A Spec in Time Series

I want to tell you about a poignant death, it hit me hard this last month. A writer whom I admired. A writer who taught me so much. A writer who was funny as hell; satirical, rude, and philosophical. A writer who taught me how to weave reality into fiction. A writer that taught me that using $50 words, uncommon words, words you needed to reference a dictionary to understand, were not only okay, but things an author should strive for.

Tom Robbins died on February 9, 2025. He was one of the four authors who influenced me the most. Along with the others, he made me want to get my philosophy and the world I had created out of my head so that others could read it. Tom was the last living one of those influential authors. I’ve read every word that man published. It has saddened me greatly to lose the last of my literary heroes.

Still Life with Woodpecker was my introductory book; it pulled me into his thoughts and words. Being that this was way before Kindles that could define every word you wanted, I had to hit the Oxford English Dictionary. The OED is still the only dictionary I use. With a subscription rate of only $100 a year, it’s a useful tax write-off.

There was only one quickly solved problem: the book didn’t belong to me. It had been tossed to me on a tour bus by a friend who said I’d love it. I did. With a quick ask, the book soon belonged to me. I started circling every word I didn’t know and dogearing page after page as the tour bus continued to roll on to our next gig. It was worth it. Yes, I got the gist of the meanings, but when I dug into those words, I understood each one’s profound meaning. It was then that I learned that ‘words mean things’. There are many synonyms for the same word at our fingertips, but one will always be more accurate than another.

I will be forever indebted to this man’s writings, which helped raise me as a young writer and sustained me in my (older) age. I also learned from him that ‘old’ as an age is a frame of mind, and you don’t have to go there. Keep playing, keep fucking with peoples minds. Keep the joy of learning and intrigue at your fingertips, then write about it.

I even inserted an homage to Tom Robins in The Harvesters, a line from Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates. Let me know if you saw it while reading the Harvesters. If you want to know which of Robins’ books I recommend the most, I would tell you that Fierce Invalids and Another Roadside Attraction are my favorites.

Hopefully, someday, I will find another hero of the written word that hits me in my soul like Tom Robins has. Until then, I will continue to evolve and do my best to make my inspirations proud of the influences that they left on the pages.