Kevin Sampsell

Hey friends,

What’s been going on? I’ve had a couple of things pop up recently and I wanted to share them with you, but first–a few serious words about facial hair…

I stay fairly clean cut. I shave every other day usually. If I don’t, the grayness of my stubble threatens to overshadow my face in (what I think is) an unflattering way. But the other day, I let three whole days go by without shaving. When I saw my friend Riley at the store he was like, “Whoa! Hey, that looks cool.” 

I trust he was being honest, but still–I feel self-conscious about my “gray shadow.” What do you think?

I keep expecting some former football player to come up to me with that Just For Men darkening gel and say, “Your beard is weird.”

I don’t think I’d ever use that stuff, you know, but I’ve wondered if it would work or if I would look like that weird pitcher for the San Francisco Giants.

So, unless people tell me they want to see more of my gray shadow, I’ll be doing this on a regular basis…

Anyway, now you know what I obsess over when I’m having writer’s block (which I’ve had for the last month or so).

But before I had writer’s block (or “writer’s blah”) I did write a few things that recently popped up. Check them out. A piece of reportage for Robert Lopez’s No News Today and some fresh word collage action at the great new Unshod Quills web site.

In other news, I’m part of the advisory board for this exciting new small press community called The Lit Pub. They have good taste and the books they’ll be talking about here are going to be ones you’ll remember and love.

In upcoming event news, I’ll be part of the awesome Mortified shows happening Thursday and Friday night at the Mission Theater. If you haven’t been to one of these shows (in Portland or another city), they are a lot of fun.

Later this month, I’ll be teaming up with one of my favorite Portland musicians and reading two musical narratives at Entertainment For People at the Woods (can’t tell you who this “secret guest” is just yet because she has another show that week). Catch this rare collaboration on June 22nd in Portland and then June 24th in Seattle at Theater Off Jackson (two shows, two cities!).

I wanted to end this post with a photo that I took last year when B. Frayn and I were down in Houston. I just randomly found it still on my phone.

Thanks for riding by.