February Sweeps - Day 51

Today was Sunday, and I burned another hour today watching Letterman reruns.  One day, I'll get in a time machine and go back to 1984, see if I can get a job as a writer or an intern on "Late Night."  Maybe get a drink served by a young Bruce Willis, perhaps date Drew Barrymore for a while.*  I guess that would mean living in New York, though.  Aww, forget it.

After counting up my (few) words yesterday and tabulating my monthly total, I realized I've fallen way farther behind this month than last month, despite being exponentially busier in February.  But then, writing wasn't my chief priority in March (publishing was supposed to be, and how, exactly, has that gone?).

Still, today is Sunday, and I haven't left the house (except to take the trash out).  The sun is shining and neighbor kids are being super loud in their backyard (sounding like they're in my own backyard).  I really ought to drive to the park, sit down, and not move until a) I reach a thousand words, or 2) I crap my pants.

Of course, the latter seems more likely right now.

I saw a request for entries for an anthology of stories about wizards the other day, and thought I'd at least see if I could come up with an idea I liked with a wizard in it.  It shouldn't be a priority, since I'm hip-deep in two (or three) other unfinished stories right now, and there's, technically, a wizard in my Lara & the Witch sequel (I got this idea of filming me recording the levitation chapter, and releasing it here, just in case people get a kick out of watching the narration).

I've always liked the stories about villages that shun somebody because they're different, or ugly, or powerful, and then they end up coming to that person to ask for help later.  That could easily be the basis for a wizard story, where they kick the old man out because  . . . well, it's always religion that causes these things, so that's pretty easy.  And then, well, what happens?  A plague comes?  Monsters?  Invading hordes?  A portal to a place where demons dwell?  So they have to go to him, hat in hand, and ask if he'll make the bad stuff go away.  And of course, he does, but not before lecturing them about prejudice and fearing those they don't understand, and making them all grovel just a bit.  And he's able to solve their problems, after which, they welcome him back into the bosom of their village again.

And then it's revealed he opened the portal to begin with, to set the demons on the folks that hurt his feelings with their superstitions.  Seems pretty straightforward, don't it?

So, I did go to the park, sat there, typed a thousand words, then did the damn stairs, and went back to the car and did another thousand words.  I jogged, listed over a hundred items on eBay, finished my edit for StarShipSofa, and recorded two Lara/Holcomb chapters.

Not bad, eh?

Words Today: 2625
Words In March: 29,838

*Whoops, I guess she would've been nine in 1984.  I didn't do the math properly, big shock.