When Amtrak recently announced plans for its Residency for Writers program, Scott Sparling, like many writers, took notice—maybe even special notice, thinking he might just be, in some twisted poetic sense, an ideal candidate. After all, who better to capture inspiration between the rails than a writer who happens to have a lively freight-hopping past?
NWBL thanks Sparling for correctly assuming he had a blog post our readers might enjoy. Catch Not On Board, from Sparlings “Hallucinations” blog and learn why he’s probably not the guy to grant Amtrak “the absolute, worldwide, and irrevocable right to use, modify, publish, publicly display, distribute, and copy Applicant’s Application, in whole or in part, for any purpose, including, but not limited to, advertising and marketing, and to sublicense such rights to any third parties.”
Yep, they came up with that wording for the contract. Couldn’t they have also come up with a catchy name for the program? “Riders in Residency,” anyone?
Scott Sparling is a novelist who lives outside of Portland within, we believe, train whistle distance of the Cazadero Line. He’s at work on his second novel, a follow-up to his 2011 NW hit, Wire to Wire.