Jack's Place

13 Nov 24

         Good morning, all, and I hope it finds you writing! I have a bit more to talk about this morning, so I'll dive right in. Chronologically, then:
         Yesterday evening I got a ton of work done on my new "Invalid Item"  story, The Fix-up. It's moving even faster than I'd hoped, none of which means it will be available in the next few days. I'm only a story-and-a-half ahead, so I'll be keeping to a schedule that allows for at least semi-regular releases. That puts The Fix Up a few days after Christmas. Hopefully I can get ahead on these, and add to my horror collection ("Invalid Item" ). That will be fun, but I'm eight ahead on those, so that can wait for a while.
         I reviewed "The Black Hole"  this morning, an essay on the joys of Writing.com, and suggesting to the author that it be turned into a blog post. She has apparently done just that, so I'll need to get over there and offer a comment, which I told her she would get a lot of, so it would be pretty snarky of me not to do that. Inspired by this essay, I have changed all my works to Unrestricted Public Access. By my own lights, I am here to be read, and a glance at the left sidebar will show that guests constantly outnumber members here at a rate of 2 or 3 to 1, all potential readers that I've been leaving out. No longer.
         Finally, a word about muses. Some writers say they're excuses to not write while others swear by them. I'm sort of ambiguous on the subject. I don't for a minute believe that a tiny person with nothing else to do lives in my head guiding my writing activity. That seems silly when I just write it down like that. At the same time, it's a helpful visualization for me to speculate on how this imaginary homunculus is affecting my creativity. So, let's visualize...
         About two years ago my former muse, who I visualized as a grumpy old man, took another job or maybe just retired. He cleaned out the office and left it a haven for freeloaders where only spiders tie their lines. Sometime in the last month, likely inspired by my enjoyment of WdC, a new one moved in, rearranged the furniture, and began pushing ideas up the pipe to be developed, the first of which is my new "Beach" story. We haven't met in a corridor yet, but judging by the material I'm receiving for development, my guess is that she's a woman, probably one who's been hurt a few times but hasn't quite given up yet. Maybe she'll find me worthy of being her permanent writer. Here's hoping...

Have a great writing day!
Taylor...