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In the Throes: 5 Star Review from Readers’ Favorite
Reviewed by Pikasho Deka for Readers’ Favorite Set in a brutal apocalyptic world with two suns, Mathias B. Freese’s In The Throes follows the story of a creature that unexpectedly attains awareness. The only thing Gruff’s undeveloped mind could fathom as he opened his eyes to the world was that the Close One’s slashes didn’t incite pain. He went to the Park for his first kill and hunted keet. Abandoned by the Close One, Gruff set out on his own, fighting a brutal battle for survival one day at a time, until he found Man Youth and bonded with him.…
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I Chisel my Petroglyphs – Essay 4
By Mathias Freese In 1974 an editor, without my knowledge, submitted my story, “Herbie,”to Martha Foley, editor of the prestigious annual anthology, The BestAmerican Short Stories of 1974. In a section called “Distinctive ShortStories of 1974.” I was listed, unfortunately, with the wrong author’sname. That is another story. I was notified that Foley, who had edited Ernest Hemingway, hadincluded my story. I was 34. As I excitedly scanned the other chosen, Isaw names unknown to me at the time — Joyce Carol Oates; IsaacBashevis Singer, et al. Realizing I was a mere baby elephant amid a herd of mammoths, itdid…
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Awareness to Awareness – Essay 3
By Mathias Freese At a summer’s writers conference in Athens State University inAlabama, I was on a panel with a media specialist [Caylah Coffeen of Creative Cornerstones] and two other writers. The panel met after I had taught a workshop on self-awareness — or what Khrishnamurti called the awakening of intelligence which was the theme of my last book, Again. Again and Again. In passing one professor who had observed my class told me I was a “hoot,” a direct quotation. At 83 I felt I was no man’s conditioned slave; I was express, full and replete. A lifetime of…
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Say it to the World Relentlessly – Essay 2
By Mathias Freese Listening Now to Puccini’s Aria, Che gelidamanina Sung by Alfredo Kraus Tis a riddle. How to sustain my innermost feelings about all things as Ievanesce into atoms that have long composed my bodily self. As Ireflect about the major chords in my existence, one looms most. It isthe passion of the mind; the other, an intense personal constellation ofemotional feelings made up of many parts that touches my being, andso moves me to express emotions, to feel them intensely. Pavarottisings his Nessun Dorma — and so do I in my fashion. Since I firstrecognized this within myself,…