About Us

Mind and Muscle:

          An Introduction          

706  wds

Reader friendly means only words (and a few photographs. Fergus insisted on them). 

To limit distraction we post words alone. Reading, we are surrounded, enclosed and absorbed by the story and the author’s grasp. Interruptions like the ‘focus jolt’ of a pop-up or quivering sidebar break into the dream. Technologist Linda Stone wrote that we suffer from “continuous partial attention.” The telephone used to do this less when we left it at home.

An effort of muscle/mind is needed to return.

As a literary magazine editor, i focused my complete attention on each manuscript received. If distracted, i returned determined to give the contribution a better second or third read. I’m sure i slipped and some “gem of purest ray serene” escaped my eye, as is clear by rereading what i published way back when. The meaning of some contributions to the magazine was impossible to decipher, too easily understood or swamped by clichés. After a focused reading and rereading rarely did sludge later turn gold. Even so, when it did shine and the sun rose behind my eyes i had to ask, is this a work of genius or am i fooling myself? Doubt is inherent in free thought. 

Despite inevitable rotten spots, i believe most of what i published is re-readable. 

In all, my goal was to discover new talent ignored by overwhelmed or sleepy publishers. A significant amount of literature now called classic was and may still be self-published or appear in small press books and magazines, or on web-sites. 

I suggest readers intent on best results, like a serious editor, make the same effort and achieve total comprehension.

  Paying attention is what an editor calls work, and we do it so a reader can abide with an author intensely. 

Today i read with the same complete focus. Why read if not to gain the deepest understanding? 

For each item on this web-site i dedicated enough time, ignored phone and door bell and credited each contribution with complete authenticity. Believing is seeing, the fundament of art (not politics) in various forms. 

I have put my best work into stories byfergus.com and hope my slips are rare and typos humorous. Even so, a winter sidewalk has surprising ice. 

Because time is our most valuable possession this web-site, as previously stated, delivers only words. To calculate reading time and give the love it deserves, the title of each story includes the number of words in it. 

Interruptions, if there are any, follow selections. I have added no pop-ups and if any appear these will be hacked in by Russians, the GOP or the slithering tongue of Go Daddy. I do not approve of any of them. The only surprises should pop up from insight and/or the lyrical virtuosity of Fergus. 

In my opinion, and Fergus probably agrees (it’s hard to say what that guy thinks), reader friendly means time to ponder and reflect. In the past literate citizens chose a book and read10-30 pages each day. 

Aside from the satisfaction of seeing 10-30 pages fall from right to left and a page marker slowly advancing to the back cover i feel there should be no difference reading paper or a screen. Quality depends on message, not medium. The main goal, in my opinion, should be a complete understanding of what we read. Whether by a scholar committed to absolute accuracy of detail or a long-haired (or bald) poet with a rose in clinched teeth, all deserve total concentration. 

As for Fergus, he hasn’t commented on the quality of what i’ve chosen, no surprise there, we don’t talk much.

Speaking of Fergus, a note just now slipped under my door; “What you are writing is sublime,” it reads. What the H E double toothpicks! How did he know what i just wrote? 

Well, it’s not the only mystery about that guy. 

Following the contents find information on how to contribute to the arts. Knowledge is our best bread but we still have to pay the rent. 

An almost last word; this website, like most,  undergoes weekly and sometimes daily rrevision in. If something reads amis, please email C Lohmann or just move on to the next selection. As with road construction, avoid the orange barrels. 

  Make checks payable to C Lohmann. Fergus never handles money; he’s from Ireland and where they don’t have much money so they don’t know financial stuff.

ALSO NOTE:  This website was made possible by the help of Ella Saunders-Vincent, Scott Yanoff and the helpful folks at the Shorewood Senior Center.  

  To read well, that is, to read true books in a true spirit, is a noble exercise, and one that will tax  the reader more than any exercise which the customs of the day esteem.           H D Thoreau from Walden    

                                                                              or

I'm like those trash bags that time cannot decay,

I'm junk but i'm still holding up this little bright b          

        boquete.                               Leonard Cohen