Well, dear readers, I am sitting here like so much fish, taking a little break from writing and yet here I am, writing. How do you take a break from writing and keep writing? I suppose it is the way of things. I take a break from writing a new book to write some of these here new notes. I’m trying to fight the urge to have a snack of some sort, because I ate at two-thirty and it’s now eleven-fourteen. When you hear the tone, the time will be eleven-fifteen – beep. Anyone remember that? I used to love the Time Lady. I used to call the Time Lady all the – time. I used to have little conversations with the Time Lady when I was a young boy. I’d ask her questions like, what time is it, Time Lady? And she’d answer me. “The time is eleven-seventeen and twenty seconds.” Beep. This Time Lady lady knew what the HELL she was talking about. If you tried to change the subject and ask her what was on TV at eight, she’d just tell you the time. She never wavered in her dedication to telling the correct time. She was the rock of time. Even if you got annoyed with her, she’d still tell you the time. You couldn’t rattle her no matter what you said to her. When I was VERY young, I thought it was an actual person sitting somewhere, telling everyone the time, live as it happened. I’ve done a little research on my close personal friend, the Time Lady. Pretty much every country had a Time Lady. It began here in a little year I like to call 1934. It was permanently discontinued here in California in 2007. I believe the last time I called the Time Lady would have been pre-1965. Oh well, time marches on and so did the Time Lady, but I did love her so. There was a time when I thought I might ask the Time Lady out on a date, but she didn’t know from dates, only times. What the HELL am I talking about? I did manage to watch a motion picture last night, at least most of one as I did doze off a couple of times. It was entitled The Stendhal Syndrome for 1996, a Dario Argento film starring his daughter Asia Argento. I usually stay away from after his first three films because he got too gory for me – but I do like the those first three very much – The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, Cat o’ Nine Tails (my favorite of the three), and Four Flies on Gray Velvet. Those were very stylish giallos. I’ve seen bits and pieces of his other films and he’s always visually interesting. And I have to say, the first seven or eight minutes of The Stendhal Syndrome are fantastic. I was instantly hooked – a visually stunning sequence. It didn’t hurt to have one of the great cameramen shooting it – Giuseppe Rotunno. The rest of the film never quite reaches those heights and then it just gets a bit silly in its last third, but those first seven or eight minutes are amazing, and the Ennio Morricone score is great and I must seek it out.
Prior to that, I finally got eight hours of good sleep and didn’t get up until 11:45. I’ve been staying up late due to writing and I’d like not to do that, so I’m going to try and do most of the writing during the day and maybe early evening. First, I answered e-mails. Next, I futzed and finessed for about ninety minutes, then wrote two new pages. I went to the ATM, then got In ‘N’ Out for food, came home, ate it – not quite as yummilicious as usual but still good. Then I wrote more pages, took a break to have a telephonic conversation, wrote a few more pages, and just wrote another two for a total of ten so far and I’ll definitely do at least four more if not five. I’m in a dialogue heavy section and those pages go a lot faster than prose-heavy pages.
Today, I’ll be up by ten or eleven, depending on when I get to bed. I’ll futz and finesse, write new pages, check with the mail place to see if UPS lied to me when they said the package would be redelivered today, if it’s there I’ll go get it, I’ll eat something amusing from somewhere, I’ll write more pages, take a few breaks, and then at some point I can watch, listen, and relax. And write more pages.
Tomorrow, I’ll send Muse Margaret however many pages I’ve done and hope she likes them. Then I’ll write until it’s time to leave for our first casting session, which will go from eight to eleven. I’m looking forward to it. The rest of the week is more writing, trying to book the open MRI, and just doing whatever else needs doing.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, be up by ten or eleven, futz and finesse, write new pages, hopefully get my errant and truant package, eat, write, and then watch, listen, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite films that feature animals as central characters? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall dream of my happy days with the Time Lady.