The car is fixed. New alternator, as we suspected. It cost a pretty penny, but less than we were fearing.
I had a good conversation with the tow-truck driver on the way to the garage last night, by the way. As I had broken down behind Generation X Videos, he asked me what Generation X Videos was.
"It's a video store specializing in cult movies," I reply. Then, immediately struck by the horror that he might think that these movies promoted Satanism, I added, "You know, science fiction, fantasy, Harry Potter and stuff."
"Ah!" said the driver, and the conversation moved on to the absolutely exorbitant price of movies in the theatres these days and how it was better to just wait for the DVD... most of the time. He wanted to take his kids to see Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, but ended up taking his mother instead.
Except for having my car towed, it was a good night. The conversations we have when we're dependent upon strangers, eh?
I've been asked, how is it that I can write so much, and still have time for work, the Trenchcoat Farewell Project, Rosemary and Time and Transit Toronto. What's my secret?
I have a few secrets, actually. The big one is that I can accurately type at 85 wpm. It saves me a lot of time entering in these posts since I can type about as fast as I can think. If you can freewrite on a computer, you can get a lot done.
I also love to write. That about says it all, frankly. I love to write, and I make the time for it. I take whatever time is given to me for it and treat it like an exquisite gift. When I have a few spare moments in the coffee shop, I pull out my briefcase and write a few words on a notepad. When I'm home and sitting at my computer, I write there as well. As for how I've managed to keep this blog going regularly, it's because I write and save. I've written a number of posts that I haven't published, yet, so to the untrained eye, you don't see me going through a slow patch.
But the best secret of all is that I write, and the more I write, the easier it becomes for me. I'm not talking about writing something publishable -- that's always hard, but the task of just sitting down and putting myself into a frame of mind where writing was possible used to be much harder than it is now. Look at the earliest entries in my blog; they're much shorter than the posts you see today. I do ramble, and I've got to fix that, but it's still a good thing, because writing too much is better than writing too little. You can always edit things back down.
So, if you want to write, by all means write. Write for yourself. Write with the expectation that you will never have an audience. Write because it's fun, and write whenever you can. Take a pad of paper and a pen wherever you go and, when you get a moment, write. Writing gets easier just like exercise gets easier so long as you are in it regularly and for the long haul.
I finished work on the rewrite of Trenchcoat 4's Distractions early yesterday. Well, the first draft, anyway. I barrelled through this 14,000 word story so fast, I'm sure there are plenty of typos.
I gave Dan Kukwa a copy to read at the gym, and he quite liked it. Now if only I could get him to proofread it. I am pleased with what I added to the story, however. I always thought the ending petered out a bit. Adding to the villain's motivation, and bringing the Celestial Toymaker's defeated toys into the mix strengthened the ending, and might just make this an intriguing addition to the Farewell Project. Time will tell.
Either way, with Distractions out of the way, we can now get back to laying out the issue, and make some real progress towards that March/April date of going to the printers...