(Pausing a moment, contemplating the stevage run I got out of that P-Furs song in the mid-eighties.)

Here's a funny thing I do - when I read, I hear it in my head. It competes with the other voices, but it's much like when I write fiction. It's almost as if someone is reading to me. For writers I know, it works well; I hear their voice. It really throws me if the voice I imagined is nothing like the actual voice. Lee Sinins was probably the biggest surprise, but he's great on radio ... which reminds me I need to get him on more. Most of the writers I've been lucky enough to meet or speak with on the phone speak like they talk. (I'm one of few exceptions.)

It gets even harder with faces. It struck me as odd that I felt so stricken at Doug Pappas' passing when I'd never met him, but through his writing, I actually did. People at Pizza Feeds often speak to me like they know me, in much a similar way. There are no faces at BP, unless you've been to a Feed or seen one of us on TV. I made a conscious decision not to have a headshot on STP as well, just because I didn't on BP. After the Rose story, I realized the last thing I want to do is *be* the story. I'm just the messenger ... for now, the faceless one.