Well, dear readers, I am a man possessed. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I, BK, am a man possessed. I am in full throttle book mode and that’s really all I think about. I’m afraid I’m not being attentive to friends, I’m not being swift about answering e-mails, or returning telephonic calls. And this man was definitely crazed yesterday – I think I wrote twenty-eight pages yesterday. Part of it is because I keep going back and adding little things that come to me. And part of it is because, as with There’s Mel, I want to get it all down while the memories are strong or, in certain cases, semi-strong.
Muse Margaret called me first thing in the morning. It had indeed taken her longer to read these pages due to the number of them. She was very happy with them and said that everything held her interest and she was never bored. She said that she gets exhausted just thinking about all the stuff I was doing back then. She had just a few little things she wanted me to look at – just to add some detail to a couple of things. Her big thing pertained to the section on the recording of Hello, Dolly! While I wrote it exactly the way it happened, she felt that in doing so I was treading dangerous territory, because I’m writing about a beloved legend and occasionally it was seeming angry to her. She asked me to just look at that section. After finessing, that’s the first thing I did. And I could see what she was talking about. So, I made a few changes – a couple of deletions and some rephrasing of certain things. That stopped it from seeming like I was editorializing rather than just dispassionately saying what happened, which was the way to go. You still get the gist of it, but it’s more even-keeled now and better.
I called muse Margaret and read her the revised version and she loved it. I wrote a couple of new pages, then went and had some food – a salad and two bagels. Then I picked up one teeny-tiny package, after which I came home. I then began writing in earnest and did about fourteen pages. Then I took a little break, then did some more and I thought that was it for the evening. I then sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night, I watched another Maigret movie. This one was the second to last episode of the series. It wasn’t one of the very best, but it was enjoyable and much better than the handful I haven’t liked from the beginning year or two. The cast was excellent.
I then ended up writing yet more pages and found one timeline was off by a whopping four years. I don’t know why I was remembering it so wrong, but the minute I actually figured it out, then other things made sense. For some weird reason, I thought I’d seen Blood Brothers with Petula and the brothers Cassidy, had intended to record it, but when it fell apart, ended up doing a solo album instead. I thought that all happened in one year, and obviously I thought that year was 1998, the year we made Petula’s album. But I’d seen it at the end of 1994! I couldn’t figure out why one of the show’s co-stars appeared on an album of mine before I saw her in Blood Brothers. Now we know why, because it was four years earlier and I cast her right after seeing the show. I’m not going back to put the Blood Brothers story in the 1994 section because it plays better as a memory piece when I’m talking about Petula’s album.
I will say that in the next two days I will most likely be finished with the Varese years. And I got an idea today about how I will probably handle the subsequent five years of the book. I’ll be thinking about that over the next few days, but the idea of it felt right to me.
Well, why don’t we all click on the Unseemly Button below because I must get a good night’s beauty sleep so I can arise fresh as a daisy to do more writing, a man possessed.
Today, I shall hopefully arise after a good night’s sleep. I would love to jog but unless I really get motivated there simply may be no jogging until I finish the book. I shall finesse, I shall write a few new pages, I shall eat, I shall hopefully pick up some packages, I shall write, I shall write, then I shall go to a screening of The Artist at the DGA, after which I’ll return and write more. But I did ten extra pages yesterday, so even if I were to only do between ten and fifteen I’d be fine.
Tomorrow, more writing, a lunch, and more writing, and the same thing goes for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, not necessarily in that order.
Why don’t we put on our pointy party hats and our colored tights and pantaloons, why don’t we break out the cheese slices and the ham chunks, why don’t we dance the Hora or the Lambada (The Forbidden Dance) because today is the birthday of our very own dear reader Pogue. So, let’s give a big haineshisway.com birthday cheer to our very own dear reader Pogue. On the count of three: One, two, three – A BIG HAINESHISWAY.COM BIRTHDAY CHEER TO OUR VERY OWN DEAR READER POGUE!!!
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, finesse, write, eat, hopefully pick up some packages, write, write, see a screening, write, and perhaps write. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s Ask BK Day, the day in which you get to ask me or any dear reader any old question you like and we get to give any old answer we like. So, let’s have loads of lovely questions and loads of lovely answers and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, a man possessed.