Wallace Stegner, On Teaching and Writing Fiction

“By his very profession, a serious fiction writer is a vendor of the sensuous particulars of life, a perceiver and handler of things. His most valuable tools are his sense and his memory; what happens in his mind is primarily pictures.”
― Wallace Stegner, On Teaching and Writing Fiction

This quote says that a writer must have pictures in his head. Well that is what I have had in my head for years... As a visual artist I created pictures, icons, and images. I think it is the right time to put some of those pictures into words. Check out my books on Amazon.com and Goodreads. 

Larger than Life

Here in Lubbock, we love our favorite son... Buddy Holly. We have a Buddy Statue, a Buddy Museum, and we have even moved the Allison House (Where one of the Crickets lived) to the museum grounds. (Funny they didn't move Buddy's old house too. It was just down the street from the Allison house.) Anyway, All to say that we love Buddy, his music, and his band (The Crickets). I guess you might say we've made him bigger than life. Here you see enormous Buddy glasses (a sculpture) which sets just outside the Buddy Holly Museum. I suppose being larger than life has it's advantages and it's disadvantages too. It would make it hard to fit into everyday society. I mean if Buddy was alive there would be people swarming to get his autograph and such... and imagine the paparazzi. Then I'm pretty sure he wouldn't be living in Lubbock Texas. As I understand it he had moved to New York or somewhere before he died. Why... you ask? Because Lubbock just didn't get his music. Some liked him but some really didn't. That is the way of things. Pardon the paraphrasing but I think that even the Bible says that a prophet is not respected in his own country. There is no denying that Buddy (and his band too) was a fantastic entertainer, songwriter and what some would call a poet. The Plains of West Texas has produced many musical talents like Waylon Jennings, Mac Davis, The Gatlin Brothers, Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks; and Actors too like Woody Harrelson, Barry Corbin, and Chance Crawford (best known for his role in Gossip Girl.)   But, Let's not forget the famous (and semi famous) writers from West Texas which include Elmer Kelton, Kambri Crews, Carol Hall, and of course Me... Dan Dwayne Spencer author of "Spies Lie & Spies Die" and "The Secret King and Poetry of Praise."

Up a Tree...

This awesome climber is nonother than a 6 year old Dan Dwayne. While most boys were out climbing and playing in their jeans and t-shirts I was fashionably dressed for the excursion in chinos and a shirt suitable for any golf course. This was my usual... the unusual. But, it was 1961 and things were different then. JFK was inaugurated president of the US, Aretha Franklin's debut album Queen of Soul hit the market, the bay of pigs fiasco festered ill-will between the USA and the (then called) Soviet Union, and Earnest Hemmingway died. All that was a lot to take in for a guy who just started the first grade. It was just a year later when the Cuba missile crisis happened. I was seven and I remember refusing to go to school. I sat in the dining room listening to the radio as the announcer told about the naval blockade challenging the Soviet Union. I'm sure I wasn't the only one holding my breath that day. Nothing felt safe. It was clear (even to a seven year old)  that if the event became an actual battle and atomic bombs started flying... we all would be doomed. As a writer I don't think I could ever portray that kind of suspense accurately. It was too intense for words. Those were the days of the cold war and spy verses spy. Speaking of spies… if you haven't checked out my book 'Spies Lie and Spies Die' then do...  I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

What is a Writer Without Imagination?

Well... This is a picture of me again. I'm not as dressed up here, however, a collared shirt and matching shorts … not the average boy's play clothes... lol. Then there is the hat. I can't say I remember this one... I had hats of all kinds... helmets… big brimmed sombreros... little brimmed fedoras... and what ever this was. I'm betting that my play time wasn't about cowboys on this particular day. Perhaps I was a spy in Merlin's magic court (with a gun of course.) At any rate my play time usually involved creating a story to go along with the situation my fictional character (me) was involved with. The joys of imagination. 

“I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge. That myth is more potent than history. That dreams are more powerful than facts. That hope always triumphs over experience. That laughter is the only cure for grief. And I believe that love is stronger than death.”
― Robert Fulghum - 

All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

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Books by Dan Dwayne Spencer

Speaking at the Rotary Club in Post, Texas

I'm excited about speaking at the Rotary Club in Post, Texas tomorrow.

Old Dancin' Boots

Title: Old Dancin' Boots

Artist: Dan Dwayne Spencer 

Media: Graphite and Ebony Pencil  

Here in West Texas just about everyone knows how to Texas Two Step. It's like a Texas tradition. You're born... You learn to say Ya'll… you learn to walk and then you learn to dance the famous Texas Two Step. Somewhere in there you also learn to ride a horse. Well, some people do anyway. Actually I did most of my horse riding in my teens because today it's all Fords and Chevys. Okay, I'm being a little silly. I know you can't stereotype every Texan into that pattern... except for the 'saying Ya'll' part. But my point is that dancing the two step in the Texas honky-tonks really is something that people do. My drawing, which I showed you here, are my own boots. These old boots served me well until they were kinda floppy. They were more than dancing boots. They were the everyday, anytime wear, Sunday wear and playtime boots. Broken in, soft and comfy... but as all things do they got old, worn, stretched out and in the end they didn't fit right any more. In my story "Spies Die & Spies Lie" Richard Wallace, at flirty Cindy Clarkson's request, goes out drinking and dancing with his coworkers almost every night. It was his way to get close to the employees at Boden International and find out who and what was actually going on there. After all he was a spy for the NSA and he was spying on them.       

Some things that are only imitations.

As you already know by reading my blog that I like to go to West Texas car shows. Pictured here are two very different cars. On the surface they look old and redesigned into hot rods, but that is only on the surface. The truth is that one is a rare off the showroom car designed to have that retro look and the other is pieced together with hours and hours of patients welding and sanding... bondo, paint, and ordering parts only to have them chromed by custom shops that specialize in plating and chroming. Now that I've told you about the differences I'm sure you have noticed which car is the retro designed one. Yes, it is a collectors item. It is called 'The Prowler' by the Chrysler Plymouth Corp. between the years of 1997 and 2002. The 1997 version in violet is worth about $47,000.00 today. (It was pretty pricy back when it was new.) Ok, That being said I want to make another comparison. In my book "The Secret King and Poetry of Praise" I have the Egyptians (my lead characters) hiding in the land of Israel. To escape the wrath of the evil Egyptian witch, they are pretending to be something they are not. The thing about 'The Prowler' is that one day it will not only be rare but it will become a true antique... something that the chopped rod will never attain.  In my book the impersonators pretend so well that they start to believe in the Hebrew God and they start to abide by the Hebrew laws... not because they must but because they want to. It becomes a choice for them to trust and believe in the one God. I know that this makes it sound like a religious story but it is really just an adventure story set in the bible days.  

'The Secret King & Poetry of Praise' by Dan Dwayne Spencer   Available through Amazon.com   

Love That New Orleans Sound!

I have a confession to make... I have a fondness for Karaoke. I know it's kinda silly but there it is. In the story "Midnight in New Orleans" I imagine that Alex and Michael heard many bands down on Bourbon Street before they met up with Alexis' friends and ended up at the séance. One of those bands might have been Big Daddy Dan's group singing traditional New Orleans songs. So, I have included in this blog a little New Orleans tradition.  (For those of you who didn't understand... Yes, that's me singing. LOL) Hear the entire song on YouTube. What?... No... I'm not telling you at what Karaoke bar I recorded it.


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My GQ Pose

In an earlier blog I told you that I was a fashion-plate when I was only four and five years old. Well, here I am all of five years old and doing my GQ pose on my parents sidewalk. See that green house with a red door? It was where I called home for twenty three years. Most people think is strange that my parents never moved, but that was home and as my mother said, "A bigger house is just more house to clean." So, they didn't see the need to upsize. I lived there through college before I moved out. After college I worked for various art services. Then I met my Mary. (Did you know that Mary is the most common name for women in general. It's true.)  I wrote her a poem and... What you want to hear it... Humm… Well okay but only one stanza... that's all. Here it goes:

When we’re apart my heart begins to slow

It’s like the distance between us seems to grow

Then I tally the priorities inside my head

It all goes back to something that you once said

My life changed with three little words

I know it must sound completely absurd

But it became clear even though I’m not very clever

That your love and mine would last forever

That about wraps this article up. Read 'Poetry of Praise' to get more of my poetry. 


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Spies Lie & Spies Die

The West Texas Mountian Range

This is another of my pictures of the West Texas mountain range which I took with my instamatic camera. I love how the cattle break the horizon line. This time I was on my way back to Lubbock from Brownfield. (One of these days I feel I must write a story which is set in Brownfield, Texas. It was my home away from home for almost ten years.) I have to say I enjoyed teaching my classes there.  This is a brief account of my career leading up to teaching at BMS.  I left teaching at Monterey High School and took the job as the Art Director for KAMC and KLBK Television. It was invigorating. I worked there during the "TexasSize" era. That was a brief time around the year 2000.  I was there seeing all the feeds during the terror attacks on New York. I personally did the screen art used 'on screen' from 2000 to about 2004. I left The Television station and returned to teaching again. - this time in Brownfield. I find it funny how people like to compare things... they ask if I missed teaching at one of the biggest schools in Lubbock and later teaching in a small town. (It's not that I disliked Monterey, but you see, I had this great opportunity.) Where I ended up had great people, classes of 18 to 30 instead of 35 and sometimes more; I'd say what's not to like. Sadly I left because of a family tragedy. Funny that I had been writing on a story here and there all the while I was teaching and doing artwork. I always said that Art was my profession but writing was my vocation. Now I guess it's both... I hope you enjoy my books "The Secret King & Poetry of Praise" and "Spies Lie & Spies Die." They were a long time in the making. (Thanks to my Sis and my Wife for encouraging me to pursue publication.)

Plows and Treasures

My mother told a story about how (in the 1930's) my grandfather went to the bank and borrowed the money for the next year. They had a good size farm... So, he would (and could) borrow enough money to buy seed to plant and then the rest would hold the family over till the crop came in. That money was for food, clothing (including fabrics), entertainment, and as for food it was to pay for the feed for the horses and the cows. He stopped by the seed store on the way home and bought the seed for the year's planting. Then he came home, changed out of his Sunday best (he had been to see the banker you know) into his work clothes and started seeding his land... Planting his crop. When he returned to the house he was going to show granny the money he had borrowed and that there was enough for them to live on till the harvest... but he couldn't find his billfold. It was gone. He went over his trip again. He looked everywhere and nothing was to be found. It was lost. It must have fallen out of his pocket. They had a hard season, needless to say. The next year he goes back to the bank. Gets the money for that year and stops by and gets the seed. He is very sure to keep a grip on his billfold this time. He gets home changes his clothes and starts plowing his fields. He is plowing when he sees something strange turn up as the earth is broken and the plowshare turns the soil. It was his billfold. That year they had money from the year before and the current year too. In my story "A Deal of a Lifetime" a fortune is dropped in Helen Baxter's lap by mistake. The scam artists misplaced the real statue and Helen accidently bought the priceless object. Of course no one came hunting my grandfather down for the money but have you ever tried to put off those bill collectors? They are the worst!    


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Unexpected Things

 Pictured here is a common sight here in West Texas... Of course, it's a cactus. They are everywhere. Every wilderness area that has not been cultivated for agriculture is loaded with this plant. This kind of cactus is flat, thin and teardrop shaped with spiny needles that can be three inches long. It  is very common to see them everywhere and because of that we here on the plains just all but over look it. It's just a another cactus. So Invisible. Then it blooms in the spring. It covers itself in cactus roses. A magnificent sight. the bigger the cactus the more magnificent the display. What a delicate display of color and texture from the most prickly plant on earth. Yucca plants are much the same. (A yucca is also pictured in this photo.) The tips of the leaves are so spiny... so sharp and needle like (even the cactus are jealous of how they poke and hurt.) You can't clean under them and they collect all kind of blowing trash. Truly an annoyance most of the year and then they bloom. I'm sure we have all had that moment in life when we take things for granted (no matter what they might be) because they are so ordinary. Yes... These things are very ordinary, in fact so much so, that they become invisible. Then for what ever reason... they bloom, transform, and suddenly they are noticeable.  -  In my book "Spies Lie & Spies Die" there is a particular short story titled "Morning Fog" The main character is a fellow who is driving on highway 62/82 from his Texas home to where he works in Crosbyton. (A town on the Texas Plains.)  His name is Eugene Bentley and he is about to have a similar experience. He believes himself to be so ordinary that he is invisible. It takes quite an adventure for him to make his transformation. A near death experience for sure.

Buddy Holly was a West Texas Writer, a world class poet

The picture featured here is really the birth home of Lubbock's favorite son... Buddy Holly. Now there was a writer for you, a world class poet. His birth house was just around the corner from where my parents and I went to church for years (and years) and down the street from the Texas Tech Stadium. Busloads of people would stop there to see it. Usually they were on some world famous tour of Buddy Holly's home town. There was a great debate whether or not to tear down all the old houses in that area and build a new and more prosperous neighborhood. It went on for quite a few years, but it somehow lost the battle. Now that area is a thriving metro area of townhouses, fabulous housing for the University students, restaurants and shopping. Everything changes... even if it is a part of out history... even if it has great emotional value... and even if it is irreplaceable. It may have the best outcome and sometimes it is a sad ending.

In my short story "A Christmas Season in Hell" from my book "Spies Lie & Spies Die" The professor is looking for someone with an original story... an original thought. He didn't know that below him in a sealed room that person had been waiting for him. What was Edgar's story. Why was he sealed up in that room for forty years?  How would his story finally end after the professor falls into his morbid tomb?


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What is the difference in fences and walls?

This is a unique picture I took in a little West Texas town called Meadow. The house was rather ordinary, but it had this great fence which was surrounding a side yard. I couldn't resist framing this pic with my instamatic. In my book "The Secret King & Poetry of Praise" it's a good thing my characters Nachet and Amon didn't build a fence like this or else they couldn't have seen those three wise men coming up to their little house just outside the walls of Bethlehem.

(Ok... So, I don't know if Bethlehem actually had a wall... but most towns of any size built in that time did and the horrible smell of the firing clay would have made it all but necessary for the potter's shop to be outside or on the edge of the town.) So I have to ask... Is the structure here a wall or a fence? It could be used as a wall for a little village. Humm… maybe.


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Why use the phrase Water Bird as a code word in "Spies Lie & Spies Die?"

I must admit to a fondness for water birds... especially cranes. I also draw them. They are magnificent. No one would suspect that here on the West Texas Plains I see an abundance of cranes. I think they migrate and my home is on their migration path. They fly off to somewhere about October, and return again in the spring. However, a few long legged white beauties can be seen from early spring through fall. I'm no expert; just an avid observer. At the right time of year some of our local parks with ponds will be full of them... in the trees, in the shallow pond water, walking on shore. Amazing.

Title: Water Bird

Artist: Dan Dwayne Spencer

Media: Polychrome Pencils

In my story "Spies Lie & Spies Die" I needed a pass phrase to keep the money safe in the virtual vault. I used 'Water Bird' for the pass code to access the money. When Angie got that strange phone call and the breathless man said "Water bird" she had no idea it was so important, but she knew she had to find out.

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West Texas Writers

West Texas Writers...

I am interested in how many people out there on the West Texas Plains are aspiring writers, published writers, or waiting for the perfect time to write that great American novel. If you are one of those people please contact me at dan-dwayne-spencer-novelist@gmail.com

I am looking forward to hearing from you.

I want to thank my friend and four star romance writer Nicole Locker (whose books are also available on Amazon.com.) She has been a great help to encourage me... and sometimes guide me through the proverbial minefield a new writer must traverse.   

Finding Beauty in the Flat Land of West Texas

Yes, I really do live on the Texas Plains. As I was driving to work one day (you see, I traveled from Lubbock to Brownfield every day when I taught there) when I realized that before me was this perfectly framed picture describing the flat land of the West Texas Plains better than any words could. I had to take the snap on my instamatic camera. If you look close you might see our one and only mountain. Nope it was only an ant hill... sorry.