I’ve returned from my travels… and my girls are in school, so that means I’m back in the saddle. BAD LAND is in my agent’s hands for what (I hope) is the last pass thru, and I’ve dug back into my other WIP to reacquaint/reorient myself with what the hell I’m doing.
My storyboard wall is clear, and I’m ready to start getting that plot hammered out.
Also over the last week, I was able to catch up on some things that had caught my eye – I finished Daniel H. Wilson’s ROBOGENESIS, which I liked a bit better than I remember liking the first book, ROBOPOCALYPSE. I started Lauren Owen’s THE QUICK (which so far has been very good), and got to some movies I had queued up, including OCULUS (not bad), the documentary RICH HILL (very good, but depressing), and LOCKE (excellent solo performance by Tom Hardy). I also made some headway on two TV series, THE STRAIN, and HBO’s THE LEFTOVERS (I think this is good, but man is it tough to find a likeable protagonist).
When I was back east, I caught up with my best friends and drank plenty of good beer (we did our fair share of damage to a Brazilian steak house), got some great pulled pork barbecue and my favorite chili and ate a lot of mom’s birthday cake, and then lost a few Magic: the Gathering games to my nephews.
I enjoyed the sight of green grass and trees.
I didn’t consciously think about writing at all.
I’ve talked many times on this blog about how writing (for me) is all about the routine – about respecting the creative process for the hard work it is, and staying on a schedule and maintaining consistency. Still, I try to “bake in” a few times a year where I let all that go, recharge my creative batteries, and focus on anything but my writing. That can be hard to do (and to be honest, I can’t do it for too long), but a handful of days “off” every spring and fall pays huge dividends. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to catch up on all the great books and movies that I’ve let slip by. Almost nothing gets my desire to write better flowing faster, than reading better writing.
We’re now turning the corner into my favorite time of year – college and pro football (I have two fantasy league drafts this week), cooler weather, Halloween, college basketball. If I was back east, I could look forward to the changing of the leaves. I’ve had a productive year, but there’s still plenty of time left to get even more done…
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