...or perhaps it's the Aunt Jemina people. Maybe more sinister is if they're in it together.
Either way we had a little maple syrup issue here last week. I know that I was out that night and smelled it, but because I was a touch on the drunk side I only vaguely realized it, but got home seriously craving pancakes.
Which is exactly what I had for breakfast the next morning. So all was well.
Lots changes in a year, and it's been 367 days since I last wrote here. I've got a new job (and as a result have only been on 3 trips all year, only 1 of which was for business), new apartment (down the hall from the old one, but no more leaky ceilings), and... well not much else that's new. But apartment and job are pretty much everything, right?
I also have another book under my belt, and am winding down the second draft of that second book. And because November hits tomorrow at midnight, and also because I'm sick of editing for the moment and am craving something new, I'll give NaNoWriMo another crack this year, hoping to make it 3 out of 3 successful completions. The hope is that over the past 2 years I've grown as a writer, and this will potentially prove that.
I have an idea I've been sitting on, not for very long really, but sitting on it I've been doing. It requires what I consider to be some pretty significant research to do properly, and I've really only told 2 or 3 people about the idea. I have all of my research materials ready to go, and I've started doing some. But it don't be this year's NaNo Novel. For one thing, I'm just not ready from a preparedness standpoint to start on it tomorrow night. And for another, I don't think I'm good enough to do it justice. I once read how Kevin Smith thought up the idea for Dogma years before it was done, even before Clerks, but that he knew if he tried it earlier on it would've failed miserably (a view some people have of the actual 1999 version too for that matter). I'm sort of taking that view with my Big Idea. It'll come, just not for a while.
Usually I prep up a project fairly heavily. No research, because to be honest, I've been too lazy in the past. But I get the plot mapped out and get the characters named and all that good stuff. Well right now, it's 30 hours until NaNo 2005, and I've got dick. I thought I had the thing idea set for this year, but this morning I woke up and decided it was overindulgent and just plain shitty. Not to mention boring. So today I've gone through various notes and crap for concepts I've dreamt up over the past few years, and I have 4 of them (out of 5 that existed) written on an index card each.
Four unique ideas. And I've been staring at these fucking things, spread out on my coffee table, for a good part of the day. I'm lost like Hurley on an island over here.
I hoped that if I worked on perfecting my Bloody Mary recipe today, it might have spurred me into some creativity. All I am now is low on vodka, and with a cabinet full of shit I didn't own before, like Tabasco and Worcestershire.
For the time being, I'm sitting here getting pissed off because my fucking remote won't stop lighting up, and it's been driving me batshit for 2 days now. There's some excuse, no?
Anyway, inspirato will hit sometime tonight or tomorrow. Or that's the plan anyway. And if it doesn't, I can always run down the block to Cork & Bottle for more Maker's Mark.
So, sometime way back, because way back is all that exists around here with a lack of updates for a year, I promised I'd devise a theme for here and maybe stop talking about myself. No such luck for now. I tried politics, but that's become amazingly infuriating, since at least for the moment the seemingly real bad guys continue to get away with everything and anything, while guys like Scooter Libby, who I've nicknamed The Fall Guy (and in no way am claiming him to be the good guy here) go down for it. But I'll say that GWB is having a real shitty run of things the past couple of months. He could really use a vacation. But politics morphed into baseball, specifically pro-Red Sox/anti-Yankees stuff somehow.
And that was where I threw in the towel. I'd still like to talk about politics. And baseball for that matter, especially since my Mets have a great opportunity to build on success over the next few years (even if I have to listen to Willie say things like "Yeah, it's got a lot of meat!").
Regardless, here's hoping I'm back to this thing. And more importantly that I find something valuable to write about, both here and in the new book.
