writer
"Occurrence at the Night Owl Liquor Store" appears in the new edition of the Dime Show Review. Looks great. Happy to see it in print, at long last. Got lots of positive feedback along with a many cautionary words in the time it was in circulation. Thought maybe no one would have the guts to publish it.
Worried about my pal, Mark K.
Rainy day. Then sun. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Day went fast. Too fast. Up to a nice clear morning, off the keyboard, a little bit of voice work, and a trip to Rocky Top. Got in a good workout at the gym, then home again to look after the boys next door. Can't believe I'm looking at 6:00 pm.
Made some good edits to the new piece today. Think maybe I'm on the road to seeing a reader draft. Meanwhile, need to push a few more mss out the door while the door's open to submissions.
Temps ran a little cooler today, but not bad. Still shirtsleeves when the sun was out. Like to get some rain, but not sure there's any in the forecast.
Mom coming for another visit next week. Looking forward to the company.
Up early to a cool morning. Worked on the new story most of the morning. Still struggling, mightily, with the last page and half. It gets better with each telling, but the going's slow.
Day warmed up well enough to work in shirt sleeves. Grateful for that. Helped the neighbors take down a tree, then gave up the keyboard to mow the lawns, fill and seed a few more patches, and plant some new shrubs. Mended the stones in the back patio, too, that plumbers messed up. Been looking to take care of that little project since last fall. Nice to finally have it out of the way.
A quarter of the way through my re-reading of The Crossing. Always thought it was the saddest book I'd ever read. This confirms it. Christ, McCarthy can write.
Behind on my other reading and correspondence. Need to kick it in high gear. Owe letters to at least three people, return phone calls to another three.
Tech issues. Resolved? Not hardly. But back in biz for the short run.
Little bit of everything today. Wrote early, looked after small things, pegged burlap over the yard patches...
Cold front moved in toward late afternoon. Won't be much outdoor frivolity this weekend. Sounds like rain, snow, mud and all the rest. Was hoping to get up in the mountains again, but doesn't sound like there'd be much point to it.
Read a couple of new stories for N. Neither anything to write home about, sorry to say.
Kitties on the prowl. Guess it's time to quit.
This one's for my old man. Died a year ago today. Still can't believe he's gone.
Slept like I'd been pounded on a rock. Made it the whole night through, and woke up to a beautiful, sunny morning.
Ramped into a different gear, after morning coffee. Got out, wrote and revised, then drove the truck out to Rocky Top to get rid of the leaves and other debris from the storm. Full load. Nice to have it off the property. Came home and dug up the sinkholes the decayed roots left in the front yard. Note to self: sod busting sucks. Powerful. Toted up fourteen bags of topsoil to fill in the depressions, and might have to wrangle a few more. Picked up grass seed too. Hoping to have the patches sown and growing by week's end.
Got to the gym later in the day. Tired, but made it through. Home now and ready for a new go at another ms. Need to get back to my buddy B. about his work on the memoir. Want another day to think about what he's done. Excited for him. He's sitting on some fine material.
Brief exchange with D. the other day over a culinary issue. Came and went as if we talk all the time. Good to hear from him.
Saw there's a new Hemingway book out. Something about the Key West years during WWII. Need to grab a copy.
Day of nonstop action.
Strangely, didn't get a whole lot accomplished.
Always tomorrow, right? Always tomorrow.
Drove the Jeep up to Leadville today. Been a while since I've spent a day in the mountains. Beautiful drive. Wildlife everywhere. Spotted six or seven heard of pronghorn, four of deer, and the big buffalo herd up in South Park.
The Arkansas was blue and the water was low, and I wish I'd had my fly-rod along. Saw a few anglers out, but not many.
Ate cheeseburgers at the Golden Burro Cafe. Haven't had a cheeseburger in a coon's age. Did some antiquing and sightseeing and kicking around, and had a good day all around. Got in some good thinking time on the road.
Good Friday. Okay. So I figured out what was wrong with my new ms. I think. Then I went out and cut the grass. And edged. And broke up lots of fallen branches and tossed them in the pickup. So...day over! Fire tonight?
Didn't know it until an hour ago--tomorrow's Good Friday. Need to keep better track of time.
Busy two days. Clients coming and going, repairmen coming and going, computers coming and going. Haven't been able to catch much of a break. Been working on a new ms but floundering there, too. Haven't quite been able to get the voice right.
Finished T.C. Boyle's The Terranauts a few days ago, and enjoyed it. A long but interesting read. Blew through a couple of new stories in the New Yorker, too. Want to hook up with a new novel, but have this crazy urge to go back to something McCarthy, maybe Delillo. Or scrounge up a copy of David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest. That'd keep me busy for a while.
Might have to cut the grass tomorrow. Seems early, but maybe not. Again, haven't been on top of things timewise. Maybe it happens this early every year.
Fighting off the blues. Long night yesterday in the veterinary clinic's emergency room. Three hours of hard living. Thought I'd feel better today, but thought wrong. Can't seem to shake the cloud I'm under.
Friday! Early morning meeting with an old friend, some catch up work on the new story, then errands. Lots of errands.
Picked up a new Poulan chainsaw around 5:00. Gonna getting at the downed limbs tomorrow. Make a trip or two to Rocky Top.
Can't believe it's 6:55. Feels as if I didn't get anything done today.
I guess it's official. Insane is the new normal. Woke up--yeah, I remember that much--and then what happened? It's all a blur.
Finishes critiques on three N pieces, witnessed a tech crash or two and--poof--the afternoon went up in flames. Tried to make some progress on the new story, but got stymied. Again. And in the same place.
Early morning meeting tomorrow. Need to settle in for a quiet evening and regroup.
Pretty day. Almost all of the snow from the storm now gone. Grass is green and looks as if it needs cutting--already.
Big snow last night. Thought it would never come, but when it did it hit with a vengeance. Tree limbs down everywhere. Maybe a foot of dense, heavy snow. Felt like shoveling condensed water.
Built a snowman. Highlight of the day. Also the day's biggest accomplishment.
Three new pieces in from N. Got my reading cut out for me tomorrow. Gonna have to get up early, and start reviewing.
Need to get out the chainsaw, start cleaning up the yard(s).
Up early, to work early. Made more good headway with the new story.
Letter off to Mom, trip to the gym, home to entertain dinner guests.
Weather went cloudy late in the day. Spitting now. Might get a little more snow tonight.
Long day, short entry.
Put in some good keyboard time today. New story coming along. Just under 7,000 words.
Dug up boxwoods in the front yard, dragged home four bags of garden soil, and prepped the flower boxes for a new round of roses.
Grass already needs cutting!
Beautiful sunny day. Looking forward to more tomorrow.
Looked out the window this morning expecting the three to four inches the weatherman promised, and was greeted instead by a light frost. Things changed a little later when I went off to the cottage to write, and within an hour we were staring at a pretty good snowfall. Big, wet heavy flakes.
Did as much damage as humanly possible to my new draft, then hung it up and went to work on the new N stories. Interesting stuff. Haven't been enjoying the essays as much as the stories, but oddly, most of them are better written. Figure that.
Giant headache at the moment. Came on slow about an hour ago, and settled in good. Up too late last night watching Apocalypse Now. Still have a deep appreciation for that movie, and expect I always will. Coppola gave a nod to Michael Herr in the commentary. Was nice to hear. Seemed like more than a little of Dispatches ended up in that movie.
Weatherman says we're looking at snow tonight. Been saying it all week, and the most we've seen is a gentle mist. Been cool and overcast all day, but we'll have to see what the evening brings.
Got it a good morning of edits and rewrites. Managed to read three new stories for N as well. Spent the afternoon looking after little things, then killing time at the gym. Been doing some good work on the heavy bag lately. Combinations coming together with authority.
Keep looking for more production out of myself, but man, it's just not there. Not to complain. I can look back every day and see I've done something, but I'd like to find a higher gear. Tough to find a balance between the physical and the intellectual is all. Work too hard at one, you get tired. Work too hard at the other, you get tired.
Nearing the end of the Boyle book. Can't see the finish, though three different scenarios seem possible. Will just have to wait and see.
Been thinking about my dad. Next month, the 20th, is the anniversary of his death. Still hard to believe.
Coming up on the end of March tomorrow. Hardly believe it. Then again, equally hard to believe we've come to the end of another week.
Got out to the office early and got in some good work on the keyboard. Making nice progress on the new story, which is coming in a little under 7,000 words. First half feels pretty together, second half needs work. We'll see how it comes along.
Sun came out somewhere along the way. Felt nice. Hear we're looking at rain or snow this weekend. Lower temps either way.
Lunch at the Vietnamese place. What's it called? Haven't been out to sniff the sidewalk in a coon's age. Felt halfway human again. Made the P.O. later, and the gym, but had no energy--I mean none at all--and eventually called it quits.
Turned the corner on T.C. Boyle's The Terranauts, and am coming into the home stretch. Only a hundred pages or so left. Good story. Really good.
