Bright Light Cafe - Showcased Talent

The Bright Light Café Presents ...

Carl Palmer

Carl Palmer, originally from Ridgeway Virginia, was brought up on a chicken farm where his Daddy raised fighting roosters. Carl was asked to serve his country with the United States Army during the Viet Nam War and says, “I figured that since the service wanted me, then they’d just have to keep me, so I stayed for 20 years until retirement.”

While on tour in Germany, Carl met Judy, a lovely fräulein and they married in April of 1970. They have a daughter and a son. Their daughter, Kathleen, is married to Ron, the sheriff of Pierce County. They have two daughters, Papa’s grandgirls, Alexis and Aundrea. Carl and Judy's son, Jason, married Amy and they are the parents of Carl’s first grandson, Brady.

Judy and Carl now live in University Place, a small bedroom city in the Puget Sound district of the Pacific Northwest, just south of Seattle Washington. Judy volunteers at Saint Joseph’s Hospital and Carl is a Hospice volunteer. Judy makes and sells her homemade high-end European cakes and pastries, “put in your order early”.

Carl considers himself to be a full time hobbyist. His hobbies include sleeping late, reading the morning newspaper, doing the crossword puzzle and his garden. His favorite pastimes are writing flash fiction, poetry and being with his two grandgirls, Alexis and Aundrea and his brand new grandson, Brady William Palmer.

Carl is a member of many writing and poetry groups: The Puget Sound Poetry Connection, Tacoma Writers Club, Tacoma Writers Roundtable, Striped Water Poets of Auburn, Dream Weavers and does open mike readings throughout the region.

Carl has seen many sights and experienced many experiences, many he’s been writing down in flash fiction and poetry. “Some of the stories may not have happened exactly as they appear on paper, however that’s just according on who’s reading that particular story.” Each of Carl’s two brothers and three sisters has appeared in print, and their kids and, of course, Judy, Kathy and Jason.

“What tickles me most is seeing one of my stories in print from another part of the world.”

Carl's works have been published in England, Scotland, Germany, India, Algeria, Australia, Canada and the United States, with selected poetry translated into Arabic, Hindi and French.

The first book Carl ever read was Hondo by Louis L’Amour, a western paperback pocket book, while waiting in the barracks at Ft. Dix, N.J. for the plane ride to his wife and baby girl in Germany, after a year spent in Korea. He was 24 years old. “I had scanned through books, read magazines and copied Cliff Notes in school, but never really read a book cover-to-cover until then. I’m now an avid reader and have since obtained the entire leather-bound collection of Louis L’Amour, my favorite all time author.”

Carl enjoys writing as a hobby, writing about moments within his life, observations along the way. “Getting it down on paper, in a magazine or on the web, makes it indelible. I can live forever through my writing. I guess we all want that, to leave a mark.”