It’s raining. Something about a steady rain always makes me contemplative, as though it helps me feel some connectedness to the greater world, the world outside these walls and out across the valley down the river to the sea, or perhaps to the world within this skull.

I write in my head too often, with a cycle of idea, composition, review that leaves me with something firm in my head. Only, I too often fail to get it down. On the computer. In a notebook. On the back a receipt, even.

So instead, all I am left with are fragmentary ghosts. And those, too, are fleeting, leaving only the troubled nagging feeling one associates with thinking you may have left the oven on. Or was it the stove. The iron? Ah, such is the construct of the less-than-perfectly-regimented life.

But then, really, how good are the ideas that stem from the perfectly regimented life?

Hmm. I think it’s stopped raining. For the moment.

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The best opening bit of a book that has not been written.

You might disagree. Opening lines are hard. I read recently to start a novel the chapter after you think it should start.* Recent criticism of my newest novel confirms this.

I still like the opening. I’d read more if it existed.

* Sarah Waters, rule 2. All of these are worth reading though; I’d say from personal experience that 70% are true.

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good first:
another draft of my latest book is complete.

first bad:
i have another draft to do.

second bad:
realizing i have left out an entire chapter, which means another week of writing, plus another week for the 4th draft.

i still see the light at the end of the tunnel. i wanted to be done by the end of the month, but that might get pushed out by a week….though i’m already 1000 words into the missing chapter, so perhaps i can speed through faster than i thought.

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I realize it’s been a while since I’ve posted here, but rather than explain my lengthy absence, I’ll merely post a link to my new web area on The Examiner.  My title is SF Underground Music Examiner, a title that is largely meaningless except that SF Indie Music Examiner was taken.

In fact, from now on, I will probably mainly use this site to advertise new articles as I write them (#4 just went up), and hopefully syphon off unsuspecting traffic to my penny farm. I may occasionally write some additional things here that were TOO HOT for examiner.

I should probably explain that Examiner is actively looking for people to write about whatever topic they claim to be experts in. There’s a national version and a host of local editions, including the new Richmond, VA edition. They even pay you (about 1 cent per hit), so you can finally live out that dream of calling yourself a professional writer. Keep in mind, though, Examiner is not a blog, it’s a legitimate news source, with editorail standards that are routinely ignored by people who’d prefer to write a blog. Though, of course, there are countless writers with actual talent writing on Examiner, too. If you want to be one, there’s a lengthy, but relatively painless, application process, and seriously, they let me in, so I figure most of the other MoG writers are a shoe-in. Also, if you don’t see the topic you’re interested in or it’s taken, I’m pretty sure you can just suggest a similar topic (ie. “vodka examiner” is taken, so suggest “fermented potato juice examiner” or something better).

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i feel cranky and unfulfilled. enough wallowing and trying to get my shit together.  let’s excel. at something. now.

i got nominated for “teacher of the year” at school. that was pretty cool. i’d like to win that more than i’d admit to anyone i work with. wonder if i feel like i need something tangible (superficial?) to show that i am not becoming stagnant.

i’m applying to JMU to get my administration endorsement. could i really be a principal or AP? am i doing it because that’s truly what i want or because i feel the need to stay in motion?

i kind of like living alone.

i facebook and tweet way too much, and don’t write enough. let’s have an experiment. tweet me a topic, and i’ll write on it. how about that.

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i’ve been quiet, very very quiet, for a few weeks. it’s for a number of factors and reasons. you can probably guess most of them. this post isn’t about 80% of them. it’s about the 20% that i’ve been heads down on since about feb, working heads down on.

80,155.

the words in my new novel. that’s done. as of today. (at least as a draft that i’m willing to share with people. it’s what i want it to be. we will see if it’s what i need it to be once i get some other eyes on it.)

for those of you keeping score, it’s #3. #2 got shoved into a drawer. which is for the best. it’ll be back, but it needs some time to simmer. this one, though, this one is different. in every way.

i’m not even ready to give you the title, which is sad to me. i want to share, but i’m not there. soon.

i started this one back in 2005. four years. fours years i’ve lived with these two characters in various ways. four years i have looked at these three days of their lives and thought about them. it’s almost more thought than i’ve given to any of the days i have lived myself.

next week, ill be starting #4. no rest for the wicked. it’ll be fast, comparatively. i like it; it’s been in my head for almost as long as this one, but lives as a bunch of notes at the moment.

wow. i’m kinda amazed at myself. they say most people have a novel in them. that one, for me, was ’stories for boys’ but i’ve got more. they keep coming. i can’t write as fast as i can imagine. it feels awesome.

i can’t wait to share this one with you.

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1. Entertainment has moved away from books.
2. These other forms are more social.
3. We are all content producers now, to some respect.
4. We don’t need stories from books, since we have stories from other entertainment and from the narratives of our own lives.

Puke.

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