Far Muse

2 weeks ago | hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis |Far Muse

These hills and hollows are full of smart people — they’re sensible and practical minded, too. Most are more comfortable chatting in the garden, under the hood of an old pickup, over a parts counter or a pile of mortar and stone — while painting or sculpting or on a parked tractor or picking ladder. Perhaps conversing on a front porch during a break from banjo, guitar or fiddle. That’s the kind of folks that West Virginia produces and attracts — and I’m happy with that.

1 month ago | hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis |Far Muse

Bet the title fooled you. Many readers likely presumed that I was about to review Nora Kimble’s book by that name. Well, no, that’s going to take a while. It’s a thick book, to be precise it’s 702 thousandths of an inch thick not including the covers. (Precise enough?) Of that 702, I’ve managed to find the time to read 86 thousandths of an inch of book content.

1 month ago | hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis |Far Muse

Webster’s defines the word “novella” in part as “a work in fiction intermediate in length and complexity between a short story and a novel.”But this isn’t fiction; I only wish that it were. Our continuing adventures with that as yet unnamed, but not for much longer, communication company bears out the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. Indeed, if we were to compile what I’ve already written on this subject along with that which is to come, we might just have a neat little paperback.

2 months ago | hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis |Far Muse

I’ve kept a journal of my daily work related activity for the past 20 years. It›s all handwritten in spiral notebooks and is tucked away in several metal filing cabinets. It’s a wealth of material for story telling, something l somehow knew l would wind up doing. But l never use it. It’s there if l need it, l suppose, but l would rather write as a product of these experiences. There’s a smaller sub-category to these volumes labeled NRM, for North River Mills.

2 months ago | hampshirereview.com | Ted Kalvitis |Far Muse

Occupied with the usual spring rush of getting tractors in shape as well as my mowing gigs, I’m going to have to go all NPR again and submit another “encore presentation.” Curing Carburetor Dope Slap appeared almost exactly a year ago in Vintage Truck Magazine. According to my cataloging system, the article hasn’t previously been used here. If I’m mistaken, I’ll submit to a public dope slap myself. I so do not want to become one of those geezers who keeps telling the same story.