Last week, life served up for me a platter with a most interesting mix of the usual and of the unusual. There were the ordinary demands of life and family and one which was quite out of the ordinary. There were the typical issues of writing, re-writing and editing and a new issue which gave new urgency to my efforts. There was a manuscript a friend asked me to read critically, and last, but certainly not least, there was a small upsurge in my business, the business that feeds my family. In this economy, even a small upsurge in business is welcomed, no?
Since the stated purpose of this blog is to follow my path to being published, here’s an update on that. This is the new thing which gave urgency to my editing and re-writing. Drum roll, please. Last weekend I received an email from a publisher who is interested in both ‘What Rough Beast’ and its sequel, ‘Taylor’s Kin’. Yee Hah! I was as giddy as a pre-pubescent boy with his first girlfriend. You remember those feelings. ‘She likes me. I think she really likes me. I know she likes me. Does she really like me? Oh, my. Now what?’ I don’t yet know the ‘now what’, that’ll depend on how things go forward from here, but I’m excited. Following closely on the heels of the publisher’s email was another from an IT guy I had been talking to. He is going to set up my personal website. I know, everybody has a website, but this one will be mine, and I’m excited.
Without getting into the specifics of the unusual family and business issues, I’ll just say it was a week with many competing and sometimes conflicting necessities. As I picked my way through the week, trying to impose order on the chaos, I was reminded again of the various ‘persons’ who live in my head. Before you lift your eyebrows too high, let me remind you that you have them too: the inner voices that tempt, tease, instruct and direct you. I started keeping a loose mental notebook of my inner voices. One is the spoiled little boy. It’s a little embarrassing to acknowledge him first, but, like spoiled children everywhere, he’s the loudest and most insistent as he stomps his feet and says, ‘I want to write. Leave me alone and let me write what I want to write!’ There is a schoolmarm who looks over his shoulder and corrects his spelling, grammer (oops) grammar and punctuation. My wife, truly, just walked in and wanted to talk – nothing ground shaking, just talk. The spoiled little boy was not happy with the interruption, but the principal stepped quickly in and put him in time out so that the supportive partner could listen and respond. There is a time manager who suggests what I should do and when, and a business manager who tells me to watch my spending. I have a resident villain who is always at odds with the resident hero, and of course there is the town Marshall of the little town of Chris’ Head who tries to keep the peace. And there are others.
Was there a point to all this? Not really. It started out as a simple update, but the spoiled little boy took over. So there. Pbttt.
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