Mozart's Sonata in D Major

One of my short stories has been published in the Adelaide Literary Magazine. Setting is a writer’s conference in Malibu.

Mozart’s Sonata in D Major

Drawn by the prospect of publication, writers gathered at the conference in Malibu. A bespectacled woman, her gray hair uniformly curled under at the edges, stood and read from her work. “The mother left her children on the beach and went for a swim. She got caught up in the rip tide.”

            When she finished, the workshop instructor asked for comments.

            A man in the back of room raised his hand. “The protagonist is careless and irresponsible. No one wants to read a story about a character like that.” 

            A young woman spoke up. “She has every right to go for a swim. She can keep an eye on the kids from the water.”

            Norman Hobson agreed with the man about the character’s irresponsibility. Others in the workshop took sides and he joined the fray. “Isn’t this interesting,” he said. “The men think she’s irresponsible, and the women say she should be able to do whatever she wants.”

            Everyone laughed— except for the woman in the front row. She turned and glared at him. “Not all the women,” she said. At the break, she came over and sat beside Norman. She had pale gray eyes, a mane of dark hair and scant make up. Probably in herlate forties though looks younger, Norman surmised. Her badge read ‘Greta.’ READ MORE.

Ashes In A Coconut

Excerpt—”The driver maneuvered through the narrow streets, where food carts with kerosene lanterns cast an eerie glow. Shadows flickered off whitewashed walls and disappeared into the recesses of foliage overhead. A chorus of feral dogs bayed in the distance, and the aroma of sweet tuberose wafted through the air. Villagers peered at them as they drove by in their finery. No quaint cottages marked their way. Laura observed only the poor, and it made her uneasy. The people lived their lives on the edge—the edge of the road. There they cooked, ate, slept, loitered, sold goods, or just squatted and observed. She had never been in a place like this. The atmosphere seemed charged and unsettled, as if at any minute something strange might happen.” 

Published by Moonshine Cove Publishing, LLC

The Haircut

Published in The Annual California Writers Club Literary Review; The Jessaymn West Creative Writing Anthology.

California Writers Club

Pig Knuckles and Sauerkraut

Prose and poetry from members of the Napa Valley Writers branch of the California Writers Club. First Press: Collected Works from Napa Valley Writers 2017

Jack London, Sustainable Farmer

Short story included in 2017 Redwood Writers Anthology, Sonoma: Stories of a region and its people

Litfest Blues

Published 2008 in The Red Wheelbarrow Literary Magazine

Litfest Blues | Bo Kearns

Southern Boy goes to poetry reading
First time ever. First time ever
He remembers ‘roses red, violets blue’
And words that rhyme with honey.
He sits and waits. For sweet sticky honey…

Big Al, poet laureate himself, reads blues poetry
Sings blues poetry
With voice like the Mississippi River.
Deep muddy rolling. Rolling slow.
Southern Boy closes his eyes
And dreams of
Jambalaya

Next day he goes back for more
Famous feisty Chinese lady reads blues poetry
Imagine that. Chinese lady reads the blues.
Blues from the eyes. Deep black penetrating
Southern boy dreams
Moo shu pork barbeque.

He wants more, of that blues poetry.
No Ernest H or F Scott for him.
No Gatsby Great, Arms Farewell or Tolling Bells
Southern boy wants poetry
Deep muddy, slow rolling.
Like the river. Like the eyes.