Incident At Lone Star All water holds deep threat. For me a personal antagonism, a mutual animosity. I know its ancient secrets, the barbarous things with teeth, suckers, tentacles that can rip into your flesh, peel away your hide. I know. Also there is drowning to be considered—in depth. I’ve felt that panic a few times. The child man… Continue reading Incident At Lone Star
Author: Jonathan Bell
Best Little Trade Journal In New York
Among The Hired Help Twist the doorknob. Pushing open that door. Dizzy with excitement. Gut seething in fear of the unknown. My first job in New York. Boldly stepping where no one from Kansas had gone before. Among the great turning points in my life. It was the way into… Continue reading Best Little Trade Journal In New York
The Making Of Little
The Making Of Little A High Plains farm at midnight. The images are easy enough‑‑clapboard farmhouse, weathered barn behind it. The windmill's rusted to a stop. One yard light fixes on a monotonous patch of tractor‑rutted mud. Beyond tree windbreaks, clear and level ground surrounds on all sides. But this October night, this farm scene,… Continue reading The Making Of Little
My Big Fat Kansas Wedding
My Big Fat Kansas Wedding I got married in Kansas. To a really fine lady from France. We were already living together in New York so this was just to assure that US Immigration would let me keep her there in my bed. Truth, far more so to insure she kept me in her heart.… Continue reading My Big Fat Kansas Wedding
Delete-a-ling II
This was the original opening for “Small Games Of Chance”. I took it off when the novel evolved into a different creature and this no longer suited its ethos. But as with anything we work long and hard to create I felt sad to lose it. So here I share it. This is a stand… Continue reading Delete-a-ling II
Strange Times In France
My wife and I arrived at her home village, our first visit after our marriage. That was in July of 1979. I had visited France several times. But for the first time, with her, this was one of love. And of discovering an alien world I had thought impossible. A sunny southern French world sinister… Continue reading Strange Times In France
On The Banks Of The Euphrates
Standing at the corner of 45th street and Fifth Avenue, Midtown Manhattan, is 551 Fifth Avenue. It is a remarkable building even for New York City. In fact it is one of a kind in the world. This is the 38 story Fred F. French building, named for its builder the real estate tycoon… Continue reading On The Banks Of The Euphrates
Work Is Prayer
Work Is Prayer That’s a saying I heard growing up. Not at all from my parents. It was said by the old Kansas people around me. I myself can’t help but hold it in reverence. It was something urgent in me that has transubstantiated into my writing, fiction and journalism. Writing is prayer. If I… Continue reading Work Is Prayer
Wreck Of The Galaxy
When I turned 14 I had my first car accident. Pioneering the many to follow. None caused bodily harm except the most spectacular on a rainy night in Florence and even it left no one maimed or dead. But they did harm my ego, which obviously needed some denting because it has always popped back tenaciously. This first… Continue reading Wreck Of The Galaxy
Damn It To Hell Call Me By My Name
The many ‘Me’s of Jonathan Wesley Bell were delivered without fanfare or rococo splendor onto the lone prairie. I was shoved out into atmosphere at more than a height of 1800 feet. On the Plain of Western Kansas, in the ranching community of Stockton, Rooks County, in the desolate place were the High Plains begin their inexorable… Continue reading Damn It To Hell Call Me By My Name