Daniel Ryan Adler

My View of Toledo

I have this theory about how books come to me when I need them, and I think it’s the same way with places. My first time in Spain I took a night bus from Lyon to Barcelona and hung out there for a couple of days. Which was nice. But there were too many tourists.… Continue reading My View of Toledo

What Happened

Before I moved back to Portland I switched my host to Rackspace and they became a business-hosting only company. When I called them to ask about all of my posts between 2014 and 2015, they had no record of them. There weren’t that many anyway. The first third of my novel, Sebastian’s Babylon has been… Continue reading What Happened

How to Be Creative

Creativity is hard to measure and hard to generate. Society reveres the product of creative genius for centuries after that flash of inspiration first strikes. But no one really knows how to be creative. Creativity Does Not Equal Intelligence What’s funny is that at a certain point intelligence is unrelated to creativity. Not to say… Continue reading How to Be Creative

Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery: Doin’ It Right

Cat was giving us a tour of Brooklyn‘s Greenwood Cemetery. I biked up to the neo-Gothic entrance of the cemetery to where Cat and Laura stood waiting. Julie rolled up, looking aggressive and badass and made Laura’s acquaintance, asked how she liked South Slope, since they were both neighbors. Oh yeah, it’s great, except for… Continue reading Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery: Doin’ It Right

Metamodernist Imagism

Imagist, objectivist, metamodernist, they all share one thing in common: lack of association. I’m reading A Farewell to Arms right now, after having saved it for this moment for years. I’m struck by the imagist descriptions of drinking. Hemingway and his Iceberg Theory were part of the Ezra Pound-led imagist group. It goes something like… Continue reading Metamodernist Imagism

Why Deal Cocaine

If I were a coke dealer I would definitely wear a bigger earring. It would be a gold hoop about half an inch wide, and I’d probably get the other ear pierced too, like the boss in Pulp Fiction, crazy old Maurice. I would keep my drugs in my office and I would meet people… Continue reading Why Deal Cocaine

Why Stephen King’s The Shining Is Good (But Ain’t Classic Literature)

I am twenty-four pages away from finishing The Shining, by Stephen King. It’s good, I gotta say.

The Clown: Part 2, Heinrich Boll and Pierrot

I recently read Nobel-laureate Heinrich Boll’s The Clown. This short masterpiece describes the plight of a monogamous clown whose wife has left him. He’s had a bad review and it’s become evident that he has to take time away from the stage to become better at his craft. Throughout the novel we meet his rich… Continue reading The Clown: Part 2, Heinrich Boll and Pierrot

The Clown: Part 1, Coney Island

I met this guy and he told me he became afraid of clowns on Coney Island because that image of the laughing clown with the sharp teeth started there in the funhouse and bumper cars and he said I was there with my parents as a kid, back in the eighties, when it was remnants… Continue reading The Clown: Part 1, Coney Island

How to Write a Novel

For the past eight and a half months I have been writing a novel. I have written a novel before, but it was not for the light of day. I did not know how to write a novel so I spent two years working on it after work, on weekends and in my spare time,… Continue reading How to Write a Novel