Irish Prayer For Writers

May your keyboard rise to meet your fingers without a need to delete,

May computer viruses, and rejections, never knock you on your seat,

May your muse be good and sober when you're making plot decisions,

And may sunshine flood through your window, illuminating those revisions!

(I will avoid poetry composition from now on, I swear.)

Happy St. Paddys!!!!

Netflix. The Sick Persons Friend.

Over the last week, my family has battled valiantly against the common cold. My days have been filled with hot cups of herbal tea, sick children, throat lozenges, and fluffy duvets. I've also been watching films sent to me courtesy of Netflix. As you can see, Matilda loves a good movie.

This has been a sweet situation, actually. Aside from the coughing and general queasiness. And the lack of writing progress. Very bad on that score.

What did I watch, you ask? Lots of British productions.

For example:

Doctor Who

Top Gear

Little Dorrit

Under the Greenwood Tree

North and South

Wives and Daughters

Cranford

Lark Rise to Candleford

The Remains of the Day

My children love the gear heads and The Doctor, but they slept through most of the others. It's the price they pay for hiding out in my room.

Hope you're all feeling healthy. If not, I suggest you join Netflix.

Feeling Cool

Here I sit on my fold out chair, listening to Ray Charles sing, A Fool For You, while drinking a green smoothie full of spinach, cucumbers, broccoli, and carrots made in my new Montel Williams fruit and vegetable emulsifier. Now, I ask you, who wouldn't feel cool with all that going on?

No need to answer. Consider it a rhetorical question.

Actually, the reason I'm so happy is that I've rewritten over half of The Second Life. Maybe you all are fast writers, but I am not. This is a huge project anyway. I'm changing tense, tone, adding more characters, taking the plot new places, etc. I like this process because it's hard. I'm developing new strength as a writer by doing something uncomfortable. Pain proceeds growth. Right? Sometimes?

What strengths do you wish to cultivate in your writing?

I want to be a better typist, for one thing. Geez, if I could just tear my eyes away from the keys! I'd also like to plot like a maniac. Oh, well. Remember what Browning said about exceeding your grasp?

Keep on reaching for the heavens, friends.

Should I switch to Matilda for my muse? Daniel Craig and The Mentalist aren't working out. Apparently, they have other things to do. Matthew Macfadyen is also busy.

Yes? No? What's your opinion? Remember: the dog is reliable and never asks for a raise in pay.