UFR Weekly Newsletter #19: Something to Keep

[David Cotrone]

While working at a bar on the ocean, I’ve looked at a customer as she asked for another gin and tonic. I’ve wondered why she was there alone, why she wanted more, what she really needed, where she was going. I’ve served a man who came in asking for anything that would sting. I’ve heard customers sing along with bad cover bands, not caring how it all sounded. I’ve seen a woman tell a man she’ll never forgive him for what he did. I’ve seen a man say the same thing to a woman, customers ask for each other’s numbers, for each other’s love. I’ve seen food fall to the floor, drinks spill into laps, a kitchen fire. I’ve seen fans yell at their favorite baseball teams on TV. I’ve seen people fight over nothing one minute and over everything the next. I’ve come home in the early morning, dirty with the smell of alcohol and old food.

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Kimmy Johnson, Six Year-Old Comedian, Performs Stand-Up Written for Her by Her Manager by Katie Eisenberg

Berthier Door by Mark Reep

Corey Eastwood reviews David Mitchell’s first novel.

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We were talking and she said I should live first and write later, that writing from experience is better than writing from nowhere. I disagreed. But then I thought about how I used to fish stray golf balls from a course made of cranberry bogs, how I worked at a gas station, tended to a gasoline spill during a rainstorm, how I’m writing about it now, writing to you.

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Grant Faulkner of the Oakland Literature Examiner was kind enough to ask some questions about UFR. We talk about submissions, interviews and purpose. Thanks to Grant, and thanks to all who keep reading what we have to share.  

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I’ve gone to bed without showering, woken up later in the morning and taken bar napkins out of my pocket, having written on them the night before. I've thought about how to put the pieces together, how to tell a story, how to turn memory into something to keep, how you can do the same. 

Be well,

David