I have an insane amount of work to do before Sunday night, all of it requiring a great deal of creative output. I’m already so far behind on the deadlines, I think I’m going to be up until the sun has charred the other side of the world and come back to us so I can get it all done.
I told Anne earlier today, “I don’t mind any of this. I’m incredibly grateful that I can earn a living doing all of this stuff … but I am nearing physical and mental exhaustion, so anything I do between now and Monday is likely to have a certain, um, Bug Powder sensibility about it. I’ve never wanted to crank out widgets, but right now it would be a lot easier to turn my mind off and just do that.”
I thought for a second.
“Man, I am really glad I don’t have to do that.”
It’s not all bad, though. My office is currently warm in every sense of the word because:
- I’m drinking a pot of genmaicha green tea.
- The setting sun is streaming golden rays the color of my tea through my office window.
- The air is filled with the scent of a fig candle I absolutely love.
- I’m listening to Chill Out! from Instinct ambient.
I don’t envy the task my editors have in front of them, but at least I’m going to enjoy the process of getting The Madness into their hands.
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I think it’s the “have” in the “glad I don’t have to do that” that’s the problem. But wouldn’t it be nice to have the option every once in a while?
-pkh
Good luck. I can’t imagine dealing with all of that creative output. I am glad that there are so many people that appriciate all of your hard work and I am glad that you know how many of us there are. I am sure that helps a lot when you get to this point.
On another note, I have started reading Just a Geek after reading Dancing Barefoot. I am loving it as much, if not more, than I expected.
I almost squee’d since The KLF has an album called Chill Out, and I thought that’s what you were listening to. It’s a good ambient album if you want to find it (as opposed to most of their stuff, which is anything but ambient…smile).
I don’t know if I pick up hints really easily or if I see patterns where they don’t exist.
Conclusion: “The Madness” is the Cthulu inspired piece of fiction you are writing?
Ahhh, but do you know the first sign of madness, Wil?
…
…
…it’s Suggs walking up your driveway.
I see “bug powder” and I think about a groovy track by Justin Warfield
“Bug powder dust and mugwump jism
The wild boys runnin right into to some trippin
Led into control about the Big Brother
Tryin like hell to not blow my cover”
“Shockin your ass
like a faulty vibrator
Hear me now
But you’ll probably get the vibe later”
mmmm. fig candle? pray tell where from!!
hey Wil, just wanted to thank you for retweeting @robflynn43 tonight. you helped reconnect us after years of having lost track of each other.
I’m not sure if this works, but TypePad says I can reply to this e-mail to post a response. Let’s see if this works:
I got it at a store in Ashland, and I couldn’t tell you what it was called. It’s awesome, though.
Edit: Hey, it works. Neat!
It seems to be italicizing everything, though, so…
Genmai-cha is pretty good; if you’re ever in the market for new teas, you could also try kuki-cha. Also Japanese, also very good. I’m from the east coast, so I don’t know where you could get it in those arcane west coast lands, but there’s a grocery chain called Wegman’s that sells it.
Though being on the west coast, you probably have access to tons of Asian specialty stores if you ever want to give it a shot.
oh man… working nights is great. I can feel one of those get-everything-done night coming on myself. I have no idea why but somehow I can get more done in one night shifts than in three day shifts.
Hope you had a great, productive night, Wil 🙂
Wegman’s, sadly, does not exist on the west coast.
*Attempts to fix the italics*
Also, if you like fig candles, try this figs and leaves soap from Lush: http://www.lushusa.com/shop/products/bath-shower/soap/figs-and-leaves-
Ashland?! I’m packing up the husband and dogs – ROAD TRIP!
Yeah right. I wish.
Speaking of tea, however, have you been to Leaforever at the Paseo? My husband will drive all the way to the ‘dena just to bask in the warm fragrant glory of that place.
Re: the italics. Maybe TypePad thinks we’re all just being really, really ironic.
Good luck Will!! I tend to procrastinate terribly once I come near a deadline and I’m even worse if I pass it at all… at that stage I think I have the opinion “It’s already late… another day wont hurt.”
And as for the office being ‘warm’, sounds lovely but does that not just make you want to chill out and relax?? I’d find it twice as hard to motivate myself to work somewhere so cosy!
That above comment was removed by me because there was an open italic in it that TypePad wouldn’t let me close.
The new TypePad connect is neat, because it allows these threaded comments and a bunch of other things, but it won’t allow blog owners to edit individual comments any more, so I had to unpublish the comment.
It said:
“mmmm. fig candle? pray tell where from!!”
Sorry, onegirlmanyideas, I didn’t want to unpublish it, but it was the only option TypePad gave me.
You always do such a good job of being grateful. That leftover redemption (ref: Just a Geek) serves you quite well.
Ya gotta love Lush! Haven’t tried the figs and leaves soap but I’ve yet to use anything from Lush that wasn’t fab. Good call.
I AM THE GLITCH IN THE SYSTEM.
🙂
Itallics can look so pretty though, so I wouldn’t worry 😛
I grinned when I saw this header. Doctor Benway was such a misunderstood artist. “All the skill is going out of surgery, all the know-how and make-do!”
Mmm, I hope it’s an Henri Bendel Fig candle from Bath & Body Works/White Barn. Those things are freakin’ decadent!
I hear you. I get both exhilarated and exhausted from painting. While it’s cool that people pay me to make pretty trash for them, and it seems insane to complain about it — there’s some strange law governing deadlines that makes them all clump together. And that bit is not so cool.
Hang in there!
Mmmm. Genmaicha. I need to take a trip to my friendly neighborhood tea store.
“…and painted the smog over our heads an imperial violet”
Good God I miss new music from them. I had a pledge class (Chi Phi) get me Ruby Vroom on their pre-induction treasure hunt.
This is a long shot, but the Bug Powder reference makes me ask. What’s the name of the William Burroughs piece where one voice says, very breathy and weak: “I’m dying….” and another voice says, all whiny: “no you’re not.”
I can’t find it, and it’s making me crazy!
Wil,
Read on here that you rarely have time to read or respond to email and that you check comments on a regular basis so decided to post this here.
I just finished reading and listening to Just a Geek and Happiest Days. I have never felt more surprised by the ability of an author to make me laugh and cry in the span of a few hours from page to page.
Ill admit that I knew who you were from Stand by Me (was one of my mothers favorite movies…along with ET for some reason, how the two movies had something in common I have no earthly idea..ive been looking for someone in Stand by Me to say “Phone home…” and I have still to find it) and as such a huge geek that I can quote TNG at random (something that I try to hide from day to day, because holy hell im sure you have gotten the same looks I have…) I am now even more pleased to know you as an author. You’ve made a fan of me sir, I hope that one day I get to shake your hand in person.
-error42