Author: Jonathon

Haven’t gotten so much as a single page to my name today. Why? Because Anita and Richard have argued themselves into one of those moments where it’s taken me all day to figure out a way for this not to be THE FIGHT. You know, the fight that completely breaks you up. The fight where you say things that can never be taken back, and the relationship never recovers. I don’t want that for Anita and Richard, not yet, not now. Shit. At lunch I finally came up with an idea. I don’t know if it will work, or not, but it’s all I’ve got to try. I’m delaying the moment of truth by blogging. I’ve done everything and anything to avoid this scene. But if I don’t at least get a few sentences, maybe a paragraph today, I’ll be more stuck tomorrow. Now that I’ve finally thought of an alternative to the fight, I need to get something on paper so tomorrow will be easier. Anything to get me moving again. If you’re a Richard fan, say a little prayer that Jean-Claude can maneuver the two of them around this fight. The issues that are raised will have to be addressed later, but the situation is too emotionally charged for an in depth discussion. So many real life fights could be avoided if you only cooled down before having the talk.

Jon and I had planned a romantic evening last night. The kiddo is out of town with Grandma and Grandpa. Our friend Richard was going home early. What could stand in our way? But wait, we hadn’t boarded the dogs. When we got back in from some shopping for some things to help make the evening even more romantic, the first thing we had to do was get the dogs out to the yard. No opposable thumb, can’t do it themselves. I don’t do doggie doors, because they swing both ways. We have raccoons, possums, squirrels, chipmunks, all sorts of wildlife that might be lured into the house through such an easy to use hole. Anyway, we noticed that Jimmy, our oldest dog, had a swollen face. Either he’d been stung or bitten by some small insect or arachnid, or he had an infected tooth. I admit we tried to be selfish and called the vet for an appointment on Sunday, but after I got off the phone, Jon took my hand and put it against Jimmy’s side. The poor dog was trembling, trembling with pain. So we called back and made an appointment for later last night. A 9:30 appointment which meant Jimmy and I got in to a doc at about ten o’clock. First, Jim’s okay, he was bitten or stung. We’ve got meds to give him today. But I got home at after eleven o’clock. Jon stayed with the other three dogs so they could be fed after Jimmy wasn’t there to protest not being fed. Jimmy is very serious about his food.
The evening we had planned needed more time than we had left of the evening. And the worry over how bad our fifteen-year-old dog might be . . . well, it isn’t only children that can put a choke-hold on a romantic mood.
We’ll try again today. Wish us luck.

I tried to post this last night, but for whatever reason it just wouldn’t post. Luckily I had saved it as a draft. So I can post it now. Enjoy.
Nine pages today. But a good nine pages. Trinity is off with Jonathon’s parents on vacation. Jon and I tried to go to a bed and breakfast, or some other quick vacation. Trin will be home on Monday. But every bed and breakfast we wanted to go to could book us in for Friday, but not Saturday, but Sunday was open, too. Yeah, travel out of town when your room is only yours for two out of three nights. No thanks. Every trip we tried to plan had a problem with it. Something in the planning stage went wrong early. Jon and I took it as a sign. We decided to stay home. Besides the book is going so well, if I leave it for three or four days, it won’t be. It can take weeks to recover from a vacation when the productivity is going like this. In fact, you may never get a book back up and running with a break of that length at this point. I’m at the half way mark. Now is not the time for a break. Now is the time to buckle down and work harder.
We’ll take a long weekend when the book is done. And we can’t leave for too long with the addition at this point. We’ve reached the point where Jon and I have to choose flooring, tile, paint, fixtures, etc . . . We don’t want to have people hanging around waiting for us to decide things. We want this to go forward and get done, ASAP. Though admittedly, I’m not sure how I feel about Darla’s plan that my office is the first one to move over to the new addition. I’d rather finish the book here first, then move. But she’s right, I am on top, and it would be logical, but . . . Well, we’re at least a month away from having to decide that. So, no worries.
Jon, Richard, and I, had a lovely evening. We went to our favorite local book store and wondered around browsing books, and buying books. We got some chi’s and went home to read what we’d gotten, and talk. No television, which was nice for a change. Gotta go to bed. Tired.
Like I said, up top, this was written last night, late. I’ve read it over and I was tired. I’d like to add that it had been months since Jon and I got to wonder a bookstore, simply browsing, not because I need something for research. Not because we were buying a present for someone, but simply because we wanted to browse the book shop. We got lots of interesting stuff. I did buy some things for research, couldn’t help it. GUIDE TO MARINE MAMMALS OF THE WORLD was the main one I got for research. It’s actually going to get used on the current book, if not on stage, it’s information that I as a writer would do better knowing. But I bought two books that were just for fun, just because I wanted to read them. Like I said, it’s been a long time since I went to the bookstore without a work oriented agenda. The GUIDE TO MARINE MAMMALS was just a happy, useful, accident. Serendipity at it’s best.
But while Trin is gone on vacation with her Grandma and Grandpa, Jon and I are going to be doing what relaxes us. Good bookstores, reading other people’s books, eating at nice restaurants that have no children’s menus (all you parents know what I mean), have lots of alone time between Jon and myself (yes, I mean sex), but not just sex, also a chance to talk to each other without a half dozen people running in and out. There will be no work on the addition this weekend, so literally we’re going to have a lot of alone time. Very nice. We got to sleep in today until almost ten. That was luxury. The dogs didn’t think so, but they were pretty good sports. But I will work today, because to leave the book at this point would be wrenching for me. So a weekend of doing things we enjoy, sleeping late, eating well, reading, talking, intimaticy, and all without leaving home. It also means that the exercise plan isn’t disrupted, or the dogs boarded, or me having to conquer my fear of flying one more time. The exercise plan is still a delicate thing after over a year and a half, because Jon and I do not enjoy it. We enjoy the results, but the actual working out is still not fun. But if we were the kind of people that enjoyed exercise we’d have been doing it on our own.

After Jonathon blogged about the movie THE GURU last night, I realized that I hadn’t blogged for four or five days. So much for my resolution to try for at least four or five days a week on the blog. Sorry. But the reasons I haven’t is good. I did twenty-one pages yesterday on DANSE MACABRE. Twenty-one pages before lunch. That may be a record even for me. I mean twenty-one pages in a day, yes, but that’s usually after six or eight, or more, hours of effort. I think this was two hours or a little less. So, yeah, it is a record, speed-wise anyway. To say the book is cooking is an understatement. God, it feels good.
Usually I do two writing sessions in a given day, but on the days when I’ve hit twelve pages or more in the morning, I find the second session drags. I may get a few pages, but I’m tired. Tired not just physically but creatively. I’ve found on the days when the morning session has been amazingly productive that the afternoon is better spent doing something else. My mind is simply too tired to go back to work with only an hour’s break for lunch or exercise. Need more time to recharge the batteries.
It’d be great if I could actually do a schedule where I only had to work mornings, and got to do other things in the afternoon. Wow, what a concept. It would feel like working only part time, but getting the same amount of work done. But I’m not counting on the next book going like this, or even this book, keeping the pace. I’ll enjoy it while I can,though.
Though I have noticed that the day after I’ve done twenty plus pages, that the next day is sometimes slow, or none existent. I usually try and pace myself so that I do about the same number of pages everyday. I find that keeps the rhythm of a book and actually ends with me being more productive over the long run. But when the muse is coming through this clearly, I’m not going to fight. I’m not going to say, oh, no, too many pages today. Nope, I’m going to write.
But today, it’s after lunch and I am tired. Still tired from that glorious creative rush of yesterday. I don’t regret it, but dragging myself up to work has been something of a chore. Oh, well.

We just finished watching The Guru. Our friend Richard has recommended it for a while, and we finally rented it.

Oh My God! It was amazingly funny. We really liked it and had a great deal of fun watching it. It was in theaters and out again so fast, that most people missed it. Richard has a real gift for finding esoteric films, that comes in under everyone’s radar.

Its like Friends and Family. Its a small movie that tells a story that is bigger than you initially think.

I’m going to go now, and get some sleep.

Jonathon, Andrew, Richard, and myself, were trying to go out for dinner and a movie. The dinner was easy, Blue Water Grill, one of our favorite sea food restaurants in St. Louis. Nice atmosphere, good food, and lots of healthy choices. If you put the sauces to the side, you can eat wonderful food and still be eating healthy. Though sometime you should go in and simply get coffee and desert, because they have some of the best deserts in town. The caramel apple pie a la mode is to die for. We’ve split it between three adults if that gives you any indication. Yes, Jonathon and I are eating healthy but healthy doesn’t mean you give up everything sweet, it just means you don’t eat it often, and you eat less when you do. That way you don’t feel deprived. Feeling deprived means you don’t stick to whatever healthy resolve you have.
But the movie was harder. We simply couldn’t agree. We finally picked THE INTERPRETER with Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn not because we were all dying to see it, but because no one had any strong objections to it, and some of us had actually wanted to see it. We ordered tickets ahead of time. Everyone met at our house and we drove together to the restaurant, then to the movie. We’d debated so many movies that I actually couldn’t remember what we’d decided to see when the lights went down. But from the moment the movie started, it was great. Sean Penn was not a favorite of any of ours when he was younger, but damn, he is an amazing actor. Yes, I know the Hollywood community has been saying that for years, but we don’t go see movies just because people win awards. We go see movies to enjoy ourselves, to be entertained, and, or, enlightened. Mr. Penn was perfect in the role, subtle, understated, so that when he did show emotion the impact was, well, perfect. I’ve known and liked Nicole Kidman’s work for years now, though some of us in our group were not fans. Everyone in our group left the theatre impressed with her acting. She, too, played an understated performance so that she managed to get out of a look what some actors can’t manage in pages of dialogue. That’s acting.
The story is exciting, and edge of the seat riveting, without resorting to any Hollywood cliches. Just when you’re sure the movie will go down some old familiar roads, it doesn’t. It surprised us all several times in pleasant and enjoyable ways. It’s emotionally intense, politically thought provoking, and not in a way that should make either a conservative or a liberal uncomfortable. The movie just makes you think not about any precise real happening, but about the process of such happenings in the world. I’m trying very hard not to give plot away, and still convey the meat of the movie. It’s hard, but let’s say there’s a lot of meat there, good tasty, tender, well-balanced, and well-thought-out meat.
One of the most touching scenes between an actor and an actress that I’ve seen in years in any movie is in this movie. Whoever made the choice not to do the cliche in that scene, director, script writer, or the actors, damn, someone has good instincts. Again I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s say that holding someone in the right way can be more emotionally charged, and more important than tons of sweat and saliva.
Hats off also to all the supporting cast. There wasn’t anyone in this film that didn’t work, and work well, in their part. An especial hats off to another understated, believable, and enjoyable job done by Catherine Keener who played Mr. Penn’s partner. Loved not only her lines in the strip club scene, but the delivery that went with them. And like almost everything else in this movie, the strip club scene is not what you think.

Twelve pages today. Nothing yesterday, or nothing I kept. If I’d written yesterday, I would have had a fight between Anita and Richard. But instead of working on the book I did my essay for the next fan club newsletter. Something I needed to do, and it delayed the fight. I didn’t want the fight. Richard didn’t want the fight, not really. Anita didn’t want the fight. I spent Friday steeling myself for it, then this morning first thing before tea even, I knew how to avoid the fight. At least how to avoid a huge fight that would be such a rift between them that Anita and Richard would be fighting the whole rest of the book. So I made some notes, finished breakfast, and now we are twelve pages further into the book, and Anita and Richard are NOT at each other’s throats. In fact the last scene ends with her letting him comfort her, and him willing to do it. Yea!
I swear sometimes I feel like a marriage counselor for these two. And please, do not get on the internet and say I said, that Richard and Anita are getting married in this book. They are not getting married. Nobody is getting married to my knowledge. Anita and Richard are one of those couples that needs a therapist before the walk down the isle is even in sight. Not a good sign, but for now we’re not fighting, and I’ll take it. Today we won the battle, the war is still on-going, but I’ll take any relationship victory I can get for my two star-crossed-lovers.

Sixteen pages yesterday. Yea, again! I am around 280 pages in, hoping to hit 300 this week. If the pace keeps up I will, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.
One thing that used to concern me was when I was between two and three hundred pages in and still had not gotten to the full meat of the mystery or main plot. But something about writing the novel-lite seems to have freed me from feeling like I have to cram as much as possible as soon as possible. Lots of stuff is happening, important stuff, but the fact that there’s no villain in sight, well, I’m cool with that. I knew the first half of this book was mainly to solidify control of the arduer and the whole powers thing, and that’s what we’re doing. Though, unfortunately Anita and Richard have already had one fight. I was really hoping for at least one book where we didn’t fight. Sigh. But having done the scene I understand why Richard can’t settle into Anita’s life, and he hers. Different expectations. Richard still thinks that somewhere in his life is a white picket fence and 2.5 children. And he is still holding out hope that the girl for that life is Anita. I really thought he’d given up on trying to pound her into that picture. But Richard holds his secrets and motives tighter than most. He surprises me a lot.
I’m not sure why writing an Anita book that was a little under two-hundred pages was so refreshing. It seems to have renewed me in a way that vacations are supposed to renew you. The original meaning for recreation, is to re-create. To re-create yourself. That part of me that had gotten so tired from deadline pressure, and just the growing length of books, needed a break. I kept trying to take real mini-viacations. Real breaks, as in not working breaks. Then one day I came up with this idea that didn’t fit in the book, or any book. It was too short and too self-contained. Viola, the novel-lite. Maybe it was because it was the first thing I wrote in years, maybe a decade, that didn’t come with a deadline, or a contract. I wrote it because I wanted to write it. Yes, I am in the lovely position that before I finished it there was a contract and money waiting for me when it was finished. But I was done with it before the contract cleared and long before the on-signing money came. It was also pretty nice to be ahead of any deadline, something I used to take great pride on years ago when all my books were about a third of what they are now. But whether it was just the length, or writing something just because I wanted to, not because I had to, or something else more mysterious, I feel better. I’m enjoying this Anita book more than I’ve enjoyed writing any of the big books in awhile. I always love my characters and my world, but the schedule is pretty taxing, or so I felt. So I kept trying to take more time off, let myself rest. But maybe rest for me isn’t not doing something, but it’s just doing something slightly different. Since some people seem a little puzzled by the concept of the whole novel-lite, and what it means, I’m going to be doing an essay about it in the next newsletter. Darla’s suggestion since she’s fielding the questions from everyone. So I’ll write about it, expand on some of the thoughts here. Tea’s almost ready, gotta go.

Nineteen pages today. Yea! After only doing four pages yesterday, I was a little worried. But nineteen pages, ye-freaking-ha.

Yesterday was a very broken up day. A lot of different errands and things that we’d been putting off had to be done. Example, picking out tiles and flooring for the addition. Cool that we’re that close, but it was just one more thing that broke up my work day. Early evening found me with only notes written in my notebook while I was waiting at the allergist. Very disappointing. So I sat my butt down and did the absolute minimum — four pages. Four pages is what I try to do when the day has gone to hell in a frantic, time consuming basket. Just four pages to keep the flow going, and not loose momentum. Frankly, far from beating myself up that I didn’t do ten pages or more like normal, I was quite pleased with my four pages, because it meant that I had fought the good fight. Maybe I didn’t slay the dragon yesterday, but it didn’t get me either. Call it more a draw until next time.