K. Marvin Bruce

Several years ago now I wrote a story called “Without Crutches.”   Ah, distinctly I remember, it was before the wonderful journal Glimmer Train closed down.   I was going through one of my phases of actually reading journals before submitting, and I’d read a tale or two in said Train about characters with addictions. Perhaps going back to the almost mythic Edgar Allan Poe, writers have struggled with mind-altering substances.   Those of us who write see the world so differently and crave new experiences in an almost manic way.   Alcohol, drugs, and even religion can lead that way. “Without Crutches” was a story defending writing without using foreign substances.   As the child of an alcoholic, this path looks quite dark to me.   Besides, my imagination has a healthy libido.   Yes, even sex can lead to altered states of consciousness.   Of course, my story found no publishers. I recently read about Stephen King.   Actually, I read about him often.   I hadn’t real

Man is this blog dusty!   The neglect isn’t willful, I assure you.   The thing about being a working writer is, well, work.   That combined with the fact that there’s life outside the internet that demands your time. In any case, I’m chuffed that my story “Meh Teh” has appeared in The Colored Lens .   The title is a Himalayan word for what westerners call “yeti.”   As with most of my fiction, however, there’s a deeper story.   And deeper stories often involve belief. It’s funny how easily religion can turn off a conversation.   Yet, I was recently at a book festival where several of the more successful authors I met were quite open about their religious convictions.   Perhaps it’s hiding in plain sight.   Like a yeti. I have to admit that I’ve never been to Nepal, or even India.   I made it to a corner of Asia once in my youth, but I like writing about places I imagine.   I recall studying maps as a child so that I could set stories in Spain or France.   I did man