Is anyone thinking about trying to use an electric ink pen to create a jack o’ lantern this year?
Yeah, me, neither.
I’m also not imaging the things you could try to do with electric ink pens for Christmas.
Sunday’s Theme Music
Sometimes it just sledgehammers into me: I don’t care anymore.
The hammer swings into me out of weariness, bitterness, and lethargy. I think it’s always swinging into me, but most days, or some part of the day, I can raise my shields and ward off the blows. But then I reach that point where the drums begin from Phil Collins’ song, and I’m singing with it, “I don’t care anymore.” Singing that song releases my negative energy and girds me to begin again.
The Marathon of Novel-Writing
No shortcuts can be taken. Even when I try to take them, and the writer within allows it, the reader and editor within reject them. No lazy writing authorized, nor is stopping. Begin the marathon, finish it, and start the next one.
The Beginning
“A writer never forgets the first time he accepted a few coins or a word of praise in exchange for a story. He will never forget the sweet poison of vanity in his blood and the belief that, if he succeeds in not letting anyone discover his lack of talent, the dream of literature will provide him with a roof over his head, a hot meal at the end of the day, and what he covets the most: his name printed on a miserable piece of paper that will surely outlive him. A writer is condemned to remember that moment, because from then on he is doomed and his soul has a price.”
~ Carlos Ruiz Zafón, “The Angel’s Game”
An interesting perspective, but I would have more periods and commas in this paragraph.
Robert
Who played Pappy Boyington in the television show. He needed to remember. He wanted to say it was Robert somebody. Because he was looking for a dark-haired Robert, the first Robert to answer was Robert Blake, which he knew was incorrect. Blake played Baretta. Was he still alive? Wasn’t he also in the “Our Gang” movies, and wasn’t there he charged with murdering his wife, but acquitted? Then there was something else, with his children, or something, wasn’t there?
That didn’t answer his original question. He thought it was a Conrad, and the guy was also in television commercials for batteries. But wasn’t Robert Conrad in “Jake and the Fat Man?” No, no, that was WILLIAM Conrad, right? Sure, and wasn’t he also in “Cannon?”
Was William Conrad still alive?
By then, he was, he would guess, ninety-five percent certain that the actor in “Baa Baa Black Sheep” and “Wild, Wild West” television shows was Robert Conrad, but he remained uncertain about whether these three actors remained alive. It was an odd subject for his morning walk, and left him with so many questions requiring answers.
Well, not that many.
Now; who is William Katt? Didn’t he have a television show? Was he still alive?
The Exchange
He gave his opinion, because he thought it was asked for. Nodding, she smiled and said, “Hmm, mmm,” although she didn’t say a word he said.
Saturday’s Theme Music
It’s a blustery but pretty Saturday, which somehow inspired me to start streaming an old Albert King number. Maybe it’s the frequency of news about California, due to the fiery destruction of NorCal wine country, that brought the song to mind. Here’s “Travelin’ to California.” It’s from nineteen sixty-one, but I encountered it looonng after that.
Michael Seidel, writer 