Comments on: Thomas Sullivan: DO STUCK PIGS SWEAT, NEGOTIATING ROMANCE, AND THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE

By: Fiction Writing with Storytellersunplugged | Thomas Sullivan: FLAMINGO FRANK & THE WHITE FEATHER — FINDING MEANING IN EVERYDAY TALES

Mon, 16 Mar 2009 04:50:38 +0000

[...] the more reason, then, to practice exercises like last month’s http://www.storytellersunplugged.com/thomas-sullivan-do-stuck-pigs-sweat-negotiating-romance-and-the… . In a nutshell, what began as defeat (when a severely torn rotator cuff sidelined me) turned [...]

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 19:36:55 +0000

I love insightful feedback. Thanks, Anne. A fan wrote me after this column came out and asked what kind of endings I like. Hadn’t really thought about it until then, but eventually I wrote back: “I guess I favor endings with philosophical impact and that trend toward future events. That said, I like them done with symbols and understatement. Pretty general, and the mechanisms for delivery must necessarily vary, and — you rightly imply — nothing clichéd…” Life never really has endings if you’re a person who likes to think. Everything has meaning and becomes a step on a ladder (up or down), in memory or in fact, subject to revisiting at any time. To lose one of those steps is to shorten your life…and your reach.

By: Anne

Anne — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 18:49:39 +0000

Glad the feather is flourishing. You are a good enough storyteller. You had me composing consolation exposition as you climbed the hill and I read the “what ifs” that you placed on the trail. The feather may be your gift to hold – until you are ready to let it go. You tangible proof that bonds between souls don’t break when one body departs. Lucky you, to have the feather. Thanks for showing how words give life to dreams and imagination. Good enough is very high praise from one Sullivan to another.

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:16:30 +0000

Well knock me over with a…feather. Thanks for the careful read and generous sentiments, Amalgam. Your take on columns is indispensable to many writers on this site.

Sully

By: Robert C. Jones

Robert C. Jones — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 19:12:22 +0000

Many regrets for posting this so late.

I much admire your early check-off paragraph. It’s like an informative outline of fine things to come, but with infinitely more style.

As I always anticipate, and as you always deliver, your piece bears pleasant and thought-provoking life-lessons cast in a comfortably metabolizable form.

Your essays progress like the breath of an oscillating spray painter. They not only cover the course line but swoop to the sides to catch interesting, colorful gems lurking in the shadows.

And, as always, you share some of the pure Sullivan with us.

Amalgam

PS: The pictures of the feather are poignant.

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:58:08 +0000

Stopping is terminal. So is failing to start. I guess I’ll opt for what’s in between.

Just back from snowshoeing through the woods and enjoying a brief hour when I had no clue where I was. Love that. Known horizons are no horizons. Give me things that are limitless. Is that why my first hint of where I was this afternoon was when I stumbled on the pink flamingo I placed next to a tree as a memorial to Flamingo Frank last summer? Frank never acknowledged limits, which is why he exceeded so many of them in driving for perfection…

Sully

By: Janet Berliner

Janet Berliner — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 21:10:16 +0000

There is no stopping you, Sullyman. You are a wonder.

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:41:07 +0000

My apologies for any confusion I created by sending a newsletter with a link to another newsletter which is linked to a different column. Huh? So if you tried to comment here and wound up at last month’s column, that’s the reason. Anyway, if you’re reading this, you are here now, so feel free to comment.

Sully

By: Thomas Sullivan

Thomas Sullivan — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:29:59 +0000

Don’t know about the bears, but the “bares” just caught up to me, because your comment originally went up on last month’s column — Writing Naked — somehow. So this month I’m not naked, but I am in a strait jacket of sorts. Dr. Foto (Mark Mavrique) is a funny and talented man, but I’ll tango with a rabid wolverine before I’ll let him embalm me with bandages. Too many practical jokes that entwine our lives as it is. (For those readers who don’t get my free newsletter, Susana is referring to a novelty photo therein with some hysterical taglines — always happy to send anyone that newsletter every month. It’s about life in general and zero literary propaganda, and it always has a half-dozen photos. E-mail me at mn333mn@earthlink.net to get on the list.) Susana, for sure the snowshoes don’t slow me down on the kind of rugged terrain I’m getting into lately. Already have a couple hundred miles in and am discovering whole new universes. Thanks for the comment…

Sully

By: Susana

Susana — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 14:07:35 +0000

Best to have a website where you can actually get a response! Hope your healing as fast as you say you are………….wondering if your naked, because of the bandages? Or did the Dr Foto have to actually place you in a strait jacket? I cant see you sitting still or for very long, so I am thinking your not naked, but wish you were? I will bet anything less than a strait jacket wont keep you off those slopes! Snowshoes? They just slow ya down!Hope the bears don’t catch you? susana