The rumors are all false.

– I have not been abducted by George Clooney’esque alliens interested in the dating habits of single missionary women.

– I have not been incarcerated by the local police for using a shotgun on a naked apple-picker (see one of previous posts).

– I have not engaged in so much Thanksgiving that my fingers look like turkey legs and my face like a mound of mashed potatoes, therefore making it difficult for me to type and see.

– I have lost neither mind nor marbles.

I have, however, been doing a lot of this:

writer

Which has left me feeling a lot like this:

exhaustion

…except that in my mind, the balding guy on the left is Brad Pitt and the sympathetic stranger on the right is Mel Gibson, pre-scandal.  See how post-modern and tolerant I can be?  But seriously, if I were a marathon runner, I’d be standing just two inches on the other side of the line right now–panting and cramped up and generally victorious–in a “what the heck was I thinking??” kind of way.

How did it all start?  The way it usually does.  I was sitting around my apartment a week ago Saturday, minding my own business as I watched a rerun “The Invisible Man” (and you wonder why I’m so brilliant…), when out of the blue this idea just kinda zinged through my brain and bellowed “WRITE IT!” loudly enough to get me up and pacing.  The initial idea for a brand new novel had landed on me like a creative cluster bomb.  It felt like my brain had sprung a leak of tsunamic proportions, and the characters and plot points just started to gush out.  I did my very best to shove it all back in, saying (out loud, I think), “I don’t have time!  This has to wait for Christmas break!”, but inspiration has a mind of its own–and it’s a ruthless task master.  As I tried to explain to a friend, that initial stage of writing is very much like being in love, without the matrimonial terror and the boundary issues.  It’s a wonderful natural high that makes it impossible to think about anything else–not even cheesecake.  Now that, ladies and gentleman, is the sign of pathological first-draft infatuation.

So…how have I spent the past NINE DAYS?  Oh, you know…writing 270 pages and finishing off the first draft in record time, which is a good thing because I was starting to lose weight from sitting on my couch typing for a minimum of nine hours a day, sleeping only occasionally, and eating only rarely.  The good news is, the first draft is finished.  The bad news is, now that I’m going to be able to start wogging again, I’ll probably start gaining weight.  Life is unfair that way.  Now begins the tedious task of refining and rewriting, which, if the inspiration stage is like falling in love, is more like going to couple’s counselling.  It ain’t fun, the snacks stink, and if you have any luck at all, you come through it with a few less hangups.  I’ll let you know when my eye stops twitching and my hair grows back.

All this to say that I am still alive, I have not forgotten you, and I’m happy to be back in the land of the living.  Oh, and Lauren?  Quit avoiding me!!

Much love to you all.

Comments

Comments(11)

  1. when squirt told me about yur new project…i was excited! REALLY excited. i absolutely LOVED yur first one…can’t wait to read the second one!

    and if you just happen to want a 17 year old proofreader….feel free to let me know! heehee…

  2. How about a, hmmm, slightly older proofreader?

  3. i’m eighteen.

    …okay, that was officially a weird thing to say. everyone else was making some sort of comment about their age, so… so anyway, you make me so happy and i’m so glad for you. how exciting!!!! but you also make me jealous because i’m not in love i.e. writing a first draft of anything. so, is getting published kind of like the getting married part? just wondering. love ya!!!!

  4. aww what about cheesecake! i think we should make that sometime!! tehehe hope your love affair is going along grand!

  5. another book?! Yes!  By the way, one of my roomie is reading your book.

    A wierd thing happened yesterday, I felt really old.  At work I have to be this administrator so people kept asking me if I was a grad student.  I don’t look that old, maybe I’ve learned how to pretend to be old.  I don’t know, lately I’ve been laughing a lot but… I’m so very tired.

    By the way, did I mention I’m an excellent copy editor. hehe.  just a peek, please?

  6. awesome!!! Good on ya!!! (good Aussie phrase I picked up) 🙂 What’s the novel about??

  7. michele!! that’s soooo awesome!!!!!! that’s soooooooo cool!!! I cannot wait to see it!!

    and I’m really sorry about the last phone call.. I was in school and was really desperate to have some trustworthy response… I still need to talk to you though.. I’ll call after universal studios though… cuz that’s tomorrow you see… sigh.. I don’t know what I’m doing..

    anyway.. I love you michele.. thanx so much for listening.. ^^

  8. hey you left your play 99 here you still want it?

  9. CONGRATS my friend (on finishing the novel). Can’t wait to get my hands on it (the newest love of your life!). Glad to be back on this continent…

  10. can i proof read it?…………..hehe…………you hate ….but youll miss me when im gone…i can garuntee it (doesnt it just grate your mind to se a word misspelled like that?

    haha

    dont die

  11. Oh, I’m bummed to have missed you! Thanksgiving break and all. . .
    Actually, however, I started Shards of Shell yesterday and finished at 4 o’clock in the morning. Hehe. I thought it was loverly, and it actually kept me up later than did Dickens himself. 🙂

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