I've been sick and a bit low energy. Something's been going around since the weekend I spent at Bridgeport with the youth. I've been fighting it off, refusing to succumb. My mother has it to an extreme. I've really just had to deal with a scratchy throat, very mild cough, and bouts of laryngitis. This, combined with exhaustion from not having had any down time since the weekend at Bridgeport (which was wonderful), has led to a fairly unproductive week of writing. Last night, therefore, I made the conscious decision to do nothing on Monday, which I have now accomplished quite tremendously. I needed a day of down time, and I knew it. I feel much better as a result. :) I just sort of lounged around and continued my reading of Anne Rice's The Wolf Gift. It's hard to put down! In fact, I have to force myself to do so each time. I'm relieved at how different her take on werewolves is from mine, and excited by her own original spin on the mythology. Her werewolf reminds me, to a degree, of the Spectre (my favorite comic book character ever). He's sort of a bloodthirsty, avenging hero. I can tell how much fun she had writing this, and that makes it so much fun to read. :) I'll get back to writing tomorrow, feeling refreshed. The sickness has almost completely left me at this point, and I'm feeling very refreshed after my day of peaceful respite. Now, back to the couch and that very good book!

I mostly wrote in my head today; a legitimate part of the process for me. I came up with a lot of good stuff for The Legends of Nod #2. Sat down a few minutes ago and wrote the next scene, picking up where I'd left off on the manuscript months ago; finished out the fourth bullet point on the eighteen-bullet point outline, so, fourteen to go! From today's head-writing, I know that there are a couple more characters not in the outline who will have parts to play in this episode. There's also a non-outlined epilogue that came to me some time back.

I did a lot of visioning for the entire series today as well. It's coming into focus in a very dynamic way. I have all these stories that I want to tell, and I'd originally thought to just tell them in an unending fashion. I know certain events that will change the series as I go, but there was no rush, really. I had planned to hit the more dramatic points as my whims demanded. Now, I'm seeing the series as much tighter, much more focused. I have a specific number in mind, and I intend to go through my notes and narrow the events into this number, spacing them out accordingly. This will keep things moving and much more exciting. Once I get to the number of episodes I am planning to write, I will decide whether I want to continue the series as is or move in a new direction.

The Legends of Nod is really the back story, you see. I had a dream, years ago, and I wanted to write it and publish it. But the story, as it was, wouldn't have any significance for readers without first showing you the history of this world in my dream, because the story in the dream was about that. It was about...well, I don't want to give it all away. Suffice it to say, I have always intended, eventually, to take The Legends of Nod forward to this dream, and that is where the story, for me, will end (unless the characters say otherwise). Meanwhile, it's a lot of fun building the world that existed in that dream, one adventure at a time.

I finished writing "Scarecrow" some time after midnight, technically Friday. I haven't written anything since, except for an extremely weird thing I wrote at camp for the youth over the weekend...but we won't talk about that right now. lol

I pulled out the outline for The Legends of Nod #2 and looked over it. I spent a day getting myself out of a horror-writing mindset and into a fantasy-writing mindset yesterday. Today was largely a church work day, so there wasn't really any time to write, except for right now, and it's nearly midnight! Tomorrow I hope to get back into Nod. The first episode of the series is continuing to perform verywell on the Kindle! I'm so thrilled by this development! :D

Meanwhile, I'm still reading Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. I'm a little over half way through. I haven't given much time to reading lately, and I fully intend to remedy that.

As for "Scarecrow," I heard back from my editor Friday evening, and to my delight, she loved it! She definitely saw it as "Glenn Unchained." She said it reminded her of some of my early horror work, but a lot funnier. I'll keep you posted on when and how this new story will be making its way to the public as things develop! :D For now, I'm off to read.

I wrote absolutely nothing today! There simply wasn't time, once I got my energy up. I had one of those sleeps last night where I must have been sleep walking or something of the like. I felt as though I hadn't slept all night, even though I clearly had.

I did finish watching that Cities of the Underworld DVD. There were three episodes. Last night, I watched a silly, sensationalized episode about the Freemasons. I won't go into my thoughts on this, but I will say the tunnel system in Boston fascinates me. I hadn't known anything about it before. Today, I watched an episode about Vlad Dracul, which was a lot of fun. Also a bit sensationalized, but with Vlad Dracul there really isn't any need to sensationalize things. Most of it was pretty informative. Then, at long last, I got to the episode about the underground cities in Capadocia, where sits the underground city of Derinkuyu. While I did learn a lot, I still feel there is so much more to be revealed about this city. They didn't use the name Derinkuyu, but there are apparently a lot of underground cities in the area. They focused mostly on the defenses of the city, which were impressive. I will definitely take some design tips from this information into the caverns of my gnomes. They also showed some religious centers that were simply breathtaking. Still, I want much, much more. I want maps. I want an explanation of how the plumbing worked. I want to see more of the artistry of the city itself up close. I would love to find a detailed book, or to go there myself with an expert who could guide me through the tunnels and answer all of my questions directly. I will continue to investigate this city as far as I can. My sister has mentioned a book that is out there somewhere, though not in her library, about Turkey, which may cover more of the secrets of Derinkuyu. I will try to track it down.

Meanwhile, I hope to finish "Scarecrow" tomorrow. It's going to be a busy day, and an even busier weekend. If I don't have time tomorrow, it will be Monday before I can get back to the story. We may also have come to a temporary solution for some of those "business" issues with the publication of my work. I'll know how things are going to go by tomorrow, but it may be next week before anything really starts moving again. Then, the second edition of The Great Debate should be released in hardback and e-book almost right away. I can hardly wait! :D

I wrote about nine manuscript pages of "Scarecrow" today. The story has officially graduated to "novelette" status. I hope to have it finished by tomorrow. I am very ear the end and having a great time! A character showed up in my writing today that I hadn't expected to. This story is proving itself to be very connected to some of my other work. I just got back from Barnes & Noble, where I bought the new Anne Rice novel, The Wolf Gift. I'm very much looking forward to reading it, but I doubt I'll get to it until next week. Anne Rice is one of my favorites, ever since I first discovered her at nineteen. Before I get to this new book though, I need to finish reading Sean Williams' Star Wars: The Force Unleashed II. I'm trying to get caught up on Star Wars, but it's so hard when so many novels come out in a year, and I can only read them one at a time, with other things in between to keep me from getting burnt out. I've been reading a lot of Edgar Rice Burroughs lately. I discovered his work last year, and I haven't been able to stop myself from reading more and more now that I have a Kindle and the public domain books are free. I've downloaded Warlord of Mars for my next adventure with Burroughs, but I am still reading books one at a time. I never tire of reading.

Now I'm off to watch a DVD my sister sent me on Netflix. She's a librarian, so I asked for her help in finding research materials on the underground city of Derinkuyu. I really want to explore this city for my next Metrognomes novel. All I've got about their underground cities has been entirely created in my mind. I had no idea there were actual cities like Derinkuyu, capable of housing thousands of people, with indoor plumbing to boot! When I stumbled upon a mention of Derinkyu, I had to know more! I want to know how it worked, how it was laid out. Such knowledge could only improve my vision for Metrognomes and how I present it. I already know the general layout of the tribal caverns, but seeing how Derinkuyu worked will surely help me flesh out the mechanics. This DVD is part of a TV series called Cities of the Underworld. This is season 1, disk 3. If I find it useful, I may check out the entire series at some point. Who knew there were so many underground cities that an entire multi-season TV series could be produced to document them! Our world is such a wonder!

Well, I haven't written anything today. Not yet. I am so sporadic in my daily schedule. Usually, I like to get up, check in on the computer, have my shower, make some decaf coffee, then write for an hour before going to the office, or write for several hours if I don't go into the office at all, then do something recreational, go see a friend, watch a movie, something like that for the rest of the day. That's my ideal. It is almost always interrupted, but that is my ideal, and when it works, it works very well.

Other days, I write in my head. I work a scene, or an entire story, or a character over and over in my head, so that the next time I sit down to write, I'm really just copying down what I'd already written mentally. I usually wind up writing at night on days like this, and then getting too tired to write very much at all. Sometimes I'm already tired, and I go to bed, putting off the physical act of writing until the next day, or even later. I hate it when I do that. I prefer to write my thoughts when I have them, when I'm still so perfectly sync with them. Waiting a day makes finding that rythm again so challenging.

Then there's what I call binge writing. I seldom do it, but when I do it I'm like a man possessed. I may do nothing all day long, like today, almost as if I'm charging my batteries. Then I write, always after dark, after the world seems to be sleeping all around me. I write until dawn, and I don't stop until I collapse, or I am interrupted by the demands of the world and my commitment to be a part of it. I have even done binge writing several nights in a row at times, especially when I'm working on a novel, rather than a work of short fiction. I simply must go on and get to a certain point, then the next, and the next, until my eyes blur and I can't write at all. It's always difficult at the office on mornings after a session of binge writing. I usually forget appointments, suffer through phone conferences and staff meetings, wade through the day like a man in the shallows of an ocean, slowly, deliberately, feeling the pull of the tide, yearning to walk onto the beach and collapse on the sand.

Some writers have a routine. My routine, it seems, is the very lack of any routine. I go through cycles. In fact, I feel I may binge write tonight. That, or I won't write anything at all. I would hate to wreck my sleep for even a day this week. I have a retreat that I'm helping to lead this weekend for youth from all over the North Texas Conference, and I want to be fresh. I want to be rested. A night of binge writing is difficult to recover from, but I have always been happy with the results. I leave it to my whims to determine what I shall do.

Good night, dear readers. Pay no attention to the fervent tapping upon my keyboard, should you hear it. Sleep well, and perhaps I'll have something new to share with you by morning.

Today was the first time I sat down to write since my last blog entry here. Tonight actually. I've been busy socializing and working at the office. I saw Star Wars, Episode I: The Phantom Menace in 3D last night, and this afternoon I saw The Woman in Black. I thought the Star Wars 3D conversion was exceptional and really enjoyed seeing it! The Woman in Black was fun. I found it sort of relaxing. I must be a freak. lol But then, I am a writer of the more than occasional ghost story. I'm working on one right now, as it turns out. I like my ghosts in this story though. I don't think of them as scary. They're actually kind of funny. :) Especially Patricia, the dachshund ghost. She seems to be paying very close attention to the story and questioning all of the holes she sees in its logic as we go. The other ghosts refuse to take her questions seriously, though, which is good for me. I get to keep telling the tale the way that I want to. She makes up for it by using very foul language. It's a fair trade off. Yes, my characters play an active role in telling the stories that I write. ;) Sometimes, we disagree on the outline, and I always let them win those arguments. Other times, when the outline is vague, or exceedingly general in its directions, I let them ad lib until the scene goes where it is supposed to go, finding its way into agreement with the next point on my outline. If I weren't a writer, I'd be a mad man. I may actually be a mad man, but it is much less noticeably when I filter all of my potential psychoses through the characters in my stories. I wrote about four pages tonight, and I would write straight through the night and into the morning to finish the story, except that I want to be fresh for work tomorrow. Long day ahead. I may write another scene at some point during the day, but Sundays are difficult, as far as finding time to write. Such full days for me! :D At any rate, I now have seven bullet points left on the "Scarecrow" outline, and I will surely return to it by Monday. Peace!

Today I wrote about ten new pages of "Scarecrow." The story got a little "Friday the 13th" lol. That wasn't expected, but I'm having a blast with this new freedom! I really feel so uninhibited! I could have written all day, but a man's gotta eat. Now that I'm out from under that rock of oppression, I'm going back to all of the things I started and never finished over the past few years, and I'm finishing them. "Scarecrow" is my first project to return to, and it's so warped! I haven't written anything this bizarre since the 90s. It reminded me of how I felt writing Cry, Wolf, where I have an outline, and I'm just letting the characters go wild with it. I got through five outline bullet points today, and I've got eight bullet points to go. I'm really enjoying the insanity of this story. The humor of the characters. And there's no doubt that this is a horror story. It's a ghost story in which you'll hopefully be rooting for the ghosts! :)

So everything's on a very temporary hold, publishing-wise, at the moment. It's all "business-related." There have been a few "i"s to dot and "t"s to cross, but things should be back on track sometime this week or next. Meanwhile, everything else is going very well! The new face of the Web site was launched on January 20, and I'm very pleased with it. I also had a complete and utter nervous breakdown about a week ago that had been building for years. Strangely, I have to say, it was an extraordinarily positive experience for me. I feel better now, more productive, more creative, stronger, more whole than I've felt in almost eight years! I hit rock bottom, and I bounced, flying up higher than I ever was, even when I began my fall from the clouds (I'm above them now, and the world looks fine!). I could blog about this experience at length, and I may do so at some point, in my Piece of Mind blog. For this blog, all that matters is that I'm feeling even more creatively uninhibited now than I was at the dawn of my writing career. When I was in my early twenties, I felt I could write about anything, any way that I wanted to write it. Nothing held me back. You may not know it from reading things like "Beater Rabbit," but I've been feeling quite repressed, struggling with the Church and its politics. Now that I've confronted that feeling, in a very dramatic way, and come through feeling fearless again, nothing can stop me. I am going to write with a freedom I've never allowed myself, even when I was an angsty twenty-something who was eager to write about things that challenged me, and things that frightened me. I feel no boundaries, and I see no boundaries, because there are no boundaries. I am back, and I am here to slay dragons! Should I find the dragon asleep, I will not tiptoe around to avoid an immediate conflict; I will kick it in the snout and wake it up, calling it to battle here and now; and I will emerge victorious!