{"id":381,"date":"2011-09-18T19:58:51","date_gmt":"2011-09-19T02:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lindacollison.com\/blog\/?p=381"},"modified":"2012-05-18T13:08:13","modified_gmt":"2012-05-18T20:08:13","slug":"postcard-from-tucson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/postcard-from-tucson\/","title":{"rendered":"Postcard from Tucson"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Franks and Franciscos<\/p><\/div>\n

Here we are in Tucson, Arizona…\u00a0 Wish you were here!<\/p>\n

Nothing like a\u00a0hole-in-the-wall<\/strong> diner to cure a Sunday morning\u00a0hang-over.\u00a0 Note the bullet\u00a0hole <\/strong>in the window next to the table where we sat tucking into some of the best huevos\u00a0rancheros<\/em> in Tucson.<\/p>\n

It’s a “mixed neighborhood” as they say.\u00a0 The\u00a0hardscrabble side of town.\u00a0 Sure, there are plenty of trendy, up-scale places to dine\u00a0in Tucson but\u00a0I don’t want to blog about those.\u00a0 I’m not a food critic,\u00a0a Yelper, I’m a novelist.\u00a0 \u00a0I collect characters, settings\u00a0and\u00a0interesting little details\u00a0and then sit back and watch what happens when you put them together.<\/p>\n

Life is a novel, a rather messy one at times.\u00a0 Always\u00a0a random fly buzzing around, a\u00a0tired eyed\u00a0waitress behind on her rent,\u00a0a sinkful\u00a0of dirty dishes, and\u00a0 a drive-by shooting when you least expect it.\u00a0\u00a0 But what Frank serves up out of that greasy kitchen tastes sooo good,\u00a0 fills our bellies and cures our hang-overs.\u00a0 Now I’m ready to go back to The Page, to \u00a0do the day’s work.<\/p>\n

Except I don’t know what’s going to happen.\u00a0 Where’s this story going anyway?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Outlines don’t mean shit some days.<\/p>\n

Just get out and walk.\u00a0 Find some hole-in-the-wall restaurant, open your eyes, fill your belly.\u00a0 Listen to what Frank is saying to the waitress, and note the way she laughs but rolls her eyes.\u00a0 Smile at your partner across the table, that man you love.\u00a0 Remember this moment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bullet hole in the window next to our table.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here we are in Tucson, Arizona…\u00a0 Wish you were here! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[24,7],"class_list":["post-381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing-and-publishing","tag-american-west","tag-writing-process"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=381"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1114,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/381\/revisions\/1114"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madhatdesign.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}