Sunday Nights Are Alright for Writing
Not sure that everyone will get the above reference. Might be showing my age with that one. Is it weird that I wanted to write “Grok?” Another lost reference I’m sure. Yes it’s another Sunday night spent couch writing while watching deer keep my lawn neat and trimmed so that I don’t have to. Peaceful to watch them eating, less so when they spook, reminding me that like all living creatures, they are just another link in the food chain, and low down at that. Food for thought? I suppose they are.
How I long for those endless writing sessions when my life was so much simpler. Like the deer. Eat. Run. Sleep. Replicate. Do NOT get eaten. Simpler maybe, far more brutal though. Perhaps a busy, complex life isn’t so bad.
Yeah I’m 52.
Birthday vibes happened on the 12th and I spent it as I do most birthdays, skiing with my buds, a short après, and then a steak dinner with my wife. We had a sitter look after Declan and enjoyed what was our first dinner without him since he was born. A great day start to finish!
Write On
I got through another couple of chapters this week, along with some work I’m extremely proud of. My beta reader (Mum) read through the first third of the book recently and thoroughly enjoyed it, although she may have a preexisting bias she’s not yet aware of…
Descrambling this mess of a first draft I wrote four years ago is a mighty task, made all the more difficult without those epic eight hour writing sessions of why past life to lean into. Keeping on top of it on a daily basis however, I’m finding that even though I may only be getting 500 words a day down, the story is maintaining its continuity, both in my head and on the page.
From the WIP:
Woo stood facing the rubble pile where Amoy Gardens once stood, holding a freshly lit cigarette away from his face. He twisted his hand forward and back, watching the burning ember rotate, wondering when he’d begun to shake.
The Moving Sequence
We spent today sorting through the forty or fifty bins and boxes that we had stored everything we owned inside, while Sars 2.0 destroyed our lives over the last four years. Now that we’re in the recovery phase, it was time to gather them up and organize. The game of “Keep No Keep,” shall be played until the end of the month when we will have a much less demanding declutter mandate.
Cancel Culture
I remain on the fence regarding the Substack management decision to not censor their content. I believe in not supporting hate related anything, but when do we stop running off to the next “safe” platform vs standing tall and making a stand? What does that look like? I don’t know, but it certainly doesn’t look like turning tail and running.
Change is best made from within. So I’m staying, and paying attention. And if I can drop a few LetterKenny chirps on those hate-fuelled pages, I will, and they will come from the inside.