Amateur

My favorite of these two — Sweet Pea & The Tan Man. Sounds like the title of a children’s book. Maybe I should.

Both are now perma-linked forever on the right hand sidebar.

Not much new. Still just taking up space. Although slowly a sense of purpose trickles back into our daily lives. Inevitability we move on. The slopes turn yellow and red. The nights are once again dark, and getting colder. Come morning there’s a skin of ice on the water bowl outside. Garden hoses and lawn mower have been stowed for winter. There’s Termination Dust on the highest peaks of the Chugach mountains. I used to like that, “Termination Dust.” Now I hate it for its association.

I’ve started writing a book. No, I’m not going to say what it’s about, except to say it’s a novel. I’ve no idea how long it will take to complete. I’m a rank amateur at this. I will say I am so far pretty pleased with how the first chapter is coming along. My approach to writing something of this scope, to the extent I even have an approach, is to edit over and over again until I think it’s right, before moving on. It’s deliberate on my part, but subconsciously I may be doing it to put off the challenge of thinking about where the story will go next, i.e. the plot.

Anyway, it’s one advantage, I suppose, of being an amateur writer, you have no deadline, no agent calling you on the phone every week demanding to see evidence of progress — “Mr. Nibbe, just when is it that we can expect the next blockbuster from you,” — impatient finger tapping table — “hmm?”