Author Archives

Bill Pearse publishes memoir, travel journals, poetry and prose, and lives in the Pacific Northwest.

• Song of myself, ourself

  By Bill Pearse on August 9, 2014 • ( 12 )

  

  I stood at the Hoh Head on the Washington coast and looked out on the lone, proud rock that stood hard against the sea And the clouds moved like a membrane, how they swelled and became gauze across my eyes… Read More ›

• Bad thoughts precede bad thoughts: flying, drinking, writing, landing

  By Bill Pearse on July 25, 2014 • ( 6 )

  Flying, sipping brandy out of a cup, 5 in the morning. Leaning back in our blankets, in our seats, reclining. We raise our hands to the displays and tap the screens and look as dull and robotic as the figures… Read More ›

• Still

  By Bill Pearse on July 8, 2014 • ( 5 )

  The girls are in the bedroom with the sun washed over them, mouths slung open. The water here is either too hard or soft, it’s hard to make a lather. I’ve been up more than 24 hours flying, eating, drinking,… Read More ›

• Last Seen With

  By Bill Pearse on June 25, 2014 • ( 6 )

  The cats spend the day outside killing, then come in for their canned food. I stood in the garden watering, having the sense something was wrong, and noticed a small rabbit on its side with a gash in its neck…. Read More ›

• Writing about thieves

  By Bill Pearse on June 19, 2014 • ( 10 )

  I take a break from work to walk the uneven alleyway north, downtown. The walk, the street, the faces: they’ve all become a metaphor of the writing process. It’s always the same but a little different if you look carefully… Read More ›

• The Life is the Story

  By Bill Pearse on May 31, 2014 • ( 5 )

  

  I had to give up caffeine because it was giving me anxiety and sleeplessness, and I positioned it as a way to be less of an ass to my family, a kind of sacrifice for them, which was part-true. But… Read More ›

• Confessions of an under-performing project manager

  By Bill Pearse on May 18, 2014 • ( 6 )

  

  It’s mid-year review time, and this year they’ve renamed the levels and taken care to cascade training about it. It’s a “discussion” not a review, and that’s an important distinction. But still, there’s a diagram that looks like a dart-board… Read More ›

• Cow dung in foreground

  By Bill Pearse on May 4, 2014 • ( 10 )

  

  Lily and I drive up the Teanaway to get away, bond. We pull the Pilot over at mile marker 11, where the trail report says you should start: pass the gate that says No Motorized Vehicles, head up the private… Read More ›

• The Art of Make Believe (#mywritingprocess)

  By Bill Pearse on April 30, 2014 • ( 13 )

  

  It’s true, writers like nothing more than to write about writing, to postpone the real work (of writing). And like the game of golf, you get lucky with a few strokes and then spend the rest of your life thinking… Read More ›

• A Near-Life Experience

  By Bill Pearse on April 15, 2014 • ( 16 )

  

  I drank too much and stopped in 2001, but started again about nine months later. I told my doctor I stopped drinking and when he asked if I was alright I started crying and so he gave me the number… Read More ›