Jasper Johns Swiped My Calzone

by Robert McEvily

Me? I’ll be honest. At 39, with 40 looming, I still cling to the hope of writing something great one day; in the meantime I write for the fun of it; the fun of watching that blinking cursor on my screen run ahead of thoughts I didn’t realize were there (until I started typing). For motivation, for practice, I keep a lengthy “title list:” story-less titles which fill an entire section of an old 5-subject notebook. Intriguing titles like “Mullen’s Secret Room” and “Professional Hostages;” catchy titles like “Flim-Flam” and “Naguchi;” and goofy titles – my favorites – like “Sheila’s Mother vs. Muhammad Ali” and “The Day Nebraska Farted in Unison.” The resulting stories occasionally make sense, but mostly don’t, and I don’t mind at all, because I’ve come to the conclusion that few things in life are truer than nonsense, and in a world of unknowns, “write what you know” is useless advice.

6S

Robert McEvily, author of Ouija Boy, is the creator and editor of Six Sentences.