Day: July 1, 2008

I once read through a collection of short stories by Issac Asimov. They all featured a wish granting demon named Azrael. However, each wish came with a cost and the cost was frequently much higher than the value of the wish. They were classic Monkey’s Paw type stories, but I found them entertaining. The one that has been coming to mind lately is the story of a writer who was constantly frustrated by the small delays in his life. He was always stuck in traffic, waiting for elevators, waiting to get into restaurants, etc. The writer was tired of all of these frustrations, and so when Azrael offered to take them away, the writer accepted with glee. At first the wish was a delight. Traffic magically cleared in front of him, cabs always stopped the moment he went to call one, all the traffic lights were green. But then the cost became apparent. The writer found his ideas had dried up. He could no longer write. Apparently all those delays and frustrations were necessary to his creative process. He begged Azrael to take back the wish, but naturally the demon would not.

Lately I feel like that writer. The spaces in my life that used to generate ideas have been filled other things. Drives where I used to ponder plot points, I now plan how to sort invoices, or what to make for dinner, or which merchandise should come next, or how we should proceed with marketing, or thinking ahead to how to run convention booths. This is not permanent. The writing will wait for me. I can see it ahead, probably later this Fall. The next six weeks are very busy, but then we are getting into a long space with no convention travel. There may be no convention travel for an entire year. That creates space for many things. Mostly it makes space for us to create more Schlock books, but I think there will be fiction from me as well.

Today I broke the schedule. I went to bed on time and then slept until I was done sleeping. Link and Kiki got up early because there was a borrowed video game they wanted to play, but Gleek and Patch slept late too. I never did fix breakfast because no one realized they were hungry until it was time to leave for the Tayler family picnic lunch. All the Tayler siblings were in town, including the branch of the family that resides in Georgia. It was a perfect opportunity to let all the cousins play. Play they did. A water kick-ball course had been created in the back yard. It was a joy to see all those kids, mostly under the age of 8, run and splash. The girl cousins out numbered the boys 10 to 4, so Gleek was in heaven. She is full of plans that we should go visit in Georgia really soon. After the water play, the party moved indoors. I didn’t want to break up the games, so I just hung out for most of the afternoon. I even snuck a nap.

When I arrived home, I discovered that my discouraged post of yesterday had garnered twice as many responses as I usually get. They were all people expressing confidence, offering suggestions, or otherwise lending support. By the time I was done reading, my brain had begun churning over possible courses of action. I suspect that in a short time I will manage to work myself into excitement for the project of marketing Hold Horses, rather than discouragement over work still to be done.

As I was writing responses to all the kind comments, I noticed my backyard neighbor trundling a load of sand into my yard. It turns out that when sand was delivered for their new patio, they had lots more than they needed. They dumped the extra sand into our sandbox as a surprise for us. Even better, the new sand is worlds nicer and softer than the stuff we had before.

Later this evening the Tayler siblings will be descending on our house to play games late into the night. It has been a really good day. It is good for us to break the schedule sometimes. Tomorrow needs to be closer to normal, but I think Thursday will be a play day as well.