Writings – Margin Notes

Solitude on Lake Lucerne, July – 2019

Posted on February 27, 2024March 25, 2024 by S. R. Shilling

_{Listen to the audio recording of this post, read by the author. Approx. 3 min.}

July 11, 2019 – Lucerne, Switzerland

I noticed all the boats said, “License not Req.” so I handed some money to the young man behind the counter of a small shed and after a brief exchange where he told me that I was to be charged by the hour, I climbed into a boat. It was a small boat with only one real seat for the captain, and a plank that could have fit two people side by side. I think a life jacket was tossed in along with me… but I don’t remember wearing one.

Morning Fog in the Soccer Field, 2022

Posted on September 8, 2022September 9, 2022 by S. R. Shilling

The fog was cloud-thick as the man and his dog ventured out into oblivion. You couldn’t see the cars, but the hiss as they passed by found them in the field. Honking shadows glided down from the sky, their scattered calls organizing a shrouded gathering.

Two Short Beginnings – Writing in New Brunswick with Images as Prompts

Posted on August 8, 2021September 21, 2021 by S. R. Shilling

Yesterday I met up with a friend in New Brunswick (NJ). We were hoping to get a bit of writing done. I took a train North, while she took a train South, we met in the middle roughly equidistant from where we each live. Neither one of us are terribly familiar with the area, though I spent a brief amount of time during my college years living with an ex-girlfriend of mine. I arrived first and walked to a park, the train station in sight. I, like many writers, often–almost exclusively–write in solitude, in my kitchen, a usually controlled environment where my dog seems to always understand what’s going on. I had no idea what to expect, how I would perform writing outside of my kitchen.