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westoftown.bsky.social
West of Town
@westoftown.bsky.social
390 followers 680 following 270 posts
A social account for John Naresky's writing site, West of Town. The story: a young man leaves his hometown on foot and rambles farther and wilder through the surreality of America.

https://westoftown.substack.com

Donate:
https://ko-fi.com/westoftown
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westoftown.bsky.social
Thumbing it. Hitching it. Walking and talking it. Chalking it. Marking it. Sighting it and hearing it. Seeing and feeling and breathing and smelling it in, sucking down me, rubbing it all in the pores of my skin, and the wind between my eyes knocking honey in my comb.
--Woody Guthrie

#Writing
West of Town | John Naresky | Substack
Everywhere is Nowhere. Click to read West of Town, by John Naresky, a Substack publication. Launched 3 years ago.
westoftown.substack.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:08 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
I was surrounded by phonies...They were coming in the goddam window.
--Holden Caulfield

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
November 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
Curiouser and curiouser...

#Pynchon #surrealism #writing #stories #adventures #reading #books #Booksky #novels #WritingCommunity
October 27, 2025 at 1:58 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
At first, you think you're almost there. Then you think you'll never get there. Then you realize there's no there there.

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #books #novels #writers #WritingCommunity #Zen
October 20, 2025 at 4:56 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
“You know how crazy that sounds.”
“What’s the un-crazy story then?”
Shrug. “Maybe we just don’t want to hear about it.”
--Thomas Pynchon

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #books #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
October 16, 2025 at 8:11 PM
Reposted by West of Town
tracesoftexas.bsky.social
Abandoned gas station in Glenrio, Texas. One of my own photos, taken a couple of weeks ago.
October 14, 2025 at 4:37 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale,
a tale of a fateful trip...

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #books #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
West of Town | John Naresky | Substack
Everywhere is Nowhere. Click to read West of Town, by John Naresky, a Substack publication. Launched 3 years ago.
westoftown.substack.com
October 14, 2025 at 8:30 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
Kilroy Was Here. The big bald head. The two gripping hands. The big elephantine nose hanging over the old 1940s board fence.

westoftown.substack.com/p/kilroy-was...
October 6, 2025 at 2:11 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
I was going home in October. Everybody goes home in October.
--Jack Kerouac

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity #Beat #OnTheRoad
Kerouac outside the Kettle of Fish bar in Greenwich Village
October 1, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Reposted by West of Town
nathanfrancis79.bsky.social
"The humblest citizen in all the land, when clad in the armour of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of error."

Poem: www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/john-d...

✒ #JohnDosPassos, American novelist, poet, essayist, and playwright, #DOTD 28 Sept 1970. #Poetry #Literature #Theatre
September 28, 2025 at 2:12 AM
westoftown.bsky.social
"Don't worry. You'll get there."

"Get where???"

Read & subscribe:
westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
West of Town | John Naresky | Substack
Everywhere is Nowhere. Click to read West of Town, by John Naresky, a Substack publication. Launched 3 years ago.
westoftown.substack.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:08 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
I can’t explain what I mean. And even if I could, I’m not sure I’d feel like it.
--Holden Caulfield

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
September 23, 2025 at 8:29 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
--TS Eliot

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
September 22, 2025 at 2:12 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
No Trespassing.
4/17 of a Haiku.
― Richard Brautigan

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
nathanfrancis79.bsky.social Nathan Francis @nathanfrancis79.bsky.social · Sep 16
"All of us have a place in history. Mine is clouds."

Poems: allpoetry.com/Richard-Brau...

✒ #RichardBrautigan, American novelist, poet, and short story writer, #DOTD 16 September 1984. #Poetry #Literature
September 16, 2025 at 8:27 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
The conscience of my elusive race gives not a fig for me, baby. But I endure, if you know what I mean.
― Richard Fariña
September 9, 2025 at 12:30 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
All I wanted to do was sneak out into the night and disappear somewhere, and go and find out what everybody was doing all over the country.
― Jack Kerouac

#OnTheRoad #BeatGeneration #Go
gregfieldsauthor.bsky.social Greg Fields @gregfieldsauthor.bsky.social · Sep 5
In 1957 Jack Kerouac's 𝑶𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒐𝒂𝒅 was published. He sat down at his kitchen table, wound a continuous roll of paper into a typewriter, turned on an all-night jazz radio station, and began to write it.

It took 20 days to write and 6 years to find a publisher.

#booksky
#writingcommunity
#authors
September 5, 2025 at 11:44 AM
westoftown.bsky.social
Not with a bang but a...chortle?
artsofexistence.bsky.social H e t e r o t o p ia @artsofexistence.bsky.social · Sep 4
"Do not expect too much of the end of the world."
― Stanisław Jerzy Lec, Unkempt Thoughts
#BookSky
#Photography Bernard Plossu
September 4, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by West of Town
jimmusilpainter.bsky.social
My painting ALENTEJO ROAD
September 4, 2025 at 8:36 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
As I walk'd through the wilderness of this world, I lighted on a certain place, where was a Denn; And I laid me down in that place to sleep: And as I slept I dreamed a Dream.
― John Bunyan

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
September 4, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Reposted by West of Town
hamishreidphoto.bsky.social
Cedar Canyon Road, Mojave National Preserve, California.

#photography #LandscapePhotography #Mojave #Desert #California #TheRoadAhead
A railroad crossing in the Mojave Desert. The railway track leads off across the desert plain into the mountainous horizon; the ground slopes slightly down to the right; and the sky is washed out and slightly stormy.
September 3, 2025 at 1:44 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
“Sal, we gotta go and never stop going 'till we get there."

"Where we going, man?"

"I don't know but we gotta go.”

― Jack Kerouac

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity #Beat #TheRoad #Zen
September 2, 2025 at 8:44 PM
Reposted by West of Town
artsofexistence.bsky.social
Outdoor text.
September 2, 2025 at 8:06 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
The farther he walked, the more distant the horizon became.
September 2, 2025 at 6:12 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
Eternity is a moment, just long enough for a joke.
--Herman Hesse

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
August 30, 2025 at 1:12 PM
westoftown.bsky.social
If we walk far enough, we shall sometime come to someplace.
--Dorothy

westoftown.substack.com

#writing #stories #adventures #reading #booksky #novels #writers #WritingCommunity
August 27, 2025 at 3:28 PM