Around This Time, 2019

 

4/25/2019: Up about 6:30 AM. Started reading Mark. Prayers. Doing my rounds, looked at my notes for PWOGR [The Peculiar Wooing of General Roth], and got the weird feeling that I might have lost some notes along the way. Rosary in the late afternoon. Watched a documentary on Shakespeare and The Last Laugh (comedy and the Holocaust) on Netflix. Sent this e-mail to John:

Yes, the Prairie Verbena (which I repeat as often as I can to help it stick in my mind ... a lot of time I solve little mysteries like this, only to have them drop out of my head again. Long habits of not knowing, I guess). So far today I've only been able to come up with a timeline [for Peculiar Wooing] of what has to happen now, always a sort of dangerous task, because sometimes when I know exactly where the story is going, the lack of mystery and discovery takes some of the wind from my sails and I have to start rowing. You feel the story is already complete, somehow, whereas it's the Idea and not the Energy (or Incarnation), as Dorothy L. Sayers would say, and only when the completed work can be read does it become the Power and can return to you as a shared experience with the reader.

I suppose one of the big differences with this story is that it's not an Adventure as such, but a kind of Social Comedy, which I haven't done a lot of. It reminds me in some ways of the old Laurence Olivier PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, just like "Capitulation" reminded me of a Forties/Fifties political movie. (I just looked at my notes for that story, and find it was only a year ago that I wrote it! Seems like ages gone by.) I must remember - which I always forget - that I can always REWRITE any rubbish I may produce; the important thing is to get moving and get something more on the page, to work with.

Ye gads! Why do I always sound wiser when I write than when I talk? Takes more time and research, I guess. – End e-mail.

4/27/2019: Got up about 7 AM. Pottered around a bit, then Bible, prayers and rosary. Started writing. At about 12 noon I finished the 6 pages of Roth and Korm, then sent ‘em to John and left a phone message to say they were there. John called me at 1 PM and we had a jolly talk; about Korm’s saying, and William Goldman and John Gardner, about where the tension lay (not a surprise where it’s heading; it’s the working out that’s the tension); he’s just finished the Claudius books. I took a little afternoon nap, then went out to soak my feet in the pool at about 4:30 PM, having to fight Vader, the big lug, all the way, and put my towel and shoes up on a tree branch to keep them from being eaten. Day very bright and spring-like; lovely weather. Getting close to the end of Little Dorrit. In the evening finished LD.

4/29/30: A Monday. Routine, laundry. Best part of the day visiting John when he dropped by to gimme $21; talked about the story, my conversion, and how now I’m “religious, as well as spiritual.” Had a fun talk [with Susan] about collecting the lost toys of our youth; she’s in that stage now. Got a few more free Kindle books in the evening but haven’t settled on anything new; read GKC’s [G. K. Chesterton's] essays.

4/30/2019: I’m sort of concerned now about proving that AGODP is not an “occult” book, though it deals with the “extranatural”. I suppose I’ll have to write myself an essay. In the meanwhile, got ONE paragraph on PWOGR done.

5/1/2019: First Day of May. Woke up with the defense of AGODP even more on my mind. Routine. Very fresh green spring smell today; Andy mowed yesterday. Sent Morgandy pictures of Mom; she wants to draw her portrait. A little restless all day, not able to settle down to write. Spring fever? Wrote 2 sentences.

5/2/24: Sent this e-mail to John: Writing continues, but oh so slowly; I'm trying to diagnose the problem. Looked back in my Diary to see what the conditions were like last year, to see if there was any correlation. Didn't really find any: this time last year I was whizzing through BoS [Bureau of Shadows] stories at a rate that makes my head spin now! Hadn't written any of the new Morg stories; hadn't started RCIA classes, Kelsey wasn't married, I didn't have a book contract, and I certainly wasn't baptized yet! So, so much to happen and in less than a year!

I think one of my difficulties has to do with PWOGR not being seasonal, at least not this climax part that I'm working on isn't. I was writing Bluebell Dell and other spring/summer tales at this time last year. 

Maybe I can use some emotional notes for Roth. Looking back, I find I have these 'dry spells' or pauses with some regularity - you may remember how long it took me to finish ABERNATHY, and THE GODS IN FLIGHT and the TIME TRAVEL TALE - well, those two have never really been finished yet.

Notes

I had recently found out the name of a little purple flower that I had known of for years and didn't want to forget it. This just must be the season for broccoli salad; I've spent a few weeks lately making it for Susan and Andy, and Kelsey had me make some for her and Ryan, and now John has a hankering for it for our Friday movie night tomorrow! At this distance, I'll have to look up The Time Travel Tale to remember what it was. Probably got renamed.

Update: Found the notes for Time Travel Tale: it was a Bureau of Shadows story about three travelers from 2040 who get sent back by accident to 1940. It was mainly to be an extrapolation of 'present day' trends into the future and how they would seem in the past. I remember I had an actual starting draft, but I haven't found that yet.