The Old Soldier is sitting at his work station. The sun is bright on the venetian blinds. Soon I’ll go for a walk, maybe to pick up a couple or Cornish hens for the crock pot. The apartment building is quiet. The city outside is quiet. This is one of those moments that are so conducive to reflection.
Writing has been at the center of my life since highschool. I have no doubt that after Vietnam it kept me sane. I can see myself, a very troubled young man, furiously writing in his notebook deep into the night.
The desire to write well sent me back to college again and again throughout my life until I ended up with an MFA in writing at the age of 59. And with my discovery of flash fiction while in my 50s I found an art form I could relate to, that seemed to mirror in its finite confines the stop and go progress toward writing well that has driven me all these many years.
Being the lead singer in several basement rock and roll bands, making underground movies, driving a telephone truck for a living, being a soldier in combat, being an amateur photographer of nude women, being a writer and a blogger…It has been an interesting journey.
eBook: In The Garden Of Love
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Girl’s Basketball Star Shot Dead
Tayshana Murphy
The Old Soldier does some online freelance writing. I get paid a penny a word. If I can get an assignment every day I can easily make around $40 a month; but it’s difficult to get an assignment every day because the assignments are given on a first come first serve basis.
This morning I caught an assignment about Tayshana Murphy, an 18-year-old girl’s basketball player who was shot dead by an unknown gunman. The shooting took place early Sunday morning in the hallway of the housing project she lived at in Harlem. She was a senior in highschool and several colleges were interested in recruiting her. An ESPN outlet ranked her the number 16 point guard in the nation. She was shot once in the head.
The police have no suspects.
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Filed under: Commentaries | Tagged: 18-year-old, freelance writing, girl's basketball star, highschool, housing project, point guard, police, shot dead, shot in the head, Tayshana Murphy | 2 Comments »