My Third Ever Painting

For the 4th of July, instead of driving to a fireworks display, my wife and I decided to paint a fireworks scene from a previous year, using a photograph that I had taken at the time. I only started painting earlier in the summer when my wife had a painting party for her birthday. Four of us got together and painted, using a Bob Ross video as a guide. We later had another party in which we painted a double rainbow over a wheat field, using another photograph that I had taken. I ended up painting over my initial picture, the one that I had created for her birthday. 

My painting of the fireworks display appears below.

It is much easier, I discovered, to paint something abstract like a fireworks explosion than to try and paint a double rainbow over a wheat field. 

Chapbook Titles Published by Choeofpleirn Press

The winning poetry chapbook of our 2026 contest and two finalists have been published recently. This contest will be our last chapbook contest. Beginning in 2027, we will be offering a poetry contest for full-length collections of poetry. Our advertisement is easier to read if you click on it first. These chapbooks are available at Amazon and other booksellers.

"A River Divides Us" in Slant: A Journal of Poetry

One of my more recent poems appears in the current issue of Slant: A Journal of Poetry. Go to this link to read my poem, "A River Divides Us."

Richard Holinger's Manure Dreams

Choeofpleirn Press published its last nonfiction title recently. (We will start offering a short fiction contest later in 2026.) Richard Holinger's Manure Dreams is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and many other bookstores.