SUMMER!!!

July 1 is Canada’s national holiday. It’s even called “Canada Day”. But that’s tomorrow. Today we have stunning weather and temps of 75 to 80 degrees, which is the hottest it’s been here in years. You can probably guess how many people are going to show up for work at the firm TODAY. There are usually 35 people in my office. At the moment, we’re numbering under ten, and it’s 9:30AM. My guess is that we’ll lose another four or five by noon. By the time we shut the show down I think it will probably just be me, sitting in my office by myself. I’m supposed to be the Lord of this particular universe, and yet everyone else is sitting on lakeshores, around campfires, on fishing boats, or water skiing right now, soaking up the sun. Where’s the logic here? And how the hell did I get myself into this situation???

Post a comment »

writer’s block!!!!

Only a writer will understand this.  I’m up at 5 in the morning, coffee’s made, mind is clear, concentration and focus is at 100%, diversions and disruptions are at zero.   The environment is perfect, and I know, I just know that the writer’s block will be gone today.  I just know it.

Then 5 becomes 6, and 6 becomes 7, and the first few early risers start filtering into my office, where I’m trying to work on my second book.  Seven becomes 8, the phones start to ring, 8 becomes 9, and a thousand other voices are now screaming for my attention.  Another four hours passes, with me gazing at a blank computer screen, cursor winking at me in the left-hand corner.

I just don’t get this writer’s block thing.  Is it pathological?  Are there medications out there for this?  Is therapy available?  I’ve never had to deal with this before; I’m a prolific writer and always have been.  Of course now I have a book deal, and a deadline.  So here I am, hacking at it for more than a week, despairing for words; the muse that has always been so kind to me has evidently gone on holiday for the summer.  I am completely frustrated, anxious, and depressed.  I can’t write anymore.  Suddenly I feel as though my publisher has made a BIG mistake in trusting me with more than one book!

Has anyone else had this issue?  What do you do?  Get drunk and stay drunk?  Get to the nearest roof access and take a long walk off a short roof?  Admit defeat, put the pencil down, the laptop away, and give up on ever writing again???

Post a comment »

Therapy

You know, writing Gauntlet was the easy part.  Now I’m living in the weirdly distorted mirror world of agents, publishers, printers, publicists, marketers and distributors.  If I didn’t have Carrie in my corner I’d be doomed.   I go home at night to write because it’s therapy.  I’m having fun putting Gauntlet’s sequel together.  It’s almost like a form of meditation.

Post a comment »