I make notes on second draft while a rat terrier shakes uncontrollably in my lap, and the sky rumbles above.
I don’t know what traumatized her so, but man, poor girl.
We love you, Sofi. Sorry about the weather.
Target: 1500 words
Written: 1349 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Pebble In The Sky, Isaac Asimov
Comics: WildCats Adventures 3-4, WildC.A.T.S. 17, Grifter: One Shot 1
Music: October 31, 1991, Seattle, Nirvana (one of the best bootlegs I own)It’s weird what a massive burden having a clear to do list on a regular basis can do for one.
Portugal (and subsequent crushing depression) really put me far back; being able to do some of the things I’ve pushed off from day to day feels really good. Like more relaxed.
Getting ahead.
Progressing.
Progress, not product, am I right? (First draft done.)
Target: 1500 words
Written: 2674 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Liza Of Lambeth, W. Somerset Maugham
Comics: WildC.A.T.S. 0, WildC.A.T.S. Trilogy 1-2, WildC.A.T.S. Sourcebook 1
Music: November 22, 1989, Vienna, NirvanaYou know how when your favourite artists love something, you kind of assume that because you’re into their work, you’d also be into the stuff that inspired them?
Like if Foo Fighters said they were into the Clash and the Ramones, I’d be like, I feel that, man.
That doesn’t always work. For example, I understand why Kurt Cobain would be into the Vaselines or David Bowie, but I will never understand the Meat Puppets.
The same, apparently, is true of Steve Aylett. I found him because multiple authors I was into said he was so good and groundbreaking and awesome.
Yeah.
I don’t get it.
The Crime Studio is an entire book, essentially written in the style of Luis telling his heist story in Ant-Man. And while that can be a funny bit over the course of a minute or three in a two hour movie, it’s annoying as fuck over a hundred and fifty pages (while simultaneously having the gall to slag Updike, Amis and Delillo – dude, you’re not better. This is college kid trying on an 80s movie punk persona and thinking he’s somehow managed the depth of James O’Barr, while really only succeeding in pretentious amateurishness posing as rebel pastiche. Who’s pretentious now, motherfucker? That’s right. Pastiche).
So, sorry, authors whose work I respect and adore. In this one, we don’t agree. Thumbs down.
Target: 1500 words
Written: 449 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: The Crime Studio, Steven Aylett
Comics: Gen 13 v4 37-39, Team 7 v4 0
Music: 867-5309 (Live), EverclearOh, wait. That’s just the pornography.
(Or the scene I just wrote in Father Lightning.)
Target: 1500 words
Written: 1596 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: The Legend Of Bagger Vance, Steven Pressfield
Comics: Gen 13 v4 25-28
Music: '74 Jailbreak, AC/DCI’m re-reading the scene I wrote yesterday and I have questions about my mindset.
For example, I used the word dude instead of dug, and referred to someone getting on their hands and knees as being on “all floor”.
I might be glitching out.
Target: 1500 words
Written: 584 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: The Legend Of Bagger Vance, Steven Pressfield
Comics: Gen 13 v4 21-24
Music: 70s Soft Rock Essentials, Various (I mean, I did this for my wife, and while I'm cool with stuff like Ride, Captain, Ride, Ooh La La, and Elton John, like who the fuck thought Boz Scaggs was good? Take the most generic, corporate, boring fucking bullshit with no heart, no intelligence and no emotional content and put it over music that isn't even fucking catchy? It's no wonder punk rock blew up. Between Boz Scaggs and Dan Fogelberg, I wanted to pop my eardrums.)You know what? It was a good Friday.
Time off, time to write, time to read and play video games?
I’ll fuckin’ take it.
Target: 1500 words
Written: 1428 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone , J.K. (don't call me Joanne) Rowling
Comics: Gen 13 v4 13-16
Music: 54-40 Essentials, 54-40 (nice to love you, baby)I mean, look at that word count. I haven’t hit three thousand words in a day in a long, long time.
I’m proud of me.
At least today.
Target: 1500 words
Written: 3043 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, Tom Wolfe (like Hunter S. Thompson, if Thompson were into status and name dropping and not drugs and rebellion. Got a bit repetitive in his descriptions - how many times can you refer to bouffant hair, or his weird obsession with women's butts, or tits pointed straight up like a torpedo in launch?)
Comics: Gen 13 v4 2-5
Music: 45 Or 46 Songs That Weren't Good Enough To Go On Our Other Records, NOFXYeah, a pivotal scene and I wrote it like a ninth grader, or a cop show writer.
Grabbing someone by the lapels and screaming, “Where is he?”, like my main character is fucking Mel Gibson or Clint Eastwood, when he’s more like Buster in Arrested Development.
Jesus, I’ve let my family make me watch too many episodes of Tracker – my writing is now devolving as a result.
(For the record, Tracker is shit. The only time I was even remotely interested was the UFO episode, because I thought they might be pivoting and turning it into something good, like the X-Files. Sadly, they’ve never mentioned it again.)
Target: 1500 words
Written: 2666 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig (like, I see good points, but his pro-corporate copyright stance is distasteful, and his insistence on interjecting the government into everything is as well. He claims to have made a point or taken a stance in there somewhere, but other than saying, hey, this is an issue - and it was, back then, I don't really see much of a stance on anything, other than we need more government or the magical mystery market will solve the problem, like some kind of divine hand.)
Comics: Gen 13 v2 65-67, GenActive 6
Music: 3 Years, 5 Months And 2 Days In The Life Of..., Arrested DevelopmentIronically, this whole Father Lightning is supposed to be teaching me about kindness.
I don’t think it’s working.
Target: 1500 words
Written: 1975 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig
Comics: Gen 13: Science Friction 1, Gen 13 v2 63-64, GenActive 5
Music: 3, Violent FemmesI mean, I’m a bit off today because yesterday was St. Patrick’s and I have to get right in there and get back to work, but I’m starting to think of possibilities that might help me move forward.
I’m thinking of possibilities that might break me free of this dreary life.
This bland and weary work.
This modern malaise.
I am planning.
Picking a way forward.
Target: 1500 words
Written: 2163 words, novel: Father Lightning
Read: Code And Other Laws Of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig
Comics: Superman/Gen 13 2-3, Gen 13 v2 54, GenActive 2
Music: 21 Guns Live, Green Day