#FlashMemoir

"Piss Jug Data"

As I worked at the Cross City, FL Dollar General the manager decided to adopt a section of US19. We'd go in early and clean for miles. From what used to be The Crazy Italian restaurant down to Chavous Road. They told us to not touch any bottle that contained urine. Just make a count of those. But that turned out to be every bottle. So we walked on. Our adopted road didn't get much cleaner. But we got a lot of good piss jug data. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida

JAX Book Fest is a week away. I'm not on the poster but.. I'll be there too! Workshops Friday and dozens of authors at tables Saturday. My plan involves a box of books and piles of free stickers. If you are anywhere near.. come on out! https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/bookfest #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #books #jacksonville #library

JAX Book Fest 9/23 10a - 3p

Seems my ebook is now being shared online. Which means.. I made it! Piracy-worthy! #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #books #ebooks

Some Books Are Not For Sale by Damon Thomas uploaded to an unauthorized ebook site.

@BlunderBusted was reading the other night as well! #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #SpokenWord #jacksonville

Two people on a stage

Bandcamp Friday? Sure! A good time to remind folks that I have recorded a great many Spoken Word albums out of my Southern Gothic stories. All free to stream and download. https://damonthomas.bandcamp.com/ #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #SpokenWord #Bandcamp #BandcampFriday

JAX Book Fest! Two days of books and writing at the Jacksonville Public Library. There will be special guests and dozens of local writers. I'll be there! With a new run of stickers and a stack of my books. Come on out! #writing #books #library #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #jacksonville

Jacksonville, FL Book Fest 9-22/23

A year ago there was a post announcing a new comic project. A Southern Gothic Poetry Comic with @BlunderBusted. It was out by December! We had sales and a fun local launch at a comic/zine fest. Sometime soon I'll be making another of these comic announcements here on mastodon. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #comics

Social media post announcing a series of comics based on the Rural Gloom stories of Damon Thomas.

I write using a text editor that can do most anything. Can a typewriter play Ozzy? No? Not interested! #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #emacs #music #metal

Emacs playing "Blizzard of Ozz" with Bongo.

There was some talk over where my book would live in my hometown library. Poetry-ish Flash Memoir.. but also Non-Fiction.. So 975 THO it was! "History of the Southeastern United States." Right beside the Foxfire books. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #history #library

Library Catalog entry for "Some Books Are Not For Sale" by Damon Thomas.

The 3rd edition of "Some Books Are Not For Sale" is now available at the Dixie County Public Library! The only library in my ~16k person home county. I grew up reading there. Found some great things! But there was nothing on those shelves about the place. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #books #library

Person holds a copy of "Some Books Are Not For Sale" by Damon Thomas.

Edgar Lee Masters ("Spoon River Anthology", 1916)

There are entire books of family advice. The wisdom of generations in print. My dad only told me that you've got to pay attention. There was no elaboration. No explanation. Just that you've got to pay attention. And I have. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida

Theodore the Poet
As a boy, Theodore, you sat for long hours
On the shore of the turbid Spoon
With deep-set eye staring at the door of the crawfish’s burrow,
Waiting for him to appear, pushing ahead,
First his waving antennae, like straws of hay,
And soon his body, colored like soap-stone,
Gemmed with eyes of jet.
And you wondered in a trance of thought
What he knew, what he desired, and why he lived at all.
But later your vision watched for men and women
Hiding in burrows of fate amid great cities,
Looking for the souls of them to come out,
So that you could see
How they lived, and for what,
And why they kept crawling so busily
Along the sandy way where water fails
As the summer wanes.

Sometimes people crack my writer code. Some have this locked in a room with a typewriter and a KJV Bible Southern writer mythos.. I just bs with friends and keep the lines I like. Put it all together and show up to read at you! #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida

I'm a fan of samplers. I grew up with various punk cassette/CD samplers. Cheap ways to get a good feel for an artist. So I try to do the same as a writer. What is Southern Gothic Flash Memoir anyways? A 99¢ ebook is an easy way to sort this out. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CFWW89FN #books #bookstodon #ebook #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #punk

I don't check Goodreads very often. But as I do.. there can be nice surprises. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #GoodReads #reviews

Goodreads review of "Out In First District" by Damon Thomas – "Damon Thomas has an extraordinary way with words.
His poems really evoke a sense of place and authenticity. While some of his stories really elevate the seemingly mundane by shinning a light on the comically absurd, others peel back the layers of our day to day lives, revealing the melancholy growing like moss underneath.
His work is hauntingly beautiful."

Write in/of/or about Jacksonville, FL? Time to share what you got! A great way to get your work out there and meet other writers. Submissions open 9/1 but the application can be viewed now: https://www.jaxbyjax.com/application #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #jacksonville #books #story #festival

I joined mastodon this past November. Things have gone well! My feed is very busy. Filled with interesting things. A bit ago I released the first book of this new mastodon era. A 3rd edition of my Southern Gothic Flash Memoir omnibus. Would mastodon work for book promo? Of course! I've had sales and more importantly heaps of interaction. Mastodon folks have stopped by local events. There are other social media platforms. But if you want to share and discuss your work? This is the place to be. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #books #bookstodon #author #mastodon

Person holds a copy of "Some Books Are Not For Sale" by Damon Thomas.

When I first started dual enrollment at Lake City Community College you could print in the library for free. I printed whole books. Like James Legge's 1891 "Tao Te Ching" translation. He was to parentheses what Emily Dickinson was to the Em Dash. "To know and yet (think) we do not know is the highest (attainment); not to know (and yet think) we do know is a disease." I'd sit around listening to records as their dot matrix printer whirred. Slowly printing a book from the 6th century BCE. They had those hard blue plastic headphones. Your ears would ache. But Rimsky-Korsakov was pretty metal. Herbert Benson's "The Relaxation Response" had me picking "ZOOM" as my meditation mantra. Reading Vonnegut with his nonlinear narrative. Books will often have Acknowledgements. A page or two. Things that helped you. What matters. Everything I write is an Acknowledgement. What matters. And I've printed whole books. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #books #libraries #90s

Near or Near-ish Jacksonville, FL? BookFest is coming up in late-September! I'll be there with all your favorite local writers and a few special guests. You can pick up the new 3rd edition of my Southern Gothic Flash Memoir omnibus. Already ordered a copy online? Come get it signed! https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/bookfest #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #jacksonville #SouthernGothic #books #library

Person holds a copy of "Some Books Are Not For Sale" by Damon Thomas.

"For Many Things" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #punk

When I was 18 I gifted my 11-year-old step cousin a copy of Rancid's "...And Out Come the Wolves." Because of this her side of the family blamed me for many things. Caught her smoking at 15? Rancid. Disappeared for a long weekend? The Girl's a Time Bomb. Posed nude for a magazine 3 days after turning 18? They just disowned me. I'm a bad influence it seems. I've been a bad influence for a long time.

Getting acceptance emails is a solid way to end a week! I'll officially have a table at the upcoming JAX Book Fest. https://jaxpubliclibrary.org/bookfest #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #jacksonville #florida #library #books

Acceptance email for JAX Book Fest 2023

I've released 20 albums of Florida-centric Southern Gothic Spoken Word Realism. All free to stream and download. But never hurts to hype on Bandcamp Friday? https://damonthomas.bandcamp.com/ #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #SpokenWord #bandcamp #BandcampFriday

"Decorative Southernness" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #southern

Southern is a design element these days. A large craft market exists for this Decorative Southernness. Framed art and throw pillows saying – "I Love You Like Biscuits and Gravy" and "Bless Your Heart!" But I've yet to see a "You Don't Look Like You're From Around Here" dish towel. This was the phrase I heard most growing up in small town Florida.

"To Be Punished" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #history

To Be Punished

I once bought a copy of Herodotus' "Histories" at McCormick's Flea Market in Chiefland, FL. It went on a bit but at 13 much like Alexander de Large – "I didn't so much like the latter part of the book which is more like all preachy talking, than fighting and the old in-out." Even at this BeavisAndButtheadian age I had my doubts here. Especially as the Persian King Xerxes I ordered a body of water to be punished. Now thirty years has passed and I can easily see all of this as a literal event.

I grew up at the library. Read more books than I could count there. So I make sure all my books and comics make it into the library now. At times this leads to fun photos as someone drops in to read my stuff. In or near Jacksonville, FL? You can read "More Snakes Than People" at the Main Library too! #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #comics #jacksonville #library

Person reading "More Snakes Than People" at the Main Jacksonville, FL Library.

I've released 3 books of my Dixie County stories now. "Out In First District", "North Florida Accent", and "Southern Spunk." All of these are now collected in "Some Books Are Not For Sale." An "everything and more" omnibus edition. The sort of thing that makes perfect sense if you've read a lot of comic books. And I've read a lot of comic books. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #books #bookstodon #comics

Cover of "Some Books Are Not For Sale" by Damon Thomas.

"Many Stories To Tell" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #stories

Many Stories To Tell

There are many stories to tell. I was born in an interesting place. The cake is already baked. I'm only serving it.

Revision 18c? Yes. I share writing online somewhere near daily. When you see your work that often the edits take care of themselves. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #editing #libreoffice #linux #mate

Libreoffice with 2 pages of writing.

One being:
Palatka

Once on a trip to central FL I stopped to refuel in Palatka. It took six gallons to top off my small tank. This was enough time to see three people check their account balance at the ATM beside the store entrance. Two then entered and exited with lotto tickets in hand. The third angrily crumpled their ATM receipt and tossed it toward an overfull trash can before driving away. I pulled up and parked to grab a drink for the road. On the way in I held open the door for a young lady leaving the store with a baby in her arms. As I scanned the shelves the cashier loudly discussed a recent spat. It was with the young mom who had just exited the store. This young mom dropped off her child and then returned to punch the cashier in the mouth. Any authentic writing on rural Florida will always just be this 10 minute stop – opportunity, hope, family, and violence.

"Considering The Ultimate Answer" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #jacksonville

Considering The Ultimate Answer

Douglas Adams stared into his garden.
Considering the Ultimate Answer.
Life, The Universe, Everything?
"42 will do."
A whim.

His Ultimate Question?
"Six by Nine."

This was no surprise.
What else could that be?

Limp Bizkit passed Korn a mix tape.
Toured the world
With lyrics written
on Merrill Road.

"N 2 Gether Now"
Had Method Man rhyme
"thesis" with "teefes."

This was no surprise.
What else could that be?

"Out Behind An Old Motel" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida

Out Behind An Old Motel

I was tossed into a pool beside the Suwannee River. Out behind an old motel. Sink or swim. Arms flailing in the deep end. Chlorine and Fear. I hurt my shoulder. Tweaked my ankle. Had to be pulled out. They laughed about it all summer. Now pools are reminders. That your friends watched you sink.

"The Building Decayeth" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #church

The Building Decayeth

In my teens I volunteered with the Youth Group at Rock Sink Baptist church in the First District area of Old Town, FL. A van traveled unmarked limerock roads picking up kids. During the long pre-Internet summers in rural Florida most were just happy to get out. The usual schedule of touch football and Little Debbies was disrupted with talk of a "Youthquake." The next Sunday service… 4 days away… would be run by us kids. I was selected to be the preacher. Asking for advice on how to prepare I was told that "the Spirit would guide my words…" What followed was 20 minutes of nervous laughter. Fumbling through the Bible I read Ecclesiastes 10:18 (KJV) "By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through" to a few muted cries of "Amen." This ended my career as a Spirit-filled backwoods preacher. I was never asked to preach again. I did realize that in the future I should probably actually prepare as I was going to speak in public.

"Two Wolves" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #party

Two Wolves

Once at a party I added just enough water to turn a container of Kool-Aid mix into a paste. I then ate it all with a spoon. Things went ok at first. Hanging out til 3am listening to CDs. I returned home. Brushing my teeth I found that Tartar Control clashed with the Purple in Kool-Aid. There were two wolves inside me that night. And then I threw up for an hour. My mom woke up to give me a lecture on drinking. I just locked the bathroom door and returned to my dry heaves. Teen parties are usually even dumber than a mom might fear.

"City Arrest" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #crime #tv #sitcom

In the mid-90s a guy from work tried to rob the place. There was a complex plan. Shot himself in the leg as a cover. He was arrested soon after. Family connections kept him out of jail. Instead there was "city arrest." He just couldn't leave the city limits of our 1,600 person town. Sitcom premises can be thin at times. With contrived situations. Artificial limits. But after that heist attempt? They all feel plausible to me.

"City Arrest"

In the mid-90s a guy from work tried to rob the place. There was a complex plan. Shot himself in the leg as a cover. He was arrested soon after. Family connections kept him out of jail. Instead there was "city arrest." He just couldn't leave the city limits of our 1,600 person town. Sitcom premises can be thin at times. With contrived situations. Artificial limits. But after that heist attempt? They all feel plausible to me. #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #90s

"Rhymes With Shame" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #90s #music #grunge

Rhymes With Shame

Kurt Cobain died on April 5th, 1994. The lone area ACT testing option was scheduled at Chiefland High School the next day. I dragged in tired after a night colored by a big downer of a pop culture event. This likely cost me a couple points on my final score. What I did get was good enough to get into Brown... but not good enough for the scholarships needed to offset that private school tuition. A former Sup Pop recording artist dies young and I take classes at Lake City Community College – "Here is another word that rhymes with shame."

"Ink As Proof" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #gainesville #florida

After a night out we all stayed the night at a Gaineville, FL Super 8. I slept on the floor with Vietnam-era surplus combat boots as my pillow. From athletic gear to bedding in the course of a day. As I heard clothing being removed on the bed I grabbed a box of donuts and left the room. A friend lived a few blocks away. I walked over only to be told they were not at home. A few moments later 2 police cars arrived. Someone had reported a wood stove stolen. They told me there were witnesses that saw me take it and the now dried black paint on my jeans was actually soot. When asked how I had carried off this wood stove on foot I was shoved and told to shut up. After 30 minutes they fingerprinted me on the side of the road. I was then free to go. Offered a towel to wipe my fingers I refused. This story was too surreal to be real. I knew I'd need this ink as proof. The Kafkaesque needs evidence. Evidence Kafka was never asked to supply.

"Some Folksy Charm" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida

In 2008 a Chiefland Citizen headline announced the end of an era – "Red Belly Day Dies Quietly." For twelve years this Memorial Day festival had attempted to inject some folksy charm into an impoverished tri-county area of northeast Florida. The Fanning Springs belly-flop contest was especially popular. In one case a man violated his house arrest to claim the Red Belly Day Belly-Flop large-weight title. This dedication earned him a trophy, a $100 savings bond and a 3-year prison term. Subsequent prison furlough requests to defend his title were denied.

"The Early Years Were Hard" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida

Dixie County, FL was created in 1921 by splitting off the southern part of another county. The early years were hard and this cemetery has rows of children and teens who died in that first decade. Years passed and people lived through massive floods, a gill-net fishing ban and the closing of saw mills that wiped out much of the local economy. The local kid who made it to the NFL had his career cut short by injury. Things never seem to have got much easier for the children of those first settlers.

"I Would Always Play Black" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #florida #guitar #chess

My guitar teacher was a family friend who regularly played at the I Ain't Here Saloon in Old Town, FL. There he sat on a corner stool and tried to sing Harry Chapin covers over drunk chatter. He brought a loaner guitar over and drank homebrew strawberry wine as I struggled with the F barre chord in "House of the Rising Sun." When my fingers started to bleed we called it a day and played chess. I would always play black since bloody fingerprints were more visible as white.

"Keep Reading" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #tennessee #advice #reading

Senior year of high school my mom checked me out of school. My grandpa was in a Tennessee hospital. With the limited time I had to explain I promised to bring my friends back coonskin caps. Knoxville was 8 hours north. We arrived on a cold November night. A blue line guided us to my grandpa's hospital room. Entering we were greeted with – "You're lookin' at a dead man." What was thought to be a bad case of the flu was Stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Only weeks after his 64th birthday he was given just weeks to live. I had spent much of the previous summer at his Etowah, TN home. Days started early with biscuits and gravy. He played his 1962 Martin acoustic with the house bluegrass band at the Englewood Coliseum. He asked to speak to each of us alone. My mom and brother waited in the hall as I sat on the edge of his bed. He told me to keep reading since there was a lot to learn.
Said he wanted me to have his guitar. I never heard what he told the others. We never discussed it.

"Poetry Options Are Limited At 3am" #writing #FlashMemoir #poetry #gainesville #florida

Poetry Options Are Limited At 3am

Finding yourself penniless and stranded an hour from home is the stuff of nightmares. As it happened to me in the late-90s I just asked a couple I had met that night if I could sleep on their Camelot Apartments couch. Spanish moss dangled from Tudor-style towers. Plans to stay a few nights became a few weeks as they didn't want me to leave. When NOMORE came up from Port Charlotte for an early Gainesville show I gave up my spot on the couch to the drummer. The rest of the band slept in a park. I had no real plans for the night. After the show I explored the town on foot. Sitting outside the Archer Road Wal-Mart at 3am two young ladies tossed me a handful of change. I used it to buy us all cans of Dr. Thunder from a flickering vending machine. They then asked if I wanted to hear their poetry. It wasn't very good but poetry options are limited at 3am. We take what we can get.