Kicking Back

Hobbies - some people garden, others work on jigsaw puzzles, cartoon, or play music. What's your creative outlet when you're not writing? 

by Dietrich

My pastimes lean to the creative, and I think of them as passions, while hobbies are more relaxed than intense, like gardening, cooking and going for long walks. I like to pick up my guitar and tend to play songs with roots in the blues. There have been several guitars since I was in my early teens, but I never had what it took to really make anything of it. But I still like to kick back, and I enjoy learning new licks, purely for my own personal enjoyment. No aspirations of being the next Tommy Emmanuel or Jorma Kaukonen.

I’ve always had a broad appreciation for music, and I enjoy listening to everything from Bill Evans to Hound Dog Taylor, Beethoven to Alice Cooper. And while I still listen to a lot of what lit me up when I was younger, I delight in finding performers and bands that I’ve never heard before. And it’s always great when some legacy rocker comes out with something that’s (almost) as good as what they did back in the day. And there have been some good ones recently by Dylan, Iggy, and the Stones. And Willie Nelson just turned 91 on the heels of his latest album release. Yup, he’s still living the high life, and I understand he’s going on tour too.

I’m rolling some of that “pastime” into a story that’s still at the early stages of the first draft. What I’ve got so far is a guitar player who’s out to find his big break as he gets involved with a shady record producer with ties to organized crime. And I’ve tossed in a political-anarchist girlfriend for good measure, and we’ll see how it goes.

There’ve been other passions over the years, some I would like to get back into sometime. I dabbled in art since I was a kid, and I was into oil painting for several years, followed by a stretch when photography became a creative expression. Much of which came in handy and served me well in a career as a commercial artist.

And reading has always been a pastime that I find both relaxing and inspiring. I’ve always got a book on the go, and usually there are several more waiting to be read. As with music, I love finding an author who’s new to me, as well as rereading some old favorites now and then. Some new ones I’m looking forward to: Nobody Walks by Mick Herron, a standalone, not part of the Slough House series; Horror Movie by Paul Tremblay; Clete and Harbor Lights, both by James Lee Burke, and the new one by Emily Schultz, Sleeping with Friends. 

Crooked: coming September 24th from ECW Press.