Wednesday, September 24, 2008

My Brain is Possessed

So, as soon as I decide I'm not going to write anymore short stories for a while, what do you think happens? That's right, boys and girls, my lovely and homicidal muse decides to shit upon my head with countless ideas for short stories and begins to electrocute my brain until I start writing them down. On my pc, my laptop, in longhand in note books and even scribbling notes on the steamy bathroom mirror, which I have to get to by jumping out of the shower and racing over to it before the thought is gone, whisked away like a dandelion seed in a hurricane. WTF?

My brain is not my own. My thoughts are not my own. My stories are not my own. They come from somewhere else. I'm now positive of this. Perhaps it's a future me, zapping ideas into my head now to ensure that I have something to show for myself when that day comes that I too am whisked away like the aforementioned dandelion seed. Otherwise, the eternally-wise future me knows that instead of doing what I'm supposed to be doing--stringing words and sentences together to form some semblence of what I laughingly call A STORY--I'll instead busy myself with things like counting how many pairs of Chucks I have (a lot!) and trying to learn the lyrics to Bree Sharp's classic tune "David Duchovny". (But, really, why WON'T he love me?)

Anyway, I think I need more coffee and perhaps another set of hands. Maybe then I could write two stories at once, doubling my pleasure and doubling my fun, but most importantly, shutting up that damn "haha, look at me, I'm so amusing" smug little muse.

I may have to start swatting at her with a rolled up magazine again. Which, of course, means hitting myself in the head and causing people to look at me weird. But, they don't know. They aren't writers. But, you guys understand, right?

RIGHT????

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

LAZY

I feel like a total bum today. It's going on 7 pm and I have done absolutely nothing except mess around on the web. No writing, no walking, no nothing. Part of it is that my hips are really hurting today. It started last night, so I took a bunch of meds, which totally zonked me out, causing me to sleep really late and feel sluggish all day. I think the house could have burned down around me and I never would have woken up. Another potential OD I guess. That brings the tally up to a few dozen, I think. But, alas, I am evidently impervious to drugs, even when mixed with alcohol. I AM IMMORTAL!!!

On a more serious note, (not really) I've been kind of digging that new Fox show Fringe. I hope the network gives it a chance.

I've been working on the book for Nick Cato, which is goofy and fun and I hope he likes it. Hoping to get it done soon and then it's on to another project for a Canadian publisher I really like. I actually might make November be the month for that novel. We'll see...

Reading The Spider's House by Paul Bowles. Just started it but so far, so good. I was in the mood for something a little more dense than the usual stuff and this definitely fits the bill.

Think that's about it in terms of updates. No witticisms today, probably because my brain is tapioca. MMMM. Yummy! (But not allowed)

Tuesday, September 9, 2008

BUSY

Whew! This writing gig is growing by leaps and bounds, which has taken me by surprise, to say the least. I never thought I'd be one of those people who have to start saying no to things, but here I am, completely overwhelmed by the amount of requests for stuff lately. And it's not even that bad, really. I don't know how others do it. Requests to read manuscripts is the first thing that is going to have to stop. As much as I love reading new stuff, it's just way too time consuming to have to read entire novels for the purposes of giving blurbs or writing introductions. I'm flattered beyond belief that some folks want things like that from me, but it's keeping me from my own work lately and until I'm caught up with that, the answer is going to have to be no for a while. It sucks, I know. But there it is.

Another thing that will probably not be happening for a while is short stories. I need to get caught up on all the books I'm supposed to be writing for various publishers, not to mention I'll soon be drowning in the editing pool for books that are already complete but need various degrees of revamping.

The next few months are going to be crazy. Big stuff is happening and I couldn't be more excited about it. Viva Ranalli!