The Mayhem Thought

My name's O'Brian Gunn, and I'm a willful writer wrestling with words and waging war with wisdom. Here you'll find my writing, thoughts and poems as well as music and images that make my heart smile. Hopefully you'll find something to grin about, or at least something that makes you pause and think.

[obriangunn]

A writer's arsenal.

[obriangunn]

"It appears that Microsoft’s experiment with ARM-based tablets has largely failed in a tablet market that is starting to show signs of slowing down."

Vignette inspired by: Windows RT Is Officially Dead, The Verge, February 3, 2015   Small wires swimming beneath skin. Small camera lenses widening behind glass eyeballs. Billions of manufactur...

[owenfreeman]

Carbon fraud #illustration for @foreignpolicymag. AD @edxjohnson

[obriangunn]

Wings? Characters possessing the writer? Or simply the misty veil that exists between fantasy and reality? 

[obriangunn]

Things my characters say

“There’s a certain sorrow to your voice, your demeanor that only comes from having your heart hollowed out. All you’re left with is a dotted outline. There’s a murder scene twisted up inside of you.” Rubi glanced across the street. “It’s quite attractive.”

[southpawdownunder]

[lensblr-network]

Iron lady.

by southpawdownunder.tumblr.com

[obriangunn]

To beautiful and enthralling not to share. 

[obriangunn]

"Couples may now marry in 36 states and the District of Columbia."

Vignette inspired by: Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Gay Marriage Issue, The Washington Post, January 16, 2014   William turned from the payment terminal with his loaded tray balanced on one han...

[obriangunn]

Soulfie

Let it settle and sift as you waft and as you drift into your individual flow.

There you go when your mind is slow and reality slings by, blings by in a wash of glittering galaxies smeared by lightspeed and a heavy need to be who you naturally are.

Give birth to this star that has forgotten how to die, has deleted the command to never try and uploaded the Prime Directive to only fly.

Pass on by when the scene resembles the crash of cymbals that signify the beginning of the song you could never dance to.

Make this romance new as it do what it do.

Something for you and you and only you. Wake up and bathe in that creative

morning

dew. 

[obriangunn]

"Shoppers Will Not Be Responsible for Any Possible Fraudulent Charges"

Vignette inspired by: Home Depot Tells Shoppers They'll Be OK If Hacked, CNN, September, 4, 2014   "When did we discover this?" "About two hours ago, sir." "Two ho--Why am I just now hearing a...

A sample of my new blog, "Sluglines & Vignettes," where I take recent news stories and use them as prompts for short stories. Enjoy! 

[obriangunn]

Points of Poetry

Careening, cresting, never resting and consistently addressing this collision of creativity. 

Never be less than you naturally are. Stay close to go far. 

Fiction Jar of Eddy Meets Yannah. Freshly canned stories of drama, fantasy, and cerebral friction that become a spiritual addiction.

Don't need no twelve step rehabilitation, just a twelve-step re-creation completed with mental recreation, vibrational stimulation and ancestral participation with complete audience relation.

Bismillah beats of Eric Lau, cosmic thrilla hear me now, couldn't help it anyhow, and I bow to the essence of the How and the presence of the Now that stretches to Then before giving birth to the Twin of my Gemini Rising.

Surprising

How this story ends. Realizing how this Original Osmium bends.

[obriangunn]

I'm in a grassy field stirring in the evening breeze as the setting sun slowly drips across the horizon. Clouds stand at lazy attention, undersides bathed in heavenly glory. Echoes of crashing sea waves simmer in the back of my mind.

[explore-blog]

Perhaps this is why creative people are singularly vulnerable every time they put their art — whatever its nature — into the world. Without the shield of, say, a Ph.D. to point to and say, “But look, I’m real,” it’s all too easy to hang our merit and worth and realness on the opinions of others — opinions often mired in their own insecurities and vulnerabilities, which at the most malignant extreme manifest as people’s tendency to make themselves feel big by making others feel small, make themselves feel real by making others feel unreal… When one is forced to be one’s own judge, one also tends to be one’s worst critic, and any outside fuel in the engine of self-criticism feels equally potent… Cultivating discipline and clarity in one’s self-assessment is of tremendous, soul-saving importance. It’s the ability, acquired through practice, of seeing one’s work for what it is — whether proud-making or imperfect or, quite often, both — by one’s own standards, and not to hang the fullness of one’s heart or the stability of one’s soul on those external opinions and definitions.

Some thoughts on the creative life, inspired by Anna Deavere Smith (via explore-blog)

Words of wisdom

[obriangunn]

If I had to pick one song that's my absolute favorite, I'd have to say this one...and then sing it for you.

[obriangunn]

A little something by Electric Conversation to help lull you to sleep. 

[explore-blog]

Don’t ever use the word ‘soul,’ if possible. Never quote dialogue you can summarize. Avoid describing crowd scenes but especially party scenes. […] If you’re doing your job, the reader feels what you felt. You don’t have to tell the reader how to feel. No one likes to be told how to feel about something. And if you doubt that, just go ahead. Try and tell someone how to feel. […] You want vivid writing. How do we get vivid writing? Verbs, first. Precise verbs. All of the action on the page, everything that happens, happens in the verbs. The passive voice needs gerunds to make anything happen. But too many gerunds together on the page makes for tinnitus: Running, sitting, speaking, laughing, inginginginging. No. Don’t do it. The verbs tell a reader whether something happened once or continually, what is in motion, what is at rest. Gerunds are lazy, you don’t have to make a decision and soon, everything is happening at the same time, pell-mell, chaos. Don’t do that. Also, bad verb choices mean adverbs. More often than not, you don’t need them. Did he run quickly or did he sprint? Did he walk slowly or did he stroll or saunter?

Alexander Chee reminisces about studying with Annie Dillard and shares her best writing advice. For the horse’s mouth, see Dillard herself on writing – a fine addition to our ongoing archive of notable wisdom on the craft. (via explore-blog)

[obriangunn]

Such a dreamlike quality to this one. A musical fog you want to be wandering through forever.

[obriangunn]

The majesty and the power of Teedra Moses.

[obriangunn]

I don't think my mind knows how to handle being this mellow, and I'm the mellowist of the mellow molding melody-makers mixing mumbling memories.