Ed is a genius. If you don't believe me, listen to him read one of his stories.

I'd have married Edward Morris had he and I not had the single most grotesque and detailed conversation about crab lice that I have ever (and hopefully will ever) have with another human being. Quite the beautiful mind, this one.

That's the most sideways compliment I've ever gotten, but I'll take it. Why am I not remembering that conversation? Cheers anyway <3 And to all who read and contributed to this piece as well. Long-time reader, first-time interviewee. Edward Morris dante3000@gmail.com

I pay my support. The back part is interest from when I couldn't find a job, smartass. And that firing was without due cause. Your bad manners are exceeded only by your bad manners.

You don't know me from a can of paint. If you'd like to rectify that, I already posted my email. Otherwise, go back to writing what you know.

I am not taking the bait here. Comment threads are for trolls, when it gets to this level. Sod off and get a life. If you're going to make personal judgements about me, then email me and talk to me about it like a man. Otherwise, good day.

For the record,and for the benefit of everyone else who is not a professional troll, what I said was "I pay my support," not "I have paid my support." I am paying on it. I would give three body parts of your choice to have that debt paid off.I have also not seen my daughter Lydia Catherine Morris since she was a year and a half old, and she is thirteen. Her mother and I are estranged,and there is no legal reason why I am denied visitation.Every day I carry that burden,and every day I miss my little girl with all my soul.When I have a job,or income at all,that debt gets paid on.I have had a tremendously hard life that I am trying to live morally and improve.If that makes me a deadbeat, then the Captain of the Troll Patrol and his broken shift key can dance on my grave and have a good time at it.

Graham, stop trying so hard to troll in your schticky ALL CAPS gimmick. It's old.

I can affirm that Edward does pay his child support. When he has work. He also complains bitterly about every penny he has to give them, because he seems to think that he shouldn't have to pay money if he doesn't get to see his child. Whether or not that makes him a deadbeat, I leave up to y'all. I've noticed that he's certainly not the only man out there who seems to hold that opinion.

As for getting fired, I wouldn't feel too sorry for him, folks. If he really did get let go for the reasons he says he did, then it was because he was thrown away due to someone else's anger and overly-jealous or controlling ways. Which is no different than the kind of treatment I have received from him. So, in a literary sense... I'd say it's poetic justice.

If anyone would like to see the kind of read Georgia was talking about, I am featured reader at the Stone Soup read, which local poet Curtis White-Carroll and a few other poets spearhead.Marino Adriatic Cafe, SE 41st and Division, TBA in April. The Marino does one of those a month, and Curtis brings in the best of the best. So far, it will be me featuring, my poetic battle-buddy Curtis reading as long as he wants, and my housemate and great friend Adam Cedar, (beloved of the Variant reads and just about everywhere else he reads.) Trying to nail down a third performer, will post the date of the read when we all agree.

Also, my first collection of published short stories was just released from Wildside, here: http://www.wildsidebooks.com/Shock-Theatre-Collected-Speculative-Fiction-2002-2006-by-Edward-R-Morris-trade-pb_p_9692.html They are reprints, all, but many of the online magazines where they have appeared have since been eaten by the economy, sadly. So the two writers who run Wildside on a shoestring asked me to collect them. I've never made a dime from one Wildside book, but BLACKGUARD:FATHERS AND SONS is in the Multnomah County Library as well, if a science-fictional take on the old Club Panorama on Stark St. is of any interest...

Georgia mentioned the Pushcart Prize In Literature. That is true. I was nominated for my story "One Night In Manhattan", which ran in Big Pulp, Summer 2010 edition. Check it out here for free. http://www.bigpulp.com/issues/2011_09/morris_manhattan.html She also mentioned Wordstock. Here I am on the schedule... http://schedule.wordstockfestival.com/speaker/edwardmorris/list/descriptions/ Still waiting for someone to Youtube the video of me reading from Robert Sheckley's "The Body Game." Sheckley was a local science fiction author of no small repute, who used to hang out and smoke outside Central Branch of the library and talk my ear off once in a while. It was an honor to speak about him. I also did the H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival from 2006-2009 as a guest author and panelist, and am a regular guest and writing adjudicator at Orycon, the Oregon Science Fiction Convention.

Agree that those who are chronically unable to pay child support are in fact, deadbeats. If your child lived with you, you would find a way to feed and clothe them, no? But because you don't get to see them, you don't feel obligated to truly work a job to support them. People don't get fired over and over again because the world is full of assholes. People get fired over and over again because they don't realize that they are a shitty employee who needs therapy and some perspective. The victim card has an expiration date. The rest of the world gets over their childhood traumas, save for the "artists" who cling to every perceived slight as if it were the very hand of God telling them they aren't good enough instead of getting their shit together and busting their ass and not taking everything personally. Believe me, it's not personal. You aren't special enough for people to make it personal. But you keep on working on those "meaningful" tattoos and searching for the meaning of life while the world keeps spinning around you. You had promise and you have stagnated. Reading your comments is much like reading the comments of a bitter 16 year old. Time to grow up, running an elevator isn't exactly going to send the daughter that you love so much to college anyway, now is it????

Wednesday, February 28th at the Northwest Library, (NW 23d and Thurman) I will be one of three featured readers, with Toni Partington and Lisa Wible, for the Verse in Person Poetry Series. 7-8 p.m. I have this article and the Merc to thank for that feature,and I hear there are 2-3 more on the way. I will post the dates. Thank you so much for this wonderful opportunity.

@27 - you had me 'til you mentioned the Variant.

My bad. Adam reads a lot of other places, too. I just mentioned the first one I thought was well-known. I like the owners of the Variant, but the reads are too crowded to get around in with a cane, and they are really more like a group of good friends reading to each other than an Open mic, no offense to the read. Here's a link to some of the podcasts from the Three Friends reads. These feature, among others, local poetry legend Walt Curtis (subject of Gus Van Sant's movie "Mala Noche.") Please cut, paste and enjoy, with my compliments: http://showandtellgallery.org/?tag=edward-morris

I also wanted to thank Rick Thurber and Randy Estes at Artisan Jewelers, 6th fl., Semler Building (whose work can be seen in the "Twilight" movies on Bella, FWIW) as well as Chris Moncrieffe and his band Princess Ugly; Alan Viewig, Attorney at Law, and all the other tenants who tipped me a total of two hundred dollars for Christmas. All six of my current employment references with the Employment Department are either current tenants at the Semler,or former staff that Dr. Brady also fired on a whim, at a rate of one per month, because, in the words of my own (fired) supervisor, "He didn't like them." This isn't *about* me. A lot of people have been hurt by his behavior,and no one deserves to be. Not even me.

ed is magic
bout time mercury did a real story about a real person that makes this town portland
now do one about owen and vinka