Michael Mercurio
poetmercurio.bsky.social
Michael Mercurio
@poetmercurio.bsky.social
Poet. Founder and curator of What The Universe Is: A (Virtual) Reading Series, which happens monthly on Zoom. Also writes A Slight Case of Overthinking at https://damncurious.substack.com/

Find out more at https://www.poetmercurio.com
April 17, 2025 at 2:39 PM
It's gonna be weird! But in a fun way, I hope.
April 15, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Not a movie, but the comic strip Bloom County by Berke Breathed is the foundation on which much of my worldview rests. What doesn't come from Bloom County comes more or less from the novels of Daniel Manus Pinkwater.

(I guess there's a little of Disney's 1979 flop The Black Hole in there, too.)
April 15, 2025 at 2:32 AM
It's truly the worst form of "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" — and that was never a good philosophy to begin with.
March 12, 2025 at 1:59 AM
Why does this remind me of my favorite Raymond Chandler quote from The Lady in the Lake?

“Police business is a hell of a problem. It’s a good deal like politics. It asks for the highest type of men, and there’s nothing in it to attract the highest type of men. So we have to work with what we get.”
March 11, 2025 at 8:18 PM
Hmm. If I think of it as a puzzle, will I be tempted to never solve it and just live in Keats' "negative capability" forever? (And if I do that, will it still produce a readable and enjoyable book?)
March 11, 2025 at 8:14 PM
You could just come by it the Canadian way. You know, through hockey!
a man with a beard is smiling and the word yeah is on his shirt
ALT: a man with a beard is smiling and the word yeah is on his shirt
media.tenor.com
March 11, 2025 at 8:13 PM
Once I was able to separate my knowledge that this book is time-bound to 2006, I was able to step back from it and piece together the moments that needed to happen — and, in understanding that, was able to start writing them out of order. (Do I have a spreadsheet & calendar for tracking it all? YUP)
March 11, 2025 at 1:55 AM
Whenever I tried to write a novel before this current one, I couldn't imagine approaching it any other way than linear/chronological - this current one is working better than its predecessors, I think, because I've been able to step out of that mindset. It's a lot more fun this way!
March 10, 2025 at 8:32 PM
My response to your Substack post is too long by far for me to shorten without losing something in translation, so I'm following your lead here:
March 6, 2025 at 7:50 PM
I will say this: I figured out I might not be a forever Catholic during my 1st year at a Catholic college - the priest who taught my theology class showed up on a Wednesday with a smudge on his forehead and I asked him if he'd slipped and fallen on the way to class. (Still stand by my earlier post.)
March 5, 2025 at 9:45 PM