Author: gregh121

I am a writer and editor who lives in New Orleans.

Sunshine of Your Love

Wednesday! The week is almost half over!

Well, more than half for me, since I am taking Friday off. I dropped Paul off at the Monteleone this morning–it’s not like him not being home is going to be different, I’ve barely seen him these last few weeks anyway–on my way into the office and am still riding a bit high on the endorphins triggered by my workout with Wacky Russian this morning. I slept really well last night–I even went to bed at nine thirty (!) because I didn’t feel so well…and woke up only twice throughout the night before going back to bed. It was kind of awesome, actually; I’ve been sleeping so well this week that I hope this continues. After the TWFest/S&S weekend, I am going to commit to continue to eat healthy (I’ve lost nine pounds so far since Carnival) and make it to the gym a few more times a week. It just means going to be earlier and getting up earlier. Without Paul being home at night this week I’ve been able to get to bed early; once this is all over again I am going to commit to working out more frequently as well as continuing to eat healthier with a goal of being between 190-200 pounds by Labor Day weekend. As I am now at 216 or so, I should think I would be able to do this with a concerted effort over the summer.

It can be done. It can. And it will. It must.

Of course, this means none of my clothes will fit, but hey. There are worse things. And my pants are already too big from the weight loss I’ve managed so far.

I also need to take advantage of the massage gift certificate Paul gave me for Christmas.

The writing hasn’t been going that well this week, at least not so far. I got some disappointing news yesterday about a project I was very excited about, but these things happen. You can’t take them personally, but when you’re already having a bad writing week having something fall through due to no fault of your own–and frankly, I do think there was some shady shit going on there–it can create a spiral. I feel better today about things, frankly, and ready to get some work done. I am going to do some editing and maybe some brainstorming with the Scotty book–it needs some more thought before I can really get it going–and work on that pesky other short story. I may even edit one of my others and submit it somewhere. Why the fuck not?

And on that note, I am going to get back to the spice mines.

Here’s a Hump Day hunk for you, CR.

People Got to Be Free

Tuesday. I managed to get a shit ton of stuff done yesterday; well over half of my to-do list, which was quite a triumph. I’m not sure what that was all about, frankly, but I am sure it had something to do with going to bed early. I did the same last night; much earlier than I usually do, and am feeling pretty well rested this morning as well.

Note to self: going to bed early on nights when you have to get up early the next morning is the smart thing to do, dumbass. Make a habit of it.

Paul checks into the hotel tomorrow for the weekend. It’s not like I’ve seen much of him lately, anyway. He gets home after I go to bed, so if I’m lucky we have a bit of conversation in the morning on my way out the door. I’ll be glad when this is all over and we can get back to some semblance of normality, again. I kind of feel like I’ve been living alone for the last few weeks. Heavy heaving sigh. I’ve been watching a lot of old episodes of Dark Shadows lately, which is entertaining on many levels, but primarily for making me realize how deep an influence the old show had on me–how many books have I written that open with someone arriving someplace they’ve never been before? Let’s see….Lake Thirteen, Sorceress, Dark Tide, The Orion Mask…and even Timothy, kind of.

Granted, many novels open that way…but in my subconscious I always hear the mournful sound of the train whistle, the light on the front of the train, and the voice…”My name is Victoria Winters.”

It reminds me that long, long ago, I wanted to write about supernatural occurrences in a small town, perhaps even write a series, beginning with a book called I, Vampire. There’s a small town in Louisiana, just above Baton Rouge on the other side of the river, but before Lafayette, that is sort of what I had in mind when I first had that idea way back in the early 90’s; I had driven from Houston to Tampa with a friend and we detoured off I-10 in Louisiana to go along the River Road…I’ve actually used the fictional town in a couple of books already (Murder in the Arts District, The Orion Mask) and may go back and use it again. Need was also supposed to be the first in a supernatural series, which I’d intended to tie in to that town as well.

Maybe I’ll get back to that sometime.

I also have to stop myself from using the name “Collins” on a regular basis in my work. I would love to call a character Barnabas, too.

All right, time to get back to the spice mines. Here’s Tuesday’s hunk.

Love is Blue

Monday morning. I didn’t want to get up this morning, and in fact, hit snooze repeatedly for over an hour before finally dragging my sorry, lazy ass out of bed shortly after eight. But I do feel rested, which is a dramatic improvement over how I felt last Monday when I started out the week already tired. Which is fortunate, because this weekend is TWFest/Saints and Sinners. Paul will be abandoning me on Wednesday to check into the hotel, and I don’t have to go till late on Thursday. I took Friday off as well, and am coming in late on Monday as well. So, I trust I can survive the weekend in one piece and without being completely exhausted by the time I return to work on Monday. We shall see, I suppose.

The weekend wasn’t as productive as I would have liked–then again, when is it ever–but it did accomplish its primary purpose: getting rested for the new work week. I read some more of The Underground Railroad, which is slow going. Partly because the subject matter is so intense, partly because it’s written so simply yet beautifully I want to savor the experience, and I am constantly having to put the book aside to think. The best books always make me think. It really is quite extraordinary, but not a quick or easy read.

So, I made my weekly to-do list this morning, and am proud to say that I only had to transfer half of last week’s list to this week’s; which is always a good thing. I really need to get back into the habit of making the weekly to-do list. I don’t know when or why I stopped in the first place, because there is ever-so-much satisfaction in crossing things off the list; even when you don’t finish everything on it, you know? It felt really good this morning crossing off the things I got done last week, and even in adding the uncompleted tasks to this week’s list was, rather than ‘oh, you lazy bastard’, more of a ‘oh, this will be easy to get done.’ We’ll see how it goes, of course, but at least making the list this morning wasn’t daunting and didn’t make me feel even more tired, the way it did last week.

Last Monday, as I worked on my story “Happyland” for a submission deadline the very next day, I suddenly realized the reason–despite several rewrites already–the story kept getting rejected every time I submitted it anywhere was because the way the story was structured it simply didn’t work–and I hadn’t even gotten to the scary part yet. I realized that the entire story needed to be overhauled; I had developed a bad case of the ‘lazy edits.’ This happens to me from time to time; an attempt to make small tweaks to a story that doesn’t work rather than starting over again from scratch while retaining the best bits. “Happyland”, as originally envisioned and written, simply doesn’t work. It’s nothing new, it’s nothing original, it’s nothing fresh, it has nothing clever to say for itself. It’s based on something that happened to me as a kid–one summer when my immediate family, along with aunts, uncles and cousins on my father’s side–were staying for a week at a beach house in Panama City Beach, Florida, only about three blocks from the water. There used to be an amusement park, the Miracle Strip, that we used to go to every time we stayed at the beach, and one time I got stuck with my youngest cousin who wanted to ride the haunted house ride and was also too small to ride the rollercoaster–so every time we rode the coaster someone had to stay off and mind him. I was annoyed and angry, it was hot and humid, and the haunted house ride–which was, even to my eleven year old mind, lame–this time it was actually intense and scary. There was something different about the interior that time; and I’ve had nightmares about it ever since. That was why I wrote the story in the first place; to dislodge it from my subconscious as well as to follow Stephen King’s admonition to ‘write about what scares you.’ But the story as I wrote it doesn’t work, and on Tuesday I started, slowly but surely, to rebuild the story from the very first line. It may not work this time, either–but I want to get it done this time.

That way it’s ready the next time a call I want to submit to comes around.

The new Scotty isn’t going as well as it should be either; again because I was trying to make it easy on myself rather than recognizing that the framework can stay but the story is new and different. Ugh, such an idiot, really. But every once in a while lightning strikes and I wake up.

Heavy heaving sigh. And I got started on my taxes!

And now back to the spice mines.

Hey Jude

Well, yesterday was a bust. I got practically nothing done yesterday, other than laundering the bedding, doing the dishes, and straightening up some around the house. I was surprisingly tired, somehow, and wound up relaxing in my easy chair for most of the day, streamed a movie (G. B. F., which was really cute; it’s lovely to see that they are making teen movies with gay characters front and center) and then watched old episodes of Dark Shadows. I simply gave into the being tired and listened to my body, and decided it wasn’t smart to force myself to do anything when I was so tired and listless. I overslept again this morning–stayed in bed until ten again, just like yesterday–but am again refusing to feel any guilt. Obviously, my body, mind, and spirit need rest. Today I will have to go get groceries–no choice, really–and work on some things. We’ll see how it goes; trips to the grocery store rarely end well, you know? That always seems to wear me out somewhat.

And much as I loathe the very idea, my taxes do need to be done.

Heavy heaving sigh.

And I need to go to the grocery store.

Heavy sigh.

Oh, well, it has to be done, no sense in moping about it, right?

And since I embraced my lazy yesterday, I have to get things done today. There is no choice. It simply must be.

At least it’s a beautiful day out there, right? That has to count for something.

I am a little worried about my tendency to stay in the house. I mean, I have a new car and could spend time on the weekends doing things; like exploring New Orleans, going to the beach–all sorts of things–and yet it’s true: a body at rest tends to stay at rest. Like even now I am dreading the very thought of getting out of this chair and going out to do things. It really is sad.

But at least today I feel rested. Yesterday I did not; I felt tired all day. I already feel rested and awake this morning even though it’s already 11:30 and I’ve only had two cups of coffee. I do feel like if I can just get motivated I can clean and make groceries and edit and write and do some of my taxes and so on. And maybe, just maybe, I can get that rewrite of the story finished and maybe make some progress on Crescent City Charade and figure out some other things.

The day is rife with potential and possibilities. You have to love that, don’t you?

I also rewatched my old DVD of Beauty and the Beast yesterday; I’ve been thinking about writing about it and the live-action version that’s just been released (I do want to go see it; just am not sure when I’ll be able to get to a theater) and some of the controversy involved with both. I love the movie, I love the stage play based on it, and if people want to read things into it that are offensive and whatever, have at it. I will still love the movie and the story, and read into it what I see in it: namely, the entire movie is a metaphor for HIV/AIDS, and hope.

Next weekend is the TWFest/Saints & Sinners; I’ve made the executive decision to not stay in the Quarter for more than Friday night; I shall simply commute back and forth between the evejavascript:void(0);nt and the Lost Apartment. That way we won’t have to mess with boarding Scooter. I’ve taken Friday off from work; I shall head down there in the early afternoon and go shopping at the outlet mall for an outfit to wear to the opening parties, and then after everything I am doing on Saturday I shall take the streetcar home, and then take it back down there for Sunday’s events.

All right. I am getting nothing done here. So I shall post a picture of one of the attractive young actors from G. B. F. before I go.

This is Taylor Frey, who also played gay on Days of Our Lives.

What Does It Take (To Win Your Love)

SATURDAY!

I slept in this morning gloriously, and it is apparently already above seventy degrees outside; I see nothing but blue sky when I look up, and the sun is shining through my filthy windows. I will undoubtedly have to get out the ladder and do the windows today. My plan was for today to be my day off; cleaning, of course, doesn’t count because as weird as it sounds, I actually like to do it.

I might start some preliminary editing on the secret project as well. But don’t hold me to that, okay?

Yesterday, a conversation with friends somehow ended up on the subject of the movie The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, which I saw in the theater when it was first released but haven’t really seen much since then, other than the clip of “Little Bitty Piss Ant Country Place,” which was de rigeur at Lafitte’s on Sundays for tea dance. I liked the movie when I first saw it, and some of the music was quite catchy. But there was always something a bit off about it. Last night I decided to stream it, watch it from a modern-day perspective, and yes, the movie is quite disturbing on many levels.

It seems funny now, but back when the film was released many television stations couldn’t say the word “whorehouse” on air; many newspapers wouldn’t print the word, either. (I don’t know how they reported on actual whorehouses; I guess they called them ‘houses of prostitution’ or something like that) And the tone of the movie…well, I guess it could be best described as “Hee Haw, only with whores.”

And that was really what the problem was for me, on this rewatch. Prostitution is prostitution; whether you think it should be a crime or not (for the record, I think it should be legalized and taxed) turning it–and sex–into this ‘wink-wink-nudge-nudge’ cutesy musical just doesn’t work. And there’s also an underlying cynicism to the movie that clashes with the cutesy-ness: the governor is a politician who doesn’t really care one way or the other whether the Chicken Ranch is breaking the law or is a boon to the economy of the town but only about popular opinion–making his decision only when the polls come in; Melvin P. Thorpe, the Houston news sideshow who breaks the story and gets the Chicken Ranch shut down is a snake-oil salesman of the worst kind–a phony and a liar and an anything-for-ratings shyster; likewise, the political structure of the town is perfectly fine with the existence of the Chicken Ranch and taking Miss Mona’s money until things go south and they all abandon her when the spotlight is shone upon the town; and so on and so forth. All along the whorehouse, Miss Mona and the sheriff trying to protect her as shown as the heroes/victims of the story while law-and-order/politicians/the news are shown to be slick hucksters and really of lower character than the whores–begging the question, ‘who are the real whores here? The girls are selling their bodies but the others are selling their souls.’

There’s also the political subtext of city vs. country; a very popular political subtext in our so-called liberal popular culture, in which city people are seen as buffoons and the country people are the voices of reason and common sense–this thread has frequently run through film and television and even in literature to the point where politicians will feed on it: Sarah Palin’s “real America”, etc., ignoring the fact that the urban centers are the engines that drive the economy and where most of the population live. In this story, the ‘city folk’ from Houston are seen as the villains, not understanding something that the ‘country people’ see as not a big deal, making a big fuss over something that doesn’t bother the country people, and ultimately, telling the country people how to live their lives.

The fact that this movie is based on a true story makes the fluffy film even more unfortunate. Looking into the original non-fiction piece “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” that ran in Playboy, the film pretty much actually follows the trajectory of the movie’s story. They did take poultry in exchange for services during the Depression; the business did exist as long as it did in the movie; the sheriff did refuse to close it down despite being ordered to by the Attorney General of Texas; the house operated pretty much the way shown in the movie.

As I watched the movie again, I couldn’t help but wonder not only what happened to the girls after the Chicken Ranch was closed, but where they came from to begin with. I almost wish the movie had been made based more closely on the original article rather than turned into a musical–although the musical was a Tony-winning hit on Broadway. Also, casting Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton in the leads was also a mistake. Dolly was coming off her debut in 9 to 5, which had made her a bona fide movie star, and Burt Reynolds was one of the biggest male stars in the world at the time, which resulted in a lot of sanitization, which kind of hurt the movie. Burt and Dolly have chemistry together, and charisma to spare…but you never forget it’s Burt and Dolly, rather than Sheriff Ed Earl and Miss Mona. Burt and Dolly being cast also resulted in an adaptation to the original story which turned them into romantic interests, and a schmaltzy scene where they go on a picnic and stare up at the stairs and Miss Mona talks about her religious faith–having to explain Jesus to the sheriff in such a basic way that makes it clear that Ed Earl has somehow, as a small town Texas sheriff, never set foot in a church or watched a religious epic movie. I find that rather hard to believe.

There’s also a delicious irony in the fact that in a movie about a whorehouse, there is only one brief flash of bare breasts. The majority of the nudity in the movie is male–and it’s all in the post-game locker room scene, where the Texas A&M football team, having won their annual rivalry game with Texas, is excited about going to the Chicken Ranch (the winning team’s seniors are rewarded with a trip there). There are lots of great bare dancer bodies, even bare butts as they perform “Aggie Stomp.” (When I first saw the movie, I greatly enjoyed this scene as there were very few places to see the bare male form in popular culture at the time, or that many bare male forms at the same time. But even then I thought the guys weren’t bulky enough to be football players, and there certainly were no men big enough to play on the line.) The song itself again is one of those ‘wink-wink’ things, because we are supposed, as an audience, to believe that for college football players, being taken to a whorehouse was a treat–because football players never had access to women’s bodies for sex otherwise.

Riiiiiiiiight.

Of course, the Chicken Ranch is supposed to be closed until things settle down, but Miss Mona risks opening for the football party–which is, of course, when Melvin P. Thorpe and his camera crew break in and film. There’s also, if you pay attention in this scene, some subversive sexuality going on during the Aggie party–we see two players in bed with one woman; two guys and two women together; etc.

The movie now seems much sillier than it did at the time; terribly dated, more than a little misogynist, and like I said earlier, that ‘wink-wink, nudge-nudge’ approach to sex and sexuality now reads as annoyingly and insultingly coy.

I would actually love to read a non-fiction history of the Chicken Ranch, to be honest.

And now, back to the spice mines.

Grazing in the Grass

Good morning, Friday! How are you doing? I slept late again; it’s lovely to be able to sleep again but I would so love a happy medium; somewhere between insomnia and oversleeping would be somewhat lovely.

But I’ll take oversleeping over insomnia any day of the week, thank you very much.

The cold snap of the past few days has come to a merciful end, thank you Jesus, and our temperatures are supposed to go back up into the 70’s today, which will make for a lovely weekend. I didn’t take the car into the car wash the way I’d intended because I overslept this morning, but it will be a lovely chore for the weekend, most likely Sunday while everyone’s at church.

I made some progress on the book yesterday, which was a lovely feeling. Not as much as I would have liked, but I’ll take 1200 words. My writing machine is a bit rusty, so I am still working out the rust and kinks and having to warm up and stretch the muscles. The thought also crossed my mind last night that maybe I should put it aside and write something else first…but that’s probably just crazy talk.

But getting good sleep has made me feel energized again, and I am looking forward to all the things I need to get done this weekend. I even started pulling together my expenses for my taxes yesterday (RIGHT?), and may even be able to get all of that finished by Monday (rather than sitting down and making myself do it all at once, I am going to go slowly and do some here, some there, etc. until it is all finished and I am emailing my accountant). I also want to get my story “The Terrortorium” finished this weekend, and I want to start editing a secret project I can’t talk about publicly yet.

Never a dull moment around the Lost Apartment.

Here’s a hunk to slip you into the weekend:

Too Busy Thinking About My Baby

Another glorious night of sleep, and I feel terrific this morning. I’ve already done one load of laundry, am well through a second, had breakfast, and am about to put the dishes away. I have a shorter than usual day at the office today; I logged some extra time earlier in the week so I can go in later–which is truly lovely; I have my morning free both today AND tomorrow (tomorrow morning I will be getting the car washed on my way to work). I decided to wait until next Friday to get my new outfit for the Tennessee Williams Festival opening party (I’d debated going this weekend, but I really don’t want to face any mall on the weekend). My breakthrough on Crescent City Charade definitely is working; I am very pleased with the flow now, and I am also hoping to get the rewrite of the short story finished up this weekend. All in all, a win all around.

I also got some book mail this week: Lisa Unger’s In the Blood  and Jonathan Beckman’s How to Ruin a Queen. Constant Reader will remember how much I enjoyed the first Lisa Unger novel I read last year, and I am definitely looking forward to reading more. The Beckman book is history (although that would make a great title for a noir about someone obsessed with revenge on a drag queen); it’s about the Affair of the Diamond Necklace, a huge scandal from the 1780’s that helped set the stage for the French Revolution. I’ve always been vaguely aware of the story, but not in any great detail. Someone from an old noble house of France, the Cardinal de Rohan, claimed to be an agent of  Marie Antoinette’s in order to buy a fabulous necklace for her–once the necklace was purchased the Queen claimed to know nothing about it, and a trial ended up happening. Marie Antoinette was so hated by this time that popular opinion was solely on the side of the Cardinal de Rohan; he was eventually found not guilty and there was a massive celebration at this public humiliation of the Queen. Every step of the way the royal family mishandled the situation, but I’ve never read enough about the Affair of the Diamond Necklace to know exactly how it played out and it’s never made a lot of sense to me. So, I am really looking forward to diving into this one (I also recently acquired a book about an enormous scandal at the Court of Louis XIV, The Affair of the Poisons, which I am also looking forward to reading). As you can tell, Constant Reader, right now I am going through a French history period.

I also want to get this essay about being a gay crime writer finished this weekend, and I also need to do the deep clean of the Lost Apartment.

I also can’t believe it’s almost April. Then again, time flies at the beginning of the year always, as it’s one thing after another in New Orleans. We’ve been having a slight cold snap this week–temps in the 50’s and 60’s–which after the gloriously beautiful spring days we had for Carnival seems completely unnecessary, wrong, and flat-out vile.

As this is also the last weekend before the Festival kicks into gear next week, I doubt Paul will be around much; as it is, I’ve barely seen him the last few weeks. He gets home after I got to bed and sometimes leaves after I do, so he’s still sleeping when I leave the house. He’s already out the door this morning; I got to see him awake for all of ten minutes. Sigh. But soon enough things will be normal around here again. Heavy heaving sigh.

Or what passes for normal, at any rate.

All right, I suppose I should return to the spice mines.

Here’s today’s hunk.

 

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Suspicious Minds

I had insomnia both Sunday and Monday night, and the sleep assistance I usually rely on did not work. So both days I was tired, sleepy, crabby and miserable, unable to focus on anything. I was trying to finish a short story for a submission call with a deadline of yesterday; Monday as I worked I realized the story, as it stood, simply didn’t work and needed a complete overhaul. Ordinarily, two days to overhaul a story where the basic framework was already in place wouldn’t be a problem for me (whether it would have been accepted, of course, is a whole other ball of wax), but tired and unable to think clearly? No, that made it completely impossible. I’ve also been kind of stuck on the Scotty book–but last night, as I kept dozing off in my easy chair, it came to me how to get past the place where I am stuck with the Scotty book; as I suspected, I simply hadn’t gotten back into his voice. So, I am hoping to make some progress on it this week as well as rewriting the story–that way the story will be ready the next time something it might be appropriate for rolls around.

Win-win.

There really is something horrible about the inability to sleep. I can’t afford to have sleepless nights, as I am always juggling so many things that I really can’t have a day where I get nothing done. And while I didn’t sleep through the whole night–I woke up around five, and then slept on and off until it was time to get up for Wacky Russian–those six or so hours of deep, restful sleep have certainly made an enormous difference today.

I may even start pulling my taxes together. #madness

I’ve also been too tired to read, so I am also hoping I can get back to The Underground Railroad this week and get it finished. I think I am going to read Ben Winters’ Underground Airlines next; I thought it would be interesting to read the two books back to back for a compare/contrast kind of thing.

My goal is to write/revise a short story every week while working on the Scotty book. We’ll see how that goes, but hey, best intentions and all that. I am also going to start revising a secret project as well; getting back to it is long overdue, and I am kind of excited.

Again, it’s amazing what a good night’s sleep will do for someone.

So, here’s a hunk for you to get you through Hump Day.

 

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Crystal Blue Persuasion

A gloomy Monday morning with the threat of rain hanging over our heads; needless to say, the chill in the air and the gloom weren’t exactly the right combination to get me leaping out of bed this morning, ready to get to work and face a new week with good cheer and optimism. It is astonishing to me how little I actually managed to get done this weekend; part of it is because I wasn’t sleeping well; I don’t function on little sleep and so am trying to mix up the sleeping assistance since it’s no longer working. Heavy heaving sigh.

I didn’t get started on my taxes this weekend, which is terrible. I really need to get going on that; it’s not fair to my accountant to make her wait until the last minute…although I suspect it doesn’t take her very long to actually do my taxes, to be honest. It’s such a tedious chore, though, tallying up my expenses. It does make me feel rather homicidal, to be honest. But it generally only takes me a couple of hours to get it all done…maybe if I get a start on it and do a bit every day I can get it finished this weekend and be done with it. ’tis a thought.

While I was cleaning the house this weekend–I am really looking forward to doing the deep clean that this weekend’s cleaning was a preparation for–I also started doing some researching for some book ideas I am currently sitting on. I always do this; it’s also an interesting way to learn about my own past by finding out historical stuff about the places I am from or have lived. I learned some really interesting Alabama history this weekend by doing that; I also found some really interesting criminals on a website–The Most Notorious Criminal from every country in Alabama, which was fascinating. I am also interested in Kansas history, and found some interesting things there.

I also got the first issue of a new comic book series featuring the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew: The Big Lie.

Rebooting the Hardy Boys as a hard-boiled/noir style comic book is a great idea, quite frankly; just as the rebooting of Archie comics as a dark, moody noir style television show was a great idea. I’ve read all of the original Hardy Boys mysteries in their blue-spined editions; I’ve not kept up with the various reboots/restarts over the years. The premise of the comic–that Fenton Hardy was a police detective who was fired and accused of taking bribes and being corrupt; and then was murdered–and his sons are the prime suspects–is quite clever; plus making the two brothers not quite as close as they were in every other iteration was also quite clever. I am looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.

I doubt that the original series will get revised again; in the 1950’s the earlier books started being revised; I think all of the originals were eventually revised before the series was sold off in the late 1970’s. Those books are still in print and still sell, even though they are kind of archaic and incredibly dated now…I’ve always wanted to write a Hardy Boys book. Maybe once I have an agent…

And now, back to the spice mines.

Hot Fun in the Summertime

I am not feeling particularly motivated today. Yesterday I cleaned the Lost Apartment thoroughly for the first time since before Carnival, and frankly, between that and the laundry, I got a bit overwhelmed. This morning I woke up feeling tired and not well-rested and slightly out of it; again, motivation is NOT there. And I need to make groceries. And it’s cold and gray outside. (Okay, okay, it isn’t snowing.)

But I do need to rewrite a story today that I am submitting tomorrow for a submissions call (of course, deadline is tomorrow) and I want to get Chapter One of the new Scotty finished today at some point. And I need to start getting to work on my taxes.

Shoot me now.

But at least the apartment is clean. I’ll have to clean again next weekend, of course, but now that the first clean is done the second, more thorough clean will be that much easier. At least, I certainly hope so. It’s just so hard to keep up, you know? I also understand that I have unrealistic cleanliness standards (thanks, Mom), and there is only so neat and tidy the always-under-construction apartment can ever look, but I really wish I could someday get past the stress of ‘my house is always so slovenly looking.’

God, I do not want to make a grocery run.

But it’s not getting done by me just sitting here. I’ll be back in a bit.

Okay, that wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought. Sunday mornings and early afternoons are the best times to hit the grocery store in New Orleans; I even had Doris Day parking in front of the house when I got back. I’m in the process of preparing food for the week (made a salad; sauteed some brussel sprouts; and now I am going to do the prep for tonight’s dinner), and also reorganizing and redoing the interior of the refrigerator. I really hate my fridge; one of my goals for the year is to buy a new one with the freezer on the bottom.

Wow, I am just incredibly exciting, aren’t I?

I’ve also been toying with the rewrite of the story I mentioned earlier. It’s for a horror call, so I kind of have to amp up the scary, which isn’t easy for me. This is why I am not good at horror; I’m not good at scares, and I am not inventive enough to come up with the proper backstory that creates great horror. But, taking Stephen King’s advice–‘write about what scares you’–I am going to give this story the old college try. It’s based on something that actually happened to me when I was young–maybe around eleven or twelve–and obviously, it was more about how I scared myself at an amusement park when I had to go on the haunted house ride with a younger cousin, to the point that when we finally finished and came back out into the light I had goosebumps and my teeth were chattering and I was shaking a little bit.

But it was all in my mind. In the story, not so much.

We’ll see how it goes.

And on that note, it’s back to the spice mines.

Here’s a Sunday hunk for you, Constant Reader.