mallorys_camera | Only 2 Years/5 Months Till the Mayan End of the World (Reply)

Jump: Walker, MN → Aitkin, MN – Fairgrounds: 90 miles
LEFT out of the lot onto HWY 200 EAST
Follow HWY 200 EAST to Hill City… RIGHT onto HWY 169 SOUTH to Aitkin
Arrows to the lot
Shows at 5pm/7:30pm

The Miracle happened in the pleasant little resort town of Walker, Minnesota: I began writing well again, really well, crazy well. The words just poured out.

No idea why – except that I’m playing a lot of Ottomatic, a strange little Attack-of-the-Killer-Tomatoes-esque game that Robin downloaded and left on my computer as a goodbye gift. Since my real mission now is to stay on my jet skis without smashing into a blue stalagmite on Planet Snoth, I’m only vaguely aware of everything else. Creativity happens best when you’re only vaguely aware you’re doing it.

The Fellini & Pendergrass Circus did another two sold-out shows in Walker. Afterwards B and I went to the local Indian casino where I gambled away Robin’s college fund (ten bucks) on video poker. What I really wanted to do was to ask BJ if I could follow him around, take notes. During the winter BJ makes the Big Buck$ playing poker in Vegas. But I didn’t feel I knew him well enough.

Never been able to play poker myself – can’t bluff to save my soul – but I admire people who can, once fell madly in love in fact with a dashing screenwriter solely on the basis of his poker playing abilities.

This screenwriter was a character in my Guatemalan End of the World novel. I had no idea he was a poker player when I began writing him – during another period in my life when I was completely off the grid, writing really, really well.