Presidents and other celebrities in Hamblin, Arizona

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For some reason, I can just hear this being read by Garrison Keillor on "A Prairie home companion"...

 

LOL ... I had the same thought myself and tried to avoid it, since I didn't want to look like I was copying his style. Actually, I was going more for an Annie Proulx kind of sound, in her Wyoming stories. She's one of my favorite writers and nobody does those hardbitten but funny tales like she does.

But your comment just tells me I've got a lot more work to do

 

I only meant his reading style...
I was thinking more the way he intones the "lake Wobegone" stuff...
Not that sleepy, feel-good intonation that seems to be his normal style.

But don't let my thoughts affect you too much ...
I'm just shootin' from the hip here, my accuracy isn't always the greatest!

 

No, you're absolutely right. There are parts of it that do sound like PHC. It's a weakness in the story and it sounded that way to me too.

There are a couple of intra-story threads in this that intrigued me, speaking as a reader of it and not necessarily as the writer ...

1. the love story of Lafe and Lonnie, which by the way was added almost as an afterthought. I needed something to flesh out the story between the old guy sitting on the porch and Carole driving up. But as it turned out, as a reader that was the most interesting part of the whole story to me.

2. the thing about Bob Dylan returning every year. You can bet this is gonna turn up again. There was an episode of "Dharma and Greg" a few years ago where Dylan shows up and the ditzy chick Dharma joins his band. That's what made me think of this.

3. Carole and her baseball player ex-husband. I've hinted at this in the other "Hamblin" stories. I think it could be an interesting story line to expand.

 

I like your voice, Caliente. This Hamblin place of yours is turning into quite the intrigue.

 

It is, isn't it? The possibilities in a story cycle about the residents of a small town and surrounding ranching community are endless. Since I started this Hamblin thing, I've begun looking at the people around me in a different light, to see who might be inspiration for a new story. Thanks for reading