Blow It Off

AT left, beer cans on a wall used as target practice near Westerly, R.I. in May 1973. Photo courtesy United Sates EPA and thus copyright free. Hosted on wikicommons.

Alexander Hope, photographer.

In my college days, the colloquialism for not completing as task was to "blow it off."  Somehow seems to fit with crime writing, too.

I'm blowing off a writer's gathering this next weekend to go trout fishing. I'm missing Killer Nashville the end of October to go Steelhead fishing, too.

Seems like I'm missing a lot of writer's gatherings for fish. I plead guilty.

I need more work on content now that I'm beginning to find some of the content I'm generating to be interesting enough I personally might read it. Thus, it is getting close to a standard suitable for submission.

I'm going to spend the last of next week writing and fishing and will probably do both in solitude. My fishing crew cannot make the trip for various reasons and weekdays in the "up north" part of Michigan this time of year ...dead. Also suitable for crime writing.

I've got a story to finish and one to start.

I'm always more excited about "the next" project than the one at hand when it reaches this stage. I think that might be a strength in this case.

I hope you're excited about "the next" as well. Keeps us all working.

The time to go and pal around is closer to the time of "I've got a deal" than "I'm in the salt mines of anonymity." Maybe next year will be a celebration run. At least I'll have material in the folder should I decide on a skills conference next year.

Write mule, write.

Content defines us.

Still Here

AT left, The Thinker by Auguste Rodin. This image comes from wikicommons and innoxiuss and is an especially nice image in the rain. The photographer innoxiuss allows our use for just the attribution. Awfully nice.

I'm grinding but haven't had much to say for the blog. The allergies are hammering my attention span.

I managed to write-in a nice twist to the WIP last night, however. It feels good, too.

Janet Reed has a great piece on social media here. Solid piece, too.

Content, fellow mules. Content.

Content is fueled by more content.

1. Write well. 
2. Write often and regularly. 
3. Finish;
4. Polish;
5. Publish;
6. Move on.

I'm lingering on that first step: write well.

I'm beginning to like what I am producing, however. It's been about twenty-five years since that's happened. The last three or four have been worth it.

Work to do on the page with ink. Probably not so much to do here.

Vapid

At left, a field of goldenrod as provided copyright free on wikicommons by Rooster613.

Lovely snap. Thanks!

Allergy season here. My day yesterday was spent recovering from taking my foxhound off-leash to a park where goldenrod rules.

Thus, my efforts of late can all be filed under "vapid."

How do you write through allergy season?

Like a Dog

At left, from 1885 a copyright-free image of a pack of beagles. Thanks to wikicommons.

I'm at the shop. I'm working like a dog on new product creation which is a bit like new novel creation with all the fun parts sucked out through its nether regions by an industrial suck-hose.

I'm working like a dog.

Opportunity. (Say the word "opportunity" to the tune in Mel Brooks' masterpiece High Anxiety).

So, back to the grindstone. The WIP is not doing much of the "P" though I am about to blow out a couple fingers from typing.

I could use a dog biscuit. Or a good howl. Either way ...

Writers I Miss

At left, the periodical reading room at the central New York Public Library. The room is the Wallace periodical room and appears here through wikicommons as posted by the photographer Bestbudbrian.

Great snap. Bestbudbrian certainly takes sharp images! Thanks for the use.

I wrote here last week.

I was in New York for business and had some time and so being just down the street on 3rd I stopped-in and wrote. Lovely.

It made me miss some writing friends. They aren't dead. They've just drifted away because; well, we're writers.

I've had a number of writing partners and small groups - some structured and others not.

I have no problem writing in a library or a coffee shop or a cafe. Fine. I learned long ago to shut out distractions in the day job and can be perfectly productive on a train or airplane or in a bar or even at a party. Focus skills are focus skills. Master them or not.

I write longhand in public and transcribe and edit on my laptop in my own - less expansive - library.

I do miss people I've worked with over the years. Some have gone on to successful avocational writing meaning I can buy their books today. Others are still anonymous writers not achieving complete works for the transition to author.

I have the stories now that I desire to finish and publish. I feel solidly about the work and am willing to sign my name. That's been a problem for a few years. It matters to me as the audience first.

So, shortly the endless submission process. Yet this decision and the completion of various pieces makes me miss my old partners.

I wonder if they are still writing.

I hope so.

I've enough tears for only my own dreams, however. I'll keep wondering for a bit more.

Part of the writers' creed. We keep to ourselves a bit.

Then we keep to ourselves a bit more.