The Vagabond Trust
Writers At Home In Migration

Ernest Hemingway never had a cell phone
But I think he would have liked text messaging.

Ernest Hemingway never text messaged
But I think he would have struggled with T9 as many older people do.

Ernest Hemingway never mastered T9
But I don’t think there was much opportunity.

Ernest Hemingway had many opportunities
But he still wasn’t real happy.

Ernest Hemingway was an economist
But not that kind of economist.

Ernest Hemingway liked graceful stoic men
But not in that way.

Ernest Hemingway would spit blood in your face
But he fucking hated New York City.

Ernest Hemingway never turned down a drink
But why would anyone—drivers included—ever do that?

Ernest Hemingway never beat Halo 3
But my little brother crucified that bitch on Legendary.

Ernest Hemingway never had and had not
But statistics suggest he had to have been had a couple times had he any humanness

Ernest Hemingway never really enjoyed electroshock therapy
But I’d give it a whirl.

Ernest Hemingway committed suicide
But he’s somehow hanging out with Elvis in Japan.

Ernest Hemingway just left me a voicemail
But it didn’t say anything, it’s a recording of him hanging up.

Mike Romard gave the Vaguer-bonds a great written tutorial on using Wordpress. I am reading it.

The Vagabond Trust, or at least the Fredericton vagabonds, meet every other week at the Picaroon’s brewery. We met last night for the last time this year. If we followed our usual schedule, we’d be meeting again on New Year’s Eve. While some of us will undoubtedly see each other that night, it won’t be for our regular meeting. We’ll see each other again for that sometime in January.

We’d like to wish you all happy holidays.

Also, we’d like to congratulate Jordan Stewart on his success with the Words For Wishes fund raiser. This year he raised $505 for Romero House, a women’s shelter in Saint John. Some of the poems that he has written for the people who have donated this year are already up on the Words For Wishes site (as well as last year’s poems). You should check them out.

As the title says, we’ve got a new author page in the sidebar. This one’s for Katie Brown.

We’re hoping to have some more vagabonds here soon.

I finally got around to putting a page about myself in the sidebar, like Jordan did. I’ve got a couple of poems and a work-in-progress excerpt up for your reading pleasure, as well as links to some of the other places where you can find me online.

Just upgraded the word press software that we use to power this site. Apologies to anyone who tried to visit in the last 15 minutes or so.

My friend Micah started a zine not too long ago, called Syllabus Nonymous. He’s looking for submissions for the second issue. Guidelines, according to the facebook group, look something like this:

For those of us who long to leave the state of being anonymous. Who want someone to know our names, or at least read our words. It’s for us ones in between. In between something and nothing, here and there, and between the Pacific and the Atlantic. The guidelines are fuzzy and at most times unreadable. So please, dont be anonymous.

You can e-mail your submissions to nonymoussubmissions@gmail.com. The deadline is Dec. 15th for the next issue.

The first issue was available at Westminster Books in Fredericton, which happens to be my favourite book store. It sold out pretty quick, but I managed to get a copy, so if anyone in Freddy wants to have a look at it, just let me know.

So, my play, The Spitting Image, drops on Dec. 12 at ABU in Moncton. The doors open at 6:30pm with a show time of 7pm. The night consists of two, one-acts, mine being the first up. There will be an intermission and refreshments will be available. Tickets are $5 General, $3 for students and seniors. This is a one night only affair. This will be my first chance to see one of my scripts performed with no other involvment on my part. The play sends up the all-too-familiar trauma of realizing you’re becoming just like your father.

Until again,

JT

So, in the novel that I’m writing, a couple of the characters play a post-apocalyptic mmorpg (massively multi-player online role-playing game). In the scene that I was working on earlier today, there’s a clan of players holding an in-game funeral for one of their dead comrades (dead in meatspace, not in the game. Players die in these games quite frequently). The characters in my book are expecting the funeral to get raided by an opposing group of players, because, while completely tasteless, it is the sort of thing that can happen in these games.

It happened in World of Warcraft, the biggest mmorpg around, and there are a videos of it on youtube. I’ve seen this footage a few times, but watched it again to help myself write the scene. I would imagine that I’ll have to watch it a few more times before I’m finished. This is a shorter version of the video. There’s another out there that runs about a minute and a half longer, with quotes from some WoW forums about what assholes the guys raiding the funeral were. Also, the other, more popular video, has the song Scat Man playing over the fighting.

WoW Funeral

Hey Internet,

So I’ve got a little dealy going on this holiday. The basic break down is I’m writin’ for charity. You can order a custom made poem, buy a poetry book, or a piece of Two Autumns Ago art work.

All proceeds will be going to Romero House, the woman and children’s shelter here in Saint John. Hopefully improving some people’s Christmas is the name of the game. Last year we raised over $500! so we’re tryin’ it out again this year.

You can check out the website: http://www.wordsforwishes.com for more details, or email me at jordanz@gmail.com if you have any questions.

Last date to donate is December 12th,

Spread the word!
thanks!

love, SJ Jordan