ABOUT THIS BLOG:

ABOUT THIS BLOG: Much like myself, this site has worn down with many of its features no longer functioning. If you have questions (or answers), feel free to contact me: @WillTinkhamfictionist (Facebook) or @willtink (Twitter). Thanks!

NOW AVAILABLE!!!

NOW AVAILABLE!!!
From Minnesota's Iron Range to Hollywood's Golden Age, Ike Savich discovers America—one Packard at a time. THE PACKARD SALESMAN

About Me

Will Tinkham has published eleven novels. THE PACKARD SALESMAN follows THE TEDDY & BARA SHOW, IF I LIE IN A COMBAT ZONE, FALLING DOWN UMBRELLA MAN, THE MIRACLES, THE CARY GRANT SANATORIUM AND PLAYHOUSE, THE GREAT AMERICAN SCRAPBOOK, THE ADVENTURES OF HANK FENN, BONUS MAN, NO HAPPIER STATE, and ALICE AND HER GRAND BELL. He lives and writes in Minneapolis, MN. His short fiction has been published on three continents and he long ago attended Bread Loaf on a scholarship. An actor of little renown, his credits do include the Guthrie Theater and Theatre in the Round. @WillTinkhamfictionist on Facebook, @willtink on Twitter, instagram.com/willtink

Monday, November 4, 2019

On STORYMOBILE!

2019 Saint Paul Almanac reading at Eat My Words Bookstore.

Click above link to see my whole head and listen to the entire reading. Enjoy!

Thursday, September 19, 2019

On page 6


Last night I attended a gala for the release of the 2019 Saint Paul Almanac. (You'll find me on page 6, “More Champagne?”, an excerpt from The Miracles.) I checked in, received my free copy and a check. Book in hand (and a cool $50 in pocket), I checked out the view of CHS Field as the party was held in a fancy room above the first-base line. Nice ballpark.

Finding no one I knew (and thus, a little uncomfortable), I noticed a group of couches in a U-shape—a three-seater with two two-seaters facing each other. A couple occupied one of the two-seaters and I sat on the one across from them. Soon two women sat on the three-seater and the one closest to me—a poet—asked me if I was in the book. “Page 6,” I said. She gave me the page number of her poem. It was wonderful, all about the river, atrocities committed on its banks and Native people's disbelief over how intruders could treat it so poorly.

I mentioned how much I liked it and noticed how much trouble she was having reading my piece. “It's too long to read here,” I said, and she went on to explain some contraption she had at home that helped her read. I pictured an “overhead projector” like they used back in high school. She mentioned wanting to write a novel, but they were too long and it would be difficult. I mentioned wishing I could write poetry but it was too short, which made it difficult. I paraphrased Mark Twain apologizing in a letter to a friend about its length: “I would've kept it shorter but I didn't have the time.” She laughed. It was noisy and difficult to have a conversation.

About then a woman asked if the seat next to me was open. It was, and she and her grown daughter—I assume—squeezed in. Three, now, in my two-seater. A third woman joined mother and daughter, sat on the large coffee table that filled all the space in front of the couches and precluded any possible escape on my part.

I was uncomfortable. And once the program began I found those speaking were behind me and I couldn't even turn around to watch. During a lull, the woman crammed next to me asked if I was in the book. “Page 6,” I said. “You?”

Her excitement made me comfortable. She searched for one of four pieces of art she had in the book, finally finding a brightly colored painting of a woman with a green crown. Before she could find the others, her woman with the crown showed up on the big screen. I tapped her shoulder and she went wild.

Yet another woman found her way onto the big couch. I caught her name but she wasn't in the book. She made a hasty exit as the publisher came up to speak. The new speaker mentioned all involved in the publication, then singled out one person who had made a particularly large donation. It was the woman who had run away.


Maybe this is what the Almanac is all about—a poet who listens to her river being abused, an artist who fills her work with color, emotion and love, and a generous benefactor who wanted none of the spotlight. Not quite sure where I fit in, but it's getting more comfortable all the time.

Then the readings began and three women cried as they read their poems—one speaking of her son, Philando, being killed by a cop.

Thursday, August 15, 2019

On Botany and DNA


Several years ago, a plant sat dying in the lobby of the posh condo building I work at. Myrna, the resident who volunteers to provide and keep alive the lobby plants and flowers, gave me the plant to set atop a cabinet in the office where such things go to die. I placed it in its plant purgatory with little fanfare. None, as a matter of fact.

I took to dumping the remains of my water bottle into the vase—the backwash I was too lazy to take all the way back to the sink to pour out. Day after day, I deposited the tepid water from the previous night into the pot. Several times during each shift, I'd pour the KitKat-laced spittle from the bottom of my bottle over the pathetic plant.

One day Myrna noticed the plant atop the cabinet. “That thing still alive?”

“It's my DNA,” I offered.

Myrna decided it deserved a better pot. As she made the transfer, it was hard to imagine the water that poured out of that thing. She commented that no plant could survive such over-watering.

It became the emergency plant—when Myrna couldn't get to the florist after something else had really died—and periodically enjoyed its former place the lobby. I continued to dump my waste water on the thing until one day a pink bud appeared. It had never flowered before.

With Myrna temporarily slowed by a walker, the plant has again become the centerpiece of the lobby. And I've continued to generally abuse it. It sprouted a second bud.

Was it my DNA in the backwash? Had my ancestors hung the Hanging Gardens? Was I a Venus flytrap in a former life? Or perhaps eaten by one?

Questions such as these have mystified botanists since the dawn of time (or perhaps not), but one thing is for sure: This was an obvious fluke, never ever let me near your plants!

Sunday, April 28, 2019

On Re-meeting Carolyn Forché


I began this blog eight years ago because I was told a writer needed a blog. I had no idea what I was supposed to do with a blog and still don't. I thought I'd begin by recording some stories of famous writers I'd met. I started with John Gardner and Raymond Carver, and—to show my versatility—filtered in Kirby Puckett (okay, it was just a tip of the helmet) and a First Avenue encounter with Michael Stipe.

With these four luminaries headlining the blog, my followers still stalled out at six. (It may say seven on the blog but two are really just one person.) Then a few friends died and my blog turn into an obituary column. My number of followers remained at six. I scrapped the name-dropping idea, even with the likes of Carolyn Forché and Tim O'Brien still left to capitalize on. After all, if getting hit on by Michael Stipe doesn't get peoples' attention, what will?

(And, yes, eight years later I still have the same six followers. I'm hoping the “follow” button in broken.)


Image result for carolyn forcheAnyhow, word recently came out that Carolyn Forché was coming to town to read at the Plymouth Congregational Church. Couldn't miss that. The last time I was aware of her being in town was maybe thirty years ago at the Walker, shortly after I had had the pleasure of working with her on something called the Iron Range Documentation Project up in Duluth. The project teamed up writers and photographers to stay with families on the Range and included a reading on Duluth Public Radio. Very few writers signed on, which was fine with me for it left me with plenty of Carolyn's time and plenty of radio airtime. After the Walker reading we had talked at length, and she even invited me to drop by where she and her husband were staying the next night so she could look at some of my stories. This never happened as she got into a car accident the next day.

After thirty years I didn't expect much if I got a chance to speak with her again. Though certainly she'd remember the car wreck.

I arrived early and purchased her new book, What You Have Heard Is True. Her reading was terrific, her commentary on El Salvador riveting, as expected. While in line to have her sign my book, I rehearsed what I'd say to her in those precious few seconds to try to rekindle a memory.

As I reached the signing table, I spotted a tiny woman squeezing between it and the buying table. She had a large man in tow and proceeded to introduce Carolyn to him.

You're muscling in on my time, lady, I thought as I pushed the book toward Carolyn.

I served you food at Bread Loaf back in '82,” I said to Carolyn, referring to our first encounter while she was on the Bread Loaf staff, and I was there on a “working scholarship”. “And later I was in on that Iron Range Project where—”

Carolyn interrupted by saying the tiny woman was the organizer of the Iron Range deal.

What's your name?” the tiny woman asked.

Will Tinkham,” I told Carolyn.

I don't recall that that name,” the tiny woman said as my time ticked away. “No, I'm sorry, but I don't remember that name at all...”

Carolyn handed the now-signed book back to me. “I waited tables at Bread Loaf myself back in '71,” she said, then referred to my sling: “Hope your arm heals okay.”

I guess I should've mentioned the car wreck. I hope she got out of town okay.

This is an example of how I network.

Friday, February 22, 2019

On April 10, 7pm

Will Tinkham reads
from his new novel,
The Miracles.

Wednesday
April 10, 7pm
@Magers & Quinn
Booksellers, 
3038 Hennepin
   Ave S., Uptown

Saturday, January 12, 2019

A wonderful 2/3s review


A woman who lives where I work stopped into the office last night and said she was two-thirds of the way through “the Cary Grant book” and that I had “outdone myself.” (She was referring to The Cary Grant Sanatorium and Playhouse and is one of a handful of people to have read all my books.) She said I was at my “wittiest and craziest.”

She went on to say she especially enjoyed the beginning of the book and I figured I had won her over because she is of the age that may have grown up idolizing Cary Grant and other movie stars referenced early on. Instead, she said it was because she grew up in central Europe”—referring to the chapters dealing with a young man's escapes from the Nazis.

One can overlook dismal sales with a review like that. Thanks, Sonia and I hope you enjoy the rest of the book.