Entranceway Park, Roanoke, Virginia. The butterflies were monarchs, I think.
Why are they called “butterflies,” anyway? Did some weirdo try spreading them across a slice of bread at one point?
Tag Archives: Eric Robert Nolan
Spillwords Press publishes my zombie tale, “The Siege of Fort Buzzard.”
ls it too early to get into the spirit of Halloween? Spillwords Press today published my zombie story, “The Siege of Fort Buzzard.”
Thanks once again to Chief Editor Dagmara K. for allowing me to be a part of this fun creative community!
Throwback Thursday: “The Sting” (1973)!
“The Sting” (1973) was probably the first movie I ever saw starring Robert Redford; it was a family favorite that made the rounds on television in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. (Though I will note here that “A Bridge Too Far” (1977), was also a family favorite, and also circulating on television in roughly the same time. Redford was in that film too.)
I remember asking my father how the ruse worked for that guy in the beginning who fell for the handkerchief trick. And I remember the movie’s theme music (Floyd Cramer’s “The Entertainer”) being an impossible earworm.
The next movie I saw starring Redford would probably be “All the President’s Men” (1976) when I was 14 or so; that was with my uncle John Muth, who had a wealth of such treasures on VHS. After that, it was the wonderful “Sneakers” (1992) in the theater in my college town of Fredericksburg, Virginia.
What I remember about Redford is just how goddam likeable he was in every role. It was uncanny — there was just something about him. It’s kind of like Carey Grant was so inexplicably suave, or how Harrison Ford always seems so sincere. I’ll bet something like that can’t be learned in an acting class.
Rest easy, Mr. Redford.
By the way, I am linking below to Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers and MovieClips on Youtube.
The Piker Press publishes my horror tale, “The Devil and Amanda Ogilvie”
What happens when a jaded publishing heiress comes face to face with Satan himself?
You can witness the confrontation in “The Devil and Amanda Ogilvie,” published today on the front page of The Piker Press:
“The Devil and Amanda Ogilvie”
Thanks yet again to Managing Editor Sand Pilarski for allowing me to be a part of this rewarding creative community. 🙂
The Argyle Literary Magazine publishes four of my poems.
I am absolutely honored today to see The Argyle Literary Magazine publish four of my poems: “Quiet White Dog Short Poem,” “My Mother’s Apartment,” “March Midnight Window” and “Sullen Robin Haiku.” You can find them at the link below:
Four Poems by Eric Robert Nolan
The Argyle is a superb eclectic online quarterly that strives for “an immersive experience of words and images that feeds the mind, stirs the soul, and disturbs the quiet of blank spaces.” I am grateful to Founder & Editor-in-Chief David Estringel, MFA for allowing me to join in its literary tradition.
I awoke this morning to the sound of bagpipes.
There was a parade through town that was led by firemen. And later I think I heard church bells. I’m pretty sure it was a remembrance of 9/11.
This really is a wonderful little city.
September 11, 2001.
We were a different country then: wounded, but undivided; scarred, but undeterred; enraged, but not at one another. The America that rallied and unified in the wake of the terror attacks seems as vanished now as the Towers themselves.
We were a nation of neighbors, as though the dust thrust up from a burning New York City had cleared to reveal an even greater Republic. We huddled together under the smoke blowing up from the charnel pit, then reached to lift one another to higher ground. We bolstered one another with whatever words we could find, in the interminable spaces after our dead had fallen silent, after the soot in the emptied streets had muted even our own footfalls.
We rose up as one to retaliate — and struck out across the world with a single fist. We were more than a superpower, more than an aggrieved people. We were these United States.
I want to believe that we can be that country — those people — again.
That is why today, fully two decades later, I will picture who we were. And I will tell myself, never forget.
— Eric Robert Nolan, originally printed in Newsday, September 11, 2021
In Virginia, everyone is your friend.
Complete strangers will give you huge smile and a fist bump and say, “Keep on rockin’, Baby.”
I swear to you, New York is not like this.
I indeed WILL keep on rockin’, Sir. Thank you.
Chandelier e-zine publishes “All Our Faults Are Fallen Leaves”
I’m so happy to tell you here that my poem “All Our Faults Are Fallen Leaves” was published today in Chandelier e-zine.
Chandelier is a superb online magazine published twice a year by Bulb Culture Collective. It features previously published writing that reflects each issue’s theme; the Summer 2025 issue’s theme is Blazing.
I am grateful to Editors L.M. Cole & Jared Povanda for deciding that my poem, with its various depictions of burning, was a good fit.
Like a great storyteller once wrote, “It was a pleasure to burn.” 🙂
Uhhh … THANKS, Affordable Dentures.
Hearing from you really made my birthday happier.
Seriously, though, thanks to all the supercool, funny and thoughtful people who made my day brighter with messages either online or off. This old man really appreciates it. 🙂
Eric Robert Nolan, Author 