| We are late, but we are here! This week over in the forum we are talking about "Week 9, Recovering A Sense of Compassion, Good Parts Version" , in which Julia opines that "laziness" is really fear, and I opine that "laziness" is really like six things that people tend to smush together when they're feeling annoyed with each other. (Don't get annoyed with each other in creative pursuits. Just keep your eyes on your own paper.) Swing by the forum if you like and chat about it, or argue with me, or chat about something else entirely. (Forum: "Do The Artist's Way With Raven" ) |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? Stormy day expected here, but if it's not too windy that means it'll be perfect for sitting on my covered porch and breathing the good, non pollen air. Maybe writing? I have a feeling D&D day will eat up that time, however. (Beginning Curse of Strahd with a bunch who have never played it, for those who know and are curious.) |
| Pages! Not yet. Thunderstorms interrupt the smooth flow of activities these days. |
| This thunderstorm is making it so I can't take my normal walk, but on the upside I already got the revision made, so maybe the thunderstorm is actually making me productive. Now, to get my haunted space station people to their next realization... |
| We had torrential downpours overnight, and there might have been a flash of lightning. I caught it out of the corner of my eye; there was no thunder, so I either imagined it or it was very far away. |
| Do you enjoy walking as an activity or do you walk mainly for exercise? Is it maybe a combination of both? |
| Good morning! (Late this morning, I know.) Did you do your morning pages? I am having a slower day today, finally. It's possible I might finish chapter 8, if I don't allow myself to get distracted and/or the creek don't rise. I may also go back and fiddle with chapter 2 of The Manuscript I Need To Send Off. (No, really, just a tiny bit, like maybe two sentences. It's fine, leave me alone.) What are you all working on today? |
| I lied, I have more Canadians for you. In fact, I think Marianas Trench might be the most technically complicated band to come out of Canada since Rush, even though they're a much different style/genre than Rush. They pretty much always make concept albums, for one thing, which is a feat in a music world designed for streamable singles. Their most recent album, Haven, has the added attraction for writers of being a concept album based around The Hero With A Thousand Faces. Each track on the album lines up with a step of the hero's journey. Their sound--particularly the pop sound of the lead tenor--isn't for everyone, but I confess I love their stuff. Here is the first song on Haven, which lines up with "The Call to Adventure": |
| Rick Dean - Dinosaur (What a time. I have often wished for a very specific time machine to take me back to the 60s and 70s, when I would change my name to Bob Mandude and sell so many scifi/fantasy short stories.) |
| I always found Rush interesting, except they would hit a certain note, or combination of notes, that by the end of the song I'd literally have a splitting headache. I can hear Rush's influence here, but fortunately after decades of loud music and not wearing double ear protection around running jet engines in a hanger, I am happily free of headaches. |
| Since I've been blathering music on other peoples' feeds, I thought I'd do a bit of DJing on my own time. Here is my favorite version of Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight, in case you didn't know this big geek covered the Beatles: My other favorite Phil Collins fact is one I discovered when we went to the Alamo, which is that he evidently LOVES the story of the Alamo and had collected a bunch of artifacts (like Davy Crockett's pocket knife or whatever), and then realized his kids didn't want them and donated them back to the people of Texas. In return, it is Phil Collins' Cockney voice that is narrating the battle of the Alamo in the diorama room at the museum (which is surprising when you walk in and catch the eye of the weary docents). |
| Okay okay okay-- I got home from the waiting room and managed to write down what I wanted to remember, which honestly comes down to not that many words, which are "DAILY POEMS" and also "ESSAYS". This from Bradbury telling you a thing about how to keep your Muse going. He recommends poetry to keep your metaphor game sharp, and essays because 1) they're neat and 2) they are sensory description enhancers. I already take side trips into reading essays all the time, although I haven't for a while; but I think the habit of reading a poem per day while the coffee brews might be just what the doctor ordered In These Times. What do you all think? |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? Mine were, as they say, so full of a number of things. I saw someone the other day advising that you do not, if you are in the northern hemisphere, make any big decisions until the equinox--for instance filing for divorce--because, as she put it it "if he's really a dirtbag, he'll still be a dirtbag in April, but if it's just WINTER, then you should probably wait". I think, even as the weather in my neck of the woods is lovely, that this is excellent advice. (Even the ancient Greeks looked around at the world in the sludgy part of winter and concluded that nature herself had gotten so ticked off she just died for a while, to punish us all.) Today my goals are 1) orthodontist with the kid (again! again! at least the dang teeth stuff should slow down after this) 2) housework that has been getting pushed aside because of Large Appointments and 3) finish this #$@!ing @#$! of a chapter eight on Haunted Space Station. What 3) really means, I fear, is that I've hit the point of this book where I can no longer coast on the KABLAMO! momentum of my opening act and vibes outline and I need to actually sit down and sketch out more detail about where the plot is going. But in the meantime I'm going to clean bathrooms and figure out exactly all the body mods my character has in this not-really-cyberpunk future I am conjuring, and also come to grips with the pacing this book seems to want, which is less Alien and more Aliens, if you know what I mean. |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? Mine made me think of this: If I had a genie show up and offer me a few million dollars--and I determined that he was definitely not the genie from "Best Beloved" -- then I would hire a chauffer and never drive again. I like *looking* at cars, I don't mind riding in them, but driving is sort of like going to the dentist for me. I can *do* it, like it doesn't ruin my life or anything, but if someone gave me magic so that I never had to do it again, I wouldn't cry. What about you? If the genie showed up how would you spend the money? (This genie is not Zuzuq the bad djinn, so the money will not send you to prison because it's from a bank robbery, nor has it been stolen from little old ladies, it is just *poof* instant cash. You can't spend it on other people, alas, or it goes back to its original form, which is autumn leaves.) |
| I would at last fulfill my dream of having an Alice from The Brady Bunch. My new housekeeper would be at my beck and call. High tea at three... a.m.? Why not? |
| Rick Dean - Dinosaur Also - I would hire a valet to follow me around while carrying a full sized mirror, just in case I ever need to check my look. |
| Okay, housework done; phone calls and admin done (still need to fill in some forms--endless forms--eternal forms); school taught. I got one review in today. I wrote three letters on actual paper For The Greater Good. I told a kid that he can buy tomato plants and grow them in pots on the patio. I am carefully not thinking about Yet Another Appointment that is happening tomorrow (not me, this time, a kid, not the usual kid with appointments either, another kid). Did I write fiction? No. I *thought* about it, while mopping the floor, but I did not write it. Maybe tomorrow? We will keep hoping. |