I WRITE THEREFORE I AM

Hello. I've been busy.

For those of you who have yet to read my blog, and don't know it (other than the very title of this post), I am writer . . . hear me roar. Or squeak. Whichever.

I've been busy, of course, with my latest book--Were There's Blood--and working (more or less) full time. It has also been very cold, here in northern Illinois, most of the time, and heating my office has been a challenge, since I live in a 107 year old farm house, without insulation, and my office just happens to be the far western fringe of the main house (almost in Bismark, but I'm willing to bet it's closer to Siberia). With tall ceilings, may I say. Why did people have 10 foot ceilings when they were only five and a half-feet tall? That's the question of the day. How do you get to the cobwebs? How do you paint, or change the lightbulbs without having to find/buy a 15 foot ladder???

Just got my latest Writer's Digest. I recommend it for any writer. Subscribe to this and/or The Writer, and you will be able to self-educate yourself. That is my tip of the day--or of the month, since I can't get in here as often as I would like.

This issue (June 2008) has 101 best websites for writers. I spent the last couple of days hi-lighting the ones I want to visit. I'll never have time to see them all, until I retire, I think. But a few will get a peruse, when I get some time, and I'm not so damned tired. I may want to see some of the freelancer ones, since it would be nice to see if I can't get a job writing. I'll write for coffee (most flavors) and chocolate, but since I can buy those things, I'd rather have a little cash, instead.

Writers are a different animal, believe me. A true writer never stops writing. This I can say with full authority. If you are a true writer, you write while you are doing anything else, like doing dishes, walking (esp. walking), doing laundry (my husband does the laundry so I can write), you can even write while asleep. Ah. This I can do. Which is annoying as hell because you really don't feel like getting up, finding your reading glasses, and the pen and paper you left by your bed-side. I do have a recorder. But I also have a bed partner. If I start talking, he would hear it and think I'm talking in my sleep and kick me. If only you could just record all those ideas, dialogues, scenes that spin around up there through some electronic device that you can hook up to your brain, then, well, you'd just have it made. That's what I want for Christmas, this year. The electronic thingamajig that records your every thought, and you just plug it into your computer and it comes up on screen--complete with pictures. Wow. I don't know if I've just invented this, but maybe I should get the patent, and maybe I'll get rich that way. You think?

I once read that Rod Sterling had written his stories from his dreams (if you've ever seen Twilight Zone, you'd understand why the weirdness), and I believe also Lovecraft, did the same, but I can't say this for sure, (and I'm not looking this up, since it would take hours of digging), however both men had on-going dreams. That is they could get up from a dream, go do whatever, and go back to sleep, and return to the dream, sort of like reading a book, or watching a video. In fact I think one of them could go back to the same dream the very next night. Cool. And I'm envious. My husband claims to have done this on occasion.

Okay. Since I have only so many hours in my day to devote to writing, this was my first stop. I hope you enjoy my blog. Eventually I will get some pictures, and make this blog more interesting. I'll have more time to play with this in a little over a month from now, since I'm taking some time off this summer to WRITE!