into a jar with a slice of apple wrapped in a paper towel. This works very well and can keep them moist for months to years. Tonight, I will see if the same will work with small cigars (specifically, Macanudo Maduros). It will take a few days for them to absorb the juice.

Update: April 28, 2019 10:03 pm

It has been a busy weekend. Yesterday morning I spent much of the morning to maybe early afternoon making plans to complete several short stories and either add them to my existing anthologies on Amazon or to create new anthologies. I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening writing in various coffee shops and restaurants in Farmington. I intended to work on my sci-fi novel, whose working title is Jacob’s Ladder. Instead, I worked on a sci-fi/horror short story, on which I had a brainstorm for most of the day. It’s title is “The Charade”. It’s about the interrogation of an alien commander after his invasion armada has been defeated over Denver. For a short story, it will have a lot of intricacy and subtext. That’s all I will say about it for now.

The city of Aztec turned off the electric to most of the city, or at least our neighborhood, from 10 pm last night to about 7:00 this morning. Therefore, after I had spent most of the day in Farmington, I came home for a short while to feed the dog and type most of “The Charade”. Then I went back into Farmington for dinner at Olive Garden, then over to Lucky Breaks to shoot pool for about an hour before proceeding to Denny’s to write more on Jacob’s Ladder. If you saw last night’s posts, you know that I wasn’t too successful at that, because I was tired and couldn’t focus on writing. I couldn’t get a good “flow” going. Therefore, I spent most of my time on my social media related to writing. I had enough energy to do that.

I became very tired around 3:00 a.m. and headed home. Before I went home, I took a detour to Main Street to check out the hours for the Chile Pod, a very good New Mexican restaurant. I was planning to go there today for breakfast, but it was closed. I took the attached photo of Main Street looking east from the Chile Pod at 3:28 a.m. just because I had never seen the street so empty. There also seems to be a sort of desolate beauty about the street. When I used to do black and white photography in the 80’s-90’s, I used to take a lot of dramatic night shots of Alexandria Virginia and Washington, DC for the same reason.

I arrived home at about 4:00, and the electricity was out as announced. I had put some candles and a lighter near the door before I had left at 9:30 p.m. I lit them, sat up for a few minutes, and then lay down on the sofa to sleep, but never fell asleep.

When dawn came, the dog wanted out. I let her out. I lay back down, but couldn’t fall asleep for whatever reason. I felt very fatigued, but still had too much energy to sleep. Therefore, I surfed the Net for a while, including reading a few articles on using keywords and how to market books on Amazon. Then I worked on fine-tuning the administrative and marketing stuff for both my paperback and e-books on Amazon. I also worked some on finishing the paperback version of Nocturne. While doing that, I had a couple of ideas.

The first idea was to write and publish on Amazon a children’s book, for which I had the initial idea probably more than ten years ago while living in Corpus Christi. The original draft is on an old hard drive that I haven’t been able to access for about ten years. It is about a young brown pelican who is afraid to dive into the water for fish from about five stories up, which is what brown pelicans do. His father then has to teach him to overcome his fear. The young pelican also learns about trusting his father.

The second idea I had was to put together a collection of classic short horror stories and poetry from the ones I published on my website a few years ago in a recurring article called “The Saturday Night Special”, because I published them on Saturday nights. They seemed to be fairly popular. Most were stories from the nineteenth century, though a few were from 1900-1920, before copyright laws were established. Thus, all are in the public domain. I chose works from classic horror authors: Poe, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, etc. I started on that and had the first three stories in it, when, about 5:00 p.m., I decided to clean up and go have something to eat at a local Chinese restaurant. I took a notebook with me to write the first draft of the children’s book. See the previous article for photos of me and the notebook at the Wonderful House restaurant tonight.

I had hot and sour soup and pot stickers. While eating I read the news on my iPhone. Then I went to work on my book and didn’t put the pen down, with the exception of receiving a few calls from my wife (she is in Texas), until I had finished, which I did at 8:45 (the restaurant closes at 9:00). I then posted on this blog that I had completed the first draft and I came home.

Once home I started the laundry and started this post while watching a program on YouTube about the “Iceman”, Richard Kuklinski, famed mafia hit-man. It ended just now. Still no sleep. This happens occasionally and is not at all unusual for me.

I never managed to do the household chores I needed to do this weekend: financial planning, mowing the yard, cleaning the house, etc. Still, I got a lot done for my writing career.

This is the way it has been for me for a few weeks. I have had this drive to write, which grows increasingly strong with each day. I can hardly tear myself away from the keyboard.

It’s 11:24 p.m.. Still no sleep. Laundry is in the dryer. Going to bed soon.

Good night.

Write On Four Corners Needs Writers to be Interviewed

Traci HalesVass, moderator of the KSJE (90.9 FM) program “Write On Four Corners” is looking for writers to interview on her show. The criteria are: “The show focuses on ‘local and regional’ authors. That includes authors from afar who write about this region, the broad four corners. Most of my interviews are by phone and pre-recorded…They can reach me at halesvasst@sanjuancollege.edu.”

KSJE is the local Farmington, NM, public broadcast station.

Please relay this message to anyone or to any organization that you think may be interested in being interviewed.

For more information, contact Traci at the e-mail above. For information on KSJE, Farmngton’s public radio station, go to their website at KSJE.com or visit their Facebook page.

Reminder: The Farmington Writers Meet and Greet Will Be Held Today, Friday, June 9, from 5:00-9:00 pm.

Artifacts Art Gallery/302 Main Espresso, Farmington, New Mexico

Just a reminder that the Farmington Writers Circle Meet and Greet networking event is today, Friday, June 9, at Artifacts Gallery, 302 East Main, in downtown Farmington (NM) from 5:00 to 9:00 during the city’s Artwalk .

This event is open to everyone with an interest in writing or reading. Its purpose is for local area writers of fiction and non-fiction to socialize and make networking contacts with the public and other writing professionals such as editors, publishers, reporters, bloggers, teachers, and anyone else interested in writing. Novices, amateurs, students, and professionals of all genres, styles, and media are all welcome. Anyone with an interest in reading or teaching any type of writing is definitely welcome. This is an opportunity to meet your favorite local authors.

Bring business cards and any other handouts such as flyers or pamphlets to pass out to your new contacts.

There will also be book-signings and readings by several local authors and writers (a list will be posted soon). Artifacts Gallery will also provide a salsa-tasting. Refreshments will be available.

Check back frequently for updates.

For more information, contact Phil Slattery at phil@philslattery.com.

Reminder: The Farmington Writers Meet and Greet Will Be Held on Friday, June 9, from 5:00-9:00 pm.

Just a brief reminder that the Farmington Writers Circle Meet and Greet networking event is on this coming Friday, June 9, at Artifacts Gallery, 302 East Main, in downtown Farmington (NM) from 5:00 to 9:00 during the city’s Artwalk .

Bring business cards and any other handouts such as flyers or pamphlets to pass out to your new contacts.

There will also be book-signings and readings by several local authors and writers (a list will be posted soon). Artifacts Gallery will also provide a salsa-tasting. Refreshments will be available.

Check back frequently for updates.

For more information, contact Phil Slattery at phil@philslattery.com.

The Farmington Writers Circle Meet and Greet Has a Venue!

Tonight, Roberta Summers, a founding member of the Farmington Writers Circle, arranged to have our writers networking event (which we currently refer to by the working title of “the Meet and Greet”) at the Artifacts Gallery, 302 East Main, Farmington, during the city’s Art Walk on June 9 between 5pm-9pm.

Details on the event are still being worked out, but we plan on inviting as many authors and novelists from the Four Corners area to be there to meet their readers, participate in readings and book-signings and to network with any local publishers, critics, reviewers, and anyone else involved in the local writing industry.

Anyone who reads anything or is involved in reading, writing, or literature is invited to attend. If you are a reader or writer of any genre (published or unpublished), an arts or literature critic, a reviewer, a publisher, a literary agent, someone who interviews writers or authors on radio or TV, if you promote reading, writing, or literacy in any way, manner, shape, or form, you do not need an invitation, you are invited to attend.

The names of the authors and novelists expected to attend will be announced as they respond to our invitations, but, if you are an author/novelist, you don’t need an invitation to attend. Just show up, meet new readers, and pass out your business cards and other contact info.

The entire purpose of this event is for writers of all types to make contacts and to network.

Refreshments will be available along with a salsa-tasting. At least some of our local members will have books to sell.

Check back for more details as we approach June 9. Submit any questions you have via this website. Don’t forget that you can find a link on the right-hand menu to sign up to follow our blog.

Farmington Writers Circle in Development

Writing at Hasting's Hardback Café in Farmington, NM, late evening of October 16, 2015 (self-portrait) — Writing at Hasting’s Hardback Café in Farmington, NM, late evening of October 16, 2015 (self-portrait)

I would like to establish a writers’ circle for the Farmington, New Mexico area, including San Juan County, and anyone from the Four Corners area. I will he hosting a meeting on November 19 at 7:00 p.m. at the Farmington Hastings’ Hardback Cafe to establish how many people are interested. Everyone is welcome to attend. The mission of the Writers Circle will be to promote Farmington area writers of any genre and skill level, to advise each other on being published, and to establish useful contacts within the regional and national literary communities. If anyone in the Farmington/Four Corners has an interest, please contact me via this website by commenting below.

Thoughts? Comments?

Is someone not telling me something?

Over the last few days I have noticed this sign in front of a sporting goods store in Farmington, New Mexico. This is the same town where I saw the Zombie response vehicle several months ago (if you didn’t see the post, I have included one of the photos below). My question is: does everyone else know something I don’t? 🙂

Here’s the car I saw several months ago a mile or two from where the sign is located. It seems Farmington is getting ready for something. Maybe Farmington is expecting to be the zombie capitol of New Mexico.