Mood:
downJust finished a book about Alfred Kinsey, the sex researcher. It was 773 pages long. The prose was only adequate. It is funny but I remember a phrase the author uses if it gets re-used just once. To please me every discriptive phrase needs to be new. The best parts of the book were about Kinsey's own kinky sex life. Poor man would have been horrified how his personal life was exposed, right down to the toothbrush he shoved up his penis and the rope he tied around his scrotum. All his hard work and this is the image I take from his life. Remember Karen the power of the sexual image in a book or short story. To please the reading always include one or two!
Today's goal is to walk downtown to the post office and put some bills in the mailbox. Then tomorrow after work I'll go to the bank and make certain we have the funds to cover those checks.
It has been cold outside and I haven't been walking around much. I have a new pair of high top converse sneakers to break in. Since I woke at 4am and have been reading straight to about 10am my mind took one look at those lace up shoes and balked. I don't have the mental energy to thread the new laces through their holes. It is early in the morning and my motor is running on fumes. Oh yes, took a break from reading to shower, a big accomplishment not to be forgotten.
After I stop at the post office I'll probably go to the used book store in town and see if there are any copies of Checkov's short stories. The plan for this year is to make it the year of the writer. I want to publish, to get more publishing credits to my name. In addition to continuing work on my book I want to write several short stories to publish in literary art magazines. Looked at the Keynon Review website yesterday and 1) they only take emailed submissions and 2) the submission period was from September of last year to January 31st. This gives me lots of time to prepare for next year's submission period. Taking a no rush policy suits me fine.
I want to publish to get the credit. But I also want to publish to push myself forward with my writing. To have goals and deadlines and above all - to be part of the big world out there. I've got a stable marriage and a stable living arraingement and it is now time to start producing. My main goal during the onset of my illness almost 20 years ago was to be a writer. When I got my tubes tied, effectively sterilizing myself the doctor said, "How do you feel?" and I answered her, "I feel like a writer. Not a mother, never to be a mother, but having taken a firm step towards being a writer." I really self-sacrificed for the craft at one point in my life.
Why did I stop writing and start making art? The first reason was that my boyfriend at the time found my writing boring. He was unimpressed and it was a part of my life I couldn't share with him. I tried sharing my writing with people in a psycho-social rehabilitation program but the people I loved, people with my disease, largely couldn't concentrate on my writing. But they would respond to my artwork, just as my muddleheaded boyfriend responded positively to my artwork. I didn't try to share my writing with strangers, a big mistake. I stayed close to home to people I felt safe with. Well, I'm safe now and my husband is really sharp. I can share my writing with him. And I'm not afraid anymore to get rejection slips from literary magazines. In fact, I welcome them. The main thing is the attempt to try to get published. I don't want their money, that would only foul me up with Social Security Disability. And I don't want to buy copies of the magazines I appear in so I can see my words in print. I just want the credit and to have to guts to try and try again. My writing will improve the more I try. My writing has improved since I started this blog. I need a game plan and a focus and this next year it is to publish.
Now to have some breakfast, take my morning medication and tie up those shoe laces.
