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Charlie Quimby

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Charlie Quimby

Goodreads Author


Born
in Rifle, Colorado, The United States
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Member Since
October 2010


Charlie Quimby is the author of two novels set in Western Colorado. Inhabited , published in October 2016, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. His debut, Monument Road, was named an Indie Next Great Read and a Booklist Editor's Choice for 2013, and shortlisted for the Reading the West Book Award and Colorado Book Award. He is also a co-author of Planning to Stay, a guide that helps communities assess themselves and take control of future development.

Before devoting himself to writing fiction, he was president of Words At Work, the Minneapolis marketing communications firm he founded, from 1988 to 2005. His speechwriting and annual reports won national awards, and he co-authored publications on urban planning, qualit
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Charlie Quimby I don't believe in "writer's block." No one talks about banker's block or plumber's block or chef's block. Writers are not specially privileged. The w…moreI don't believe in "writer's block." No one talks about banker's block or plumber's block or chef's block. Writers are not specially privileged. The worst thing they can do is imagine they suffer from some horrible affliction.

However, we all deal with lawnmower's block, dishwasher's block and exerciser's block. Thinking about it this way makes feeling blocked seem more natural and temporary.

So I deal with it in the following ways:

1) I give myself permission not to write. Just as I give the lawn permission to grow for another day. The world will not end if I decide to do something else. Readers will not miss the sounds of my typing. The lawn will still be there in the morning.

2) I read something good that tells me, yes, this is what I'm trying to do. Not exactly like this, but I see that it is humanly possible and worth doing.

3) I plant my butt in the chair every day. Sometimes I get up having written nothing. Or goof off. Or write crap. Or edit what I did yesterday and maybe it leads me into a paragraph that will lead me into a page tomorrow.

But above all, I do not accept it as a malady to be overcome. It's more like a rainy day that will pass as long as I do 3, 2 and 1.(less)
Charlie Quimby The cover either immediately communicates or puzzles people, I've found.

The image is a close-up of a highway sign marking a winding road. It has been …more
The cover either immediately communicates or puzzles people, I've found.

The image is a close-up of a highway sign marking a winding road. It has been shot multiple times from both directions, and the holes, indentations and paint fractures serve as a sort of topographical map of the region where MONUMENT ROAD is set.

I wanted the cover to be be graphic and represent the region and a perilous drive without being literal. I thought this image was perfect and would be immediately recognizable to anyone who drove in the west.

Your reaction and the reaction of other readers has proved me only half right!(less)
Average rating: 4.01 · 294 ratings · 76 reviews · 3 distinct worksSimilar authors
Monument Road

4.09 avg rating — 230 ratings — published 2013 — 4 editions
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Inhabited

3.70 avg rating — 64 ratings3 editions
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Not So Far from Home: Ownin...

0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
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* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

Elderly Parents, Tenuous Housing, Borderline Lives.

Christian HaircutToday was Christian's first visit to the Day Center, and he was the first to sign up for a haircut. Coincidentally, that made him the first to use my new barber's drape. We shot a post-haircut portrait to commemorate the occasion.


This is my first year of volunteering where I give haircuts exclusively. Having a dedicated space with a sink and rotating chair prompted me to up my game from draping cu

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Published on February 19, 2020 16:27
Days of Destructi...
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My Life And Work
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Sidewalk by Mitchell Duneier
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Experiments in Imagining Otherwise by Lola Olufemi
“When we say ‘housing for all’ and the government responds with ‘the homeless are being temporarily housed in hotels to avoid the spread of the virus’, they are building a linguistic structure that defines the realm of the possible, that implicitly tells us to want less, to expect that total reconfiguration is out of the question. Like a poorly designed building, linguistic structures affect how we think, breathe, move and act. The mould sticks to our skin. We are familiar with a particular kind of linguistic structure: the preservation of a system of organisation that places capital before all else. This system ties our hands and feet together.”
Lola Olufemi
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Quotes by Charlie Quimby  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“She read him a magazine article about how elephants could convey their movements to each other over long distances, warn of trouble and signal their readiness to mate. That’s what prayer can do, too, she said, if people just knew how to pay attention. He didn’t know about elephants or prayer or how unspoken things were transmitted but something in what she said must be true. Otherwise, how could he know what love felt like?”
Charlie Quimby, Monument Road
tags: love

“Class is mostly a way to find something in myself I didn't know was there. Learning doesn't fill me up so much as opens me up. Shakes me loose and throws me off my habits -- might even rearrange me. It's like if you only rode Brandy and not Geronimo or Elvis. Once in a while I want to get on a horse that scares me sideways.”
Charlie Quimby, Monument Road

“One cannot be pessimistic about the West. This is the native home of hope. When it fully learns that cooperation, not rugged individualism, is the quality that most characterizes and preserves it, then it will have achieved itself and outlived its origins. Then it has a chance to create a society to match its scenery.”
Wallace Stegner, The Sound of Mountain Water

“When we say ‘housing for all’ and the government responds with ‘the homeless are being temporarily housed in hotels to avoid the spread of the virus’, they are building a linguistic structure that defines the realm of the possible, that implicitly tells us to want less, to expect that total reconfiguration is out of the question. Like a poorly designed building, linguistic structures affect how we think, breathe, move and act. The mould sticks to our skin. We are familiar with a particular kind of linguistic structure: the preservation of a system of organisation that places capital before all else. This system ties our hands and feet together.”
Lola Olufemi, Experiments in Imagining Otherwise

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