Around This Time 2018

 

4/9/18: Struggled around, doing my usual Monday routine. After Bible and blogpsot and a page of ASA [I was transcribing chapters from my brother Mike's A Stranger and Alone], sorted my wash, decided I only had to do clothes, not towels today. A damp, overcast day, precipitation not even drizzly, but constant. When Susan went to work I started load and went in to get breakfast: a cup o' noodles and a ramen and 2 slices of bread. Changed load to dryer just as the pool guy got here. After 1 PM went out and ate lunch (2 slices of pizza and a ramen), made salad for supper, then got clothes from dryer and swept kitchen porch. Went in, put away clothes, and after a bit got house ready for John's coming over. Not a lot to do, but I'm in such a low key it takes a while. He comes slightly after 4 PM, brings back Pan's Labyrinth and 3 Royal Monkeys. But most importantly he brings me a new phone, all set up with my numbers, and it has a camera to boot! We talk a bit, then S[usan] brings Kam[ameron] home and he runs out to us and we all talk some, then J has to go home. K has science homework (find 3 articles on world population, with 3 facts each) that after supper I help him find. But first I make the fish pinwheels and couscous for supper, of which I get the couscous and salad. I take it to the little house and flesh out the couscous with (of course) ramen. Then Kam and I do homework and he falls asleep on my bed and I can't move him till 10 PM, when I finally force him to leave. I write on the short stories after strange hesitation but am happy when I do it. What means this late-night shift in productivity, though? Why is buckling down in the day (when I am fresh, you would think) so hard now? Change my sleepin' music back to a more instrumental list.

 

4/10/2018: I find out, very early this morning, that Christopher Tolkien is coming out with "The Fall of Gondolin," and I don't even have "Beren and Luthien" yet! I mention it to John in my morning e-mail, and he says if I finish my stories before the weekend, he'll get me B&L! So when I get the message I set to work with a will, and have 'Tzaddick [The Tzaddick Who Could Walk Through Walls]' done by about 3 PM (about 7 new pages). I send it off and wait on tenterhooks for what he says about it. In the meantime I download a free app, Natural Reader, that will read any writing out loud. I am enamored with it! I listen to several of my works. It really helps to catch mistakes. He e-mails me back, and here's what he says:

" 10:17 PM: I just finished the story- the dream casting is perfect!  I will have to give you more thorough feedback tomorrow- just hitting the hay now, and I want to cogitate a bit in the meantime- but let me say it was a lot of fun , and it covered some interesting unfamiliar territory , so it kept me fascinated- it read almost like a Woody Allen short story.  My only quibble would be that it maybe lacked a button on the end somewhat; Williams' character was a bit vague- maybe some interaction with Mr. Saunders at the beginning and end would throw a little more meat on him, and give him a chance to cap it all off somehow- just typing out loud here- the ending was nice and had warmth, but - maybe it's my reading it in Woody-ish mode had me looking for a punch line or something, so I may be way off- a little sleepy at the moment- will " sleep on it" and see tomorrow- still, a fun read, and some good novelty, with the Jewish perspective- I'm glad my nudge helped!"

(The Dreamcasting:

Williams of the Bureau: Geoffrey Rush

Young Mr. Szyk: young Mandy Patinkin

His wife Sadie: young Carol Kane

Old Mr. Szyk: Alan Arkin

Berkowitz, the ghost: Dustin Hoffman

to which I might now add Scatman Crothers as Mr. Saunders)

Stayed up till past midnight listening to the Reader reading work after work. Today also downloaded another batch of free Kindle books. Let's see what I can accomplish in writing tomorrow. Didn't write anything new on 'Abernathy[The Testament of Ambrose Abernathy],' but I think the 7 pages of 'Tzaddick' covers that.

Notes

This was a somewhat desperate period. I had injured my foot and had a TIA, and couldn't work at my usual kind of jobs. I had no income and no government assistance at the time. Part of my terrible diet was because I had to survive on the lashings and leavings and leftovers from 'the Big House,' supplemented by the $20 John would pay me every two weeks for producing twenty pages and the supplies and treats I would buy with it. I could even still walk all the way to Dollar General to spend it; now I go to Family Dollar, as it's closer. But I certainly had the impetus to get a lot of work done.

Christopher Tolkien still alive and The Rings of Power wasn't even a fevered dream.