Getting to Here
Larry Burns. Writer, Cogitator, Educator, Agitator, Artist.
Get to know me...
All my creative work originates from the heady blend of sights, sounds, peoples, and places of the Inland Empire (the IE). Living and creating from the IE has its pros and cons. Sometimes my lungs seize from the diesel fumes and I taste rocket fuel in my drinking water. But then I spy Tahquitz Peak from I-10 (the dime) at sunrise and I remember why I live here.
There are amazing bits amongst the dust. Mining that shiny stuff requires fun collaborators. Nobody does anything on their own! I’ve made cool things with other people, and animals and plants and even a short novel with GPT-2, an open-source artificial intelligence created by OpenAI in 2019 (Trash Novel).
Recent Blog Posts and Videos
I keep busy around the Inland Empire exploring popular culture and places where it is easy to get lost. If it is worth sharing, I write and talk about it with anyone who will listen. Look closer, there is plenty to be happy about.
My 8,000 mile writer’s retreat
For ten months I made the 192-mile round trip, arriving in Sunvale Village at sunrise. Typical days were filled with scavenging found materials from desert dump sites, repairing damage to the installation due to the harsh natural conditions of the Mojave Desert, and developing new story lines, context, and characters for Sunvale Village’s Facebook Page.
If You Give a Kid a Library Card…
Libraries sparked my early love affair with books. My second grade teacher at E. J. Marshall Elementary School held reading contests to keep bookworms like me busy over the summer. A favorite childhood memory is Mom taking me to the Chino Library. I’d arrive with...
Finding Your “Place” in Writing
Could you spot a writer in the wild? How do we write? The traditional montage includes someone typing merrily away on a keyboard, behind a closed door, with nothing to interrupt the transmission. Like clockwork, or an assembly line, the finished prose goes from mind...
My Upcoming Speaking Engagements and Events
I love sharing stories from my road trips doing research for my books. I once did a 12 hour, 392-mile photo tour of both Inland Empire deserts (Sonoran and Mojave). In July! I don’t recommend it but do check here for stories about that art fueled ride.
My Writing
I started in fiction but found joyful freedom in creative nonfiction, particularly writing that is placed based. My characters usually care about establishing and maintaining social bonds through culture, ritual, and recreation. I like to ask how place shapes a person and how actions represent values.
My Videos
Sometimes I say stuff in public and sometimes there are cameras present. When that happens, and it is not legally incriminating, I put it here.
My Social Media
Pictures of Inland Empire desert art, cool cultural events, sometimes inquisitive dogs or smiling children. Usually absurd and inconsequential.
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