The Daily Grind

13 Nov 24

         Good morning, all, and I hope it finds you writing! I have a bit more to talk about this morning, so I'll dive right in. Chronologically, then:
         Yesterday evening I got a ton of work done on my new "Tales from the Beach"  story, The Fix-up. It's moving even faster than I'd hoped, none of which means it will be available in the next few days. I'm only a story-and-a-half ahead, so I'll be keeping to a schedule that allows for at least semi-regular releases. That puts The Fix Up a few days after Christmas. Hopefully I can get ahead on these, and add to my horror collection ("Icy Fingers in the Shadows" ). That will be fun, but I'm eight ahead on those, so that can wait for a while.
         I reviewed "The Black Hole"  this morning, an essay on the joys of Writing.com, and suggesting to the author that it be turned into a blog post. She has apparently done just that, so I'll need to get over there and offer a comment, which I told her she would get a lot of, so it would be pretty snarky of me not to do that. Inspired by this essay, I have changed all my works to Unrestricted Public Access. By my own lights, I am here to be read, and a glance at the left sidebar will show that guests constantly outnumber members here at a rate of 2 or 3 to 1, all potential readers that I've been leaving out. No longer.
         Finally, a word about muses. Some writers say they're excuses to not write while others swear by them. I'm sort of ambiguous on the subject. I don't for a minute believe that a tiny person with nothing else to do lives in my head guiding my writing activity. That seems silly when I just write it down like that. At the same time, it's a helpful visualization for me to speculate on how this imaginary homunculus is affecting my creativity. So, let's visualize...
         About two years ago my former muse, who I visualized as a grumpy old man, took another job or maybe just retired. He cleaned out the office and left it a haven for freeloaders where only spiders tie their lines. Sometime in the last month, likely inspired by my enjoyment of WdC, a new one moved in, rearranged the furniture, and began pushing ideas up the pipe to be developed, the first of which is my new "Beach" story. We haven't met in a corridor yet, but judging by the material I'm receiving for development, my guess is that she's a woman, probably one who's been hurt a few times but hasn't quite given up yet. Maybe she'll find me worthy of being her permanent writer. Here's hoping...

Have a great writing day!
Taylor...