Shedding the scales of writer's rust

Mood: anticipatory

Listening to: Gjallarhorn

Finished my preparations for World Fantasy in a couple of weeks. I'm looking forward to it. Haven't been to a con in over a year. Then it's Nanowrimo and OryCon for the rest of November. The rust is thick from not writing much in the last couple of months. Next month should help me take it all off in huge flaking chunks.

Speaking of chunks, I'm in the midst of Jay Lake's Trial of Flowers. It's an interesting, ornate, fabulously grotesque novel, and though I can't say I much like the protagonists, I'm interested enough in the world and the gritty Victorian carnival atmosphere Jay brings to the world that I'm in it to the end. I've been drawn in flinching. On a line-by-line basis, I'm absolutely digging the writing. Always a prodigy for as long as I've known him, Jay has really matured into an extraordinary craftsman. I picked up a copy of his next novel, Mainspring, and I look forward to delving into that after I'm done with Flowers.

One of the things I've discovered this summer is how easy it is to fall out of the habit of taking care of oneself, including writing and writing-supportive activities. I'm someone who processes stress via physical activity, and I fell into a headspace where I tried to write at the cost of not running or lifting. In the end, the failure to nurture my physical needs boomeranged back to undermine my focus on writing. With the sale of Tesseraction (more on that later, but it's the videogame company some friends and I started in 2001), I've had a lot of other items occupying my attention.

Last week I dug into the Fast FIction exercises and reviewed the stories waiting in my folder for either trunk or polish. Wrote a new story dubbed "Ponies" at about a thousand words for Tiffany's middle school storytelling festival and read it to five groups of middle schoolers. That was a ton of fun. The kids loved the creepy spin I included, and I always enjoy reading performances.

This Wednesday evening I'll be at the UO Bookstore for a WotF booksigning, my first in nearly a year. Time does fly, oh my. I'm with this year's Wordos winners, Damon Kaswell and John Burridge. Next week the Wordos holds its annual Halloween reading. I may use the "Ponies" story from the middle school festival, but I need to trim it a bit first.