Bob Gillen

Healing through story

Month: May 2021

Mannequin Monday – How to Howl

May 31, 2021 / / 0 Comments

The joy of making noise! This week our bare mannequin is draped not in words but in a joyous howling. Howling simply because it can.

And I pass on an inspiring quote from Agnes De Mille in a letter to Martha Graham.

What I’m Writing This Week

I’m sharing a 100-word piece I wrote for my writing group. Keeping it short for the holiday weekend. Please enjoy.

Howling

I wish I knew how to howl. Howl properly, like a dog. Like Malachi, the German Shepherd that lives next door. Ventura County fire station #36 sits across the creek from our condo complex. When a quiet day is pierced by a fire truck’s blaring horn and screaming siren, Malachi replies from his second-floor patio. A long, high-pitched howl, with a short gravelly decay. Then another. I’ve seen him do this, tail wagging in what I assume is the pure joy of making noise. Is pure joy possible without making noise?

Continue reading

Mannequin Monday – The Knot in His Heart

May 17, 2021 / / 0 Comments

“…the smell of seaweed pressed against his face like a hand.” John Sandford, describing the beach at dawn, in Ocean Prey.

Notable quotes from recent thrillers.

My latest story bite: “The Knot in His Heart.”

What I’m Reading

I am enjoying a few more mystery/thrillers this week. One worth mentioning: John Sandford’s Ocean Prey, an engaging story of boats, diving, drugs off Florida’s ocean coast. Familiar characters – I’ve read a handful of Sandford’s books – and a fresh setting. Can’t ask for more. Sandford describes one character who is a large man, sturdily built: “He could have sold billboard space on his back.”

And, describing the beach at dawn: “…the smell of seaweed pressed against his face like a hand.” Maybe, too, an apt description of what we have all lived through for the last 14 months: COVID, masks, fear, lockdown, life changes. All pressed against our collective face.

Another quote I liked, this from Allison Brennan’s detective thriller The Third to Die: “Every time one of them walked into her life, shit happened. She had enough shit in her job, which she actually liked, that she had no desire to deal with anyone else’s shit.”

All right, then. Enough quotes. Enjoy whatever you’re reading this week.

Continue reading

Mannequin Monday – Feu! Feu!

May 10, 2021 / / 0 Comments

My COVID-caused reading slump is over! Our mannequin is dressed with authors’ written words. Words I’ve read!

My own story bite this week is titled “Feu! Feu!“

What I’m Reading

I emerged from a long COVID-shutdown reading slump this week. A book from the romance genre sparked the comeback: Widow of Rose House, by Diana Biller. A romance ghost story, set in New York in 1875. By no means my go-to genre for reading, but it came recommended. A welcome change of pace for me.

From romance I moved back to my favored mystery and thriller genres. I discovered two authors who each have a number of novels published…and one author available on Libby!

I read Loreth Anne White’s Beneath Devil’s Bridge, a story that reminds me of HBO Max’s Mare of Easttown. Both are stories of murdered teens in a small town environment. I’m only one episode into Mare, but it has promise. The novel is suspenseful, well written. A podcaster unearths a long-buried memory of a local teen’s brutal death. “If it takes a village to raise a child, does it also take a village to kill one?”

I also discovered Allison Brennan’s The Third to Die, a genuine page-turner. Drama with FBI and local police fighting each other as they search for a serial killer. And Brennan has lots of other novels I can now enjoy.

Continue reading

Mannequin Monday – A Day on the Cape

May 3, 2021 / / 1 Comment

Endings and new beginnings. A woman expects her glorious morning will turn to shit by nightfall. We dress this week’s mannequin form with a touch of darkness.

My story bite is inspired by several Edward Hopper paintings. Thanks for stopping by to read it.

What I’m Reading This Week

This week I pulled a Marie Kondo purge on my four websites and blogs. One was giving me no joy. I had updated the theme and look several times recently, trimmed a handful of posts that were no longer relevant, and still came away with no joy. So I merged the “evergreen” content from the blog with my original website, The Filmmaker Lifestyle. That site dates back to December of 2009. It now has over 60 interviews I conducted with professionals in filmmaking and storytelling. Most of the interviews date from 2009 to around 2017.

Continue reading

© 2025 Bob Gillen

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑