Neil Serven

@neilserven

Fiction & essays, novel in progress. Co-owner @federalstbooks.bsky.social . Candlepin bowler. Language stuff. A lot of crank air. Used to write the dictionary. Western Massachusetts.

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Bluesky

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Neil Serven @neilserven· 7d

I got a compliment on this one from a passenger sitting in traffic.

Chalkboard sign reads THERE’S STILL TIME FOR SUMMER READING! with a bright orange sun in the corner and my attempt at a person sitting on a chair at the beach under an umbrella seen from behind

Neil Serven @neilserven· 14d

Getting a haircut tomorrow so I guess this is as done as it will ever be.

Charcoal drawing of the artist, a man with shoulder-length hair.

Neil Serven @neilserven· 17d

Took me some time to process this pileup on the Autobahn crash blossom.

Guardian headline: “Police shoot dead Berlin Pride van and knife rampage suspect, officials say”

Neil Serven @neilserven· 25d

You celebrate your way.

THE CATCHER IN THE RYE next to a McDonald’s meal (Quarter Pounder, fries and Coke).

Neil Serven @neilserven· 29d

Another from the Jon Gnagy instruction book.

Same drawing as above next to an open page from the instruction book showing a similar picture.

Neil Serven @neilserven· 29d

Charcoal and chalk drawing of a train (late 19th-century locomotive) approaching a station on a track. There are wooden buildings on both sides and there is a big cloud of black smoke billowing from the engine.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jul 7

So was he.

Michael J. Pollard as C.W. Moss in BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967).

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jul 6

First time reading.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jul 6

I was lucky to get a photo (taken by my wife) before they tore it down.

Man in green jacket over a red and green flannel shirt, wearing glasses, looking at camera while posed in front of the diagonal timbers of a disused railway trestle in Athens, Georgia.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 28

A chimpanzee wearing a tweed hat next to Greg Evigan from BJ AND THE BEAR

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 24

Decided to do one from earlier. Pencil and Prismacolor markers, background (floor) is colored pencil.

Drawing of a radish done on a sketch pad.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 21

Seen in Athens, Georgia.

A framed painting of a man on a blue field beneath two flying red angels. The painting is labeled “Saint Kirby” (Bruno Kirby?) and has three lit votive candles in front of it.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 9

Process photo.

Gray floofy cat crouched on a desk in front of a laptop. The laptop screen shows the model image of a blue teapot. The cat is looking down at a drawing tablet showing a color drawing of the teapot in progress.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 9

Conte pastel pencil.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 9

"In a row?"

Still from CLERKS (1994) showing Dante talking across the counter to a customer who has brought a package of Huggies to be rung up.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 6

I am ready to learn some tricks.

Cover of an old children’s book, LET’S TALK ABOUT BEING DESTRUCTIVE by Joy Berry, illustrated by John Costanza. Cover shows a drawing of a child smiling evilly while playing on the floor ramming two toy cars into each other head on.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 5

Negroni / Bovary / Banana

A Negroni in a Nick & Nora glass, next to an Oxford World’s Classics copy of Madame Bovary. A cat toy in the form of a half-peeled banana is visible on the floor in the background.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 3

Evergreen.

XKCD comic panel showing a figure sitting at a desk typing on a computer. Dialogue reads "Are you coming to bed?" / "I can't. This is important." "What?" "Someone is wrong [underlined] on the internet."

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 3

That’s why he swung at a pitch at his elbow to hit into a 5-4-3 DP in the 7th? Distractions?

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 2

"Be vewwy quiet. I'm pursuing a queer in the arts."

Elmer Fudd holding a shotgun, looking at the camera, and putting a finger to his lips.

Neil Serven @neilserven· Jun 1

Neil Serven @neilserven· May 28

They introduced single-stream recycling in our town and now every resident gets a new giant blue wheelie bin and has to line theirs up in soldier formation so the truck can do the scoop and dump. It feels like a more weighted ritual than it was when we just put out bins.

View of a street with two blue wheeled recycling barrels set up on the tree belt facing the street. An SUV parked in the background.

Neil Serven @neilserven· May 26

My story “We Don’t Joke About Such Things,” which appeared in Post Road #43, is now available to read online. Thanks to the editors, and to my workshop at the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, who were amazing in offering crucial feedback. Read here: www.postroadmag.com/2025/05/03/5...