As a result of my insomnia, I often end up sleeping in the bed in the man cave. Last night, while my wife slept, I tossed and turned as my mind roiled with notions and whispers. Some nights I cannot shut off the ADHD to save my life and so I moved to the man cave, first to sit in front of the computer and then to lay in bed. My thoughts turned to the book and my reading on the nature of elementals. I devised an intriguing name for them I could use in my book and then I drifted off to sleep.
Now it’s ten am and the name that was so intriguing last night has vanished from my brain. I remember most of what I thought about these little gnomes and sprites, how I could twist them into something a little more frightening and powerful. But I’d be damned if I can remember that name.
The time off I’m taking from the book is serving me quite well. I’ve been doing research, mulling over grammar and editing rules, and coming up with deeper facets for some characters. And then there’s the thing about airships, which solves a few problems for books two and three. So it’s turning out to be a productive time. It is very hard not to resist the siren call to dive back in and fine tune the beast but I shall persevere.
There’s going to a writing workshop in a couple weeks in the town of Tioga. I am going to go though I don’t think what I am writing is what they are looking for. The workshops are sponsored by the ND Humanities Council and are to encourage people to write their own stories about the land and/or the oil boom. That is a laudable notion but I have my concerns that what I am writing is nowhere near what they are used to seeing. I know that if I was conducted a workshop I would not expect to see a dark fantasy amidships all the tales of farming, hardship, and cowboy poetry. But I’m throwing my hat in the ring. Who knows, maybe the folks running the workshop will have an inside with an agent or two and THAT would be a golden opportunity. So I’ll pick out a chapter that doesn’t have too much violence, has what I think is good dialog, and drives well from beginning to end. My only fear is, given my usual state of sleep deprivation, I’ll do like I used to do in corporate meetings. I’ll fall asleep.
jeroljohnson 