MojoWriter.com

I’m working seriously on my current novel, back in the saddle after only lightly touching it for the past six months.

I write a bit, then have to check email. I write a bit, or — worse — just stare at the screen a bit, then decide I have to go read a blog or two. Or go get my hourly fix from that new SF website called io9.com (it’s crack for SF&F fans, I’m completely hooked).

Then I write a page or two, and think … wow, I’m lonely.

Sometimes I sit at Starbucks with my friend William Ledbetter, both of us whacking happily away at our laptop keyboards, each working on our various stories or projects. That, I realize, is when I’m most at ease with my writing. Writing is best done with a partner, even if you’re working on separate projects.

I remember my college days when I and a loose knit group of writing friends would all hang out at the local restaurant for hours, scribbling away with paper and pencil. Breaking every once in a while to ask a question or to read a passage. Those were the days.

And now I’ll return to writing my novel, and see how long I can go without interrupting myself like this again.

Fredric sent you a private message

Do you want Rolex?

I practically choked

My boyfriends’ putz keeps slipping out

Now it is possible to have sex more than ten times a day

See my penis pictures as proof

Join to society of real Men

Feel new sensations with your partner

This product is sooooooooo amazing

Just call the number below

With the advance in science…

You must be the Real Man with “huge dignity”

Be full of energy and fill your partner with it!

What is the dosage guideline for Wondercum?

I know you’ve thought about it.

I’m going to drop my daughters off at the Anime Festival downtown and then have the entire day to wander around with nothing to do. I’ll probably take my laptop and go write in a coffee house somewhere. I actually thought about just handing the keys to my elder girl but that would leave me stranded all day.

No, I don’t want to go. I’m not that into Anime. I did consider putting on those cool cat ears and going “Neko” as they call it, and wander around answering “Meow,” to anything anyone said to me. But, no, I’d rather get some work done on my current short story.

I do understand why my kids like it, though. It’s all about getting attention, and extended family.

Nowhere else have I seen more bare-chested Samurai wielding paper-machete swords, or cardboard robot-suits, or willowy nymphs with kitten ears and swinging furry tales. I’ve seen old ladies dressed as pirates, and satyrs with seven foot legs. They pose and preen for dozens of cameras like stars on a red carpet.

People call out to each other — total strangers — and rush together to embrace like old friends. Like family. Which in a way they are.

For one thing, they share in a tightly knit little subculture. Anime fans are, in a way, soap-opera fans, because of the episodic nature of the art. The stories they are immersive and touch upon serious issues. They’re also sci-fi and fantasy fans, which makes them one step removed from the mundane world. They’re also computer gaming fans, which marks them as preferring interactive — not passive — entertainment. Finally they’re artistic, because Anime is more than just a way of cartooning — it’s a serious art form — and many fans are also creators. Add to this an underlying Eastern flavor, with a strong Buddhist undercurrent, and you end up with a subculture with one of the highest senses of identity since the “deadheads” of the Grateful Dead era.

Within this subculture you have clans based upon favorite shows and characters. These translate into instant families, instant friends.

That I am convinced is the main attraction for these events. This is also why I’m so supportive of my kid’s interest in it.

I have a brain!

Is it just me, or does this MRI scan make me look a bit like Homer Simpson?

Ever seen that Seinfeld episode where the Soup Nazi would scream, “No soup for you!”

Well, there were no pomegranates for me.  After a total of nine stores, one helpful produce person told me, “Oh, they’re out of season.  You won’t find any anywhere for at least a couple months.”

Great.

Last night, working on my novel, I came to a scene where the characters are standing in front of a bin full of pomegranates, and I realized I really needed to have a pomegranate in front of me for the scene to continue. I need one in my hand.

Some call it research, some call it a sudden onset of writer’s procrastination, but I stopped right there and went for a walk to the local grocery store.

The sky outside still held an afterglow from the sunset, the last gasp of light from the day. The color mesmerized me. A very deep blue-purple (would that be called burple?) and bands of clouds like lines, so I walked in a daze. By the time I reached the store, a mere two blocks away, it had faded to black and it was full-on evening.

Inside I passed temptation after temptation. Beer, chips, candy, cookies … passed them all, intent on my mission. I must find a pomegranate.

The characters, you see, are discussing the seeds that Hades tricked Persephone into eating, thus binding her to the underworld and causing winter every year. It’s an important scene because the pomegranate seeds play an important role in my story.

Alas, as fate would have it, there were no pomegranates in the store!

Miffed, I picked up some bananas instead, and then consoled myself with a dozen flavored yogurts (need them for breakfast, anyway), and picked up a bottle of wine, and a jar of peanut butter, and some cookies, and a couple bags of chips… By the time I got up to the front register I had an entire basket full of stuff, things I’d put in the cart without even thinking of it because my mind was still on the novel. Fortunately I came to my senses before I actually entered the checkout line … I had come on foot! There was no empty trunk of a car waiting for all this stuff in the parking lot.

And then, standing there, blind spots appeared in my vision, and my heart sank. The sign of an oncoming migraine.

I abandoned the cart and walked quickly home, took meds, saved my files and shut down the computer, and went to bed.

This evening … as long as the migraine doesn’t make a return appearance … my quest for a pomegranate will continue.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing lately, but not on my novel.

Instead I came up with a grand idea for another novel.  *sigh*

This weekend I and my kids will be at…

If you can’t join us, you can keep checking over at my Flickr Site for pictures uploaded directly from my phone.

There will be, no doubt, some pretty wild shots!

In a pro-marijuana interview Kirsten Dunst says, “I’m not talking about being stoned all day, though. I think if it’s not used properly, it can hamper your creativity and close you up inside. My best friend Sasha’s dad was Carl Sagan, the astronomer. He was the biggest pot smoker in the world and he was a genius.”

Come to think of it, he does look stoned!

I ran across this link that I could have used, oh, 6 months ago: 50 Strategies For Making Yourself Work by Jerry Oltion. Some good stuff in there, and also it’s good to know that other writers go through the same thing I do.

Time to write? Okay. But, uh, first I have to wash dishes; balance my checkbook; do laundry; clean my room; re-arrange the furniture; polish the dog; etc. You get the idea. Anything but write.

Why do we do this to ourselves?