Tuesday, April 17, 2007

After the Loving

(word count now irrelevant)

So what's next?

One problem with running full-throttle is stopping.

I finished last night and sat on my hands for a couple of hours before bed. Fortunately, the Tiny Dynamo thought she saw a mouse, so there was screaming and standing on chairs, etc. to keep me entertained.

It's fall. We live next to acres of fields. It's warm inside. But try telling a fearful Dynamo that. Like getting an amphetamine-fueled leprechaun to do algebra.

I also finished my latest read: The Blue Girl, by Charles DeLint. Good stuff, and I'll be reading more. Next up: Hunting Down Amanda, by Andrew Klavan and Clockers, by Richard Price.

Sometime in the next couple of days I've got a drawing to do for a client, a painting or two I've been thinking about and, apparently, a driving need to mouse-proof my home. Somehow I just know that will involve lots and lots and lots of (shudders, same voice Jerry used to say Newman) cleaning.

I'm trying to give it a day or two before I start back in. Not sure I'll be able to handle the break, but I'll try. Fortunately, I've got a couple of ideas in mind for my next two books, so I won't have to live with that 'will I ever write again' feeling. Just the 'will it be any good' and 'is this one I just did any good' ones. Oh, and 'what if the power has left me'. That's always a fun one, if you listen to it...

Mostly, I'll be a reader and movie watcher (when not -- ugh -- cleaning) for the next short while. I do loves me a good story. And I learn a lot from a bad one, so it's a win either way.

4 comments:

RK Sterling said...

One problem with running full-throttle is stopping.

I have this mental image of my cat Max dashing across the tile floor, nearing the speed of light, then trying to stop before he crashes into his food bowl and the wall beyond. He never seemed to get the brakes on fast enough to counteract furry paws on a slick surface.

Good luck with all your works in progress, including the cleaning. There's something I should tell you, though, which you might now want to share with the TD. We used to live next to a large field - there's no way under those circumstances to completely mouse-proof your home. I suggest getting her one as a pet to desensitize her. :)

I eventually learned to capture them with a bowl and a piece of paper (couldn't stand traps or poison) and dropped them back outside. (Where they just gave me the finger and ran back in before me.)

Charles Gramlich said...

Anytime I'm going to do revisions I like to let the piece set for a few days before returning to it. Helps me see things that were invisible to me before. Good luck with your...cleaning. We had our own mice a few weeks back. We managed to run one out of the house but two others didn't make it.

cs harris said...

It is so hard to STOP, isn't it? I've just finished the revisions on Archangel. I know I need to get to work on my mystery (fast and furious), my garden needs work, my house needs cleaning, yet after focusing on this book so hard it's incredibly difficult to take a deep breath and motivate myself to do something else.

Steve Malley said...

I am in fact *just* like Kate's cat. Much of my life has been spent figuratively and literally running into the furniture.

And I think the Dynamo would love a pet mouse, but not as much as our cat Midge. She certainly loves the ones who come in here...

Yesterday's mouse was safely shuttled out, but as long as it's warm and dry in here, there will be more.

And yeah, CS and Charles, I think the brain needs a little re-boot time between projects and phases of projects...