Well…time for a short rest.

I sent the last of the first draft. I kind of compromised it a bit, condensed it so that I could have something to turn in. So it’s kind of like my prototype epic poem. My model-T epic poem.

Even so, in total, it is 266 pages.

resssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssst

OK, Josh seriously has to shut down now…for several hours. We’re talking 3rd person serious. I typed all night last night, I thought I’d be sending the last of it today. But it keeps growing. I did a condensed version (pretty much jumps only from major plot point to major plot point…with no deviations) and it still grows. I typed 41 pages last night and today (over…ugh…11 hours of writing). I sent what I had off. It’s about 235 pages right now. I think I’ve got 40-50 to go tonight.

I woke up yesterday, holding an extra pillow close…but I can’t remember who the girl was in the dream…lost it at the moment of waking…and she turned to a pillow.

This morning, after writing, I went by the mirror and thought for sure I had a bruised eye…then the other one looked the same…and I realized that my eyes were just that dark…wow…it made them look sunken in. Freaky. Need sleep.

And maybe I’ll find out who the pillow was…

I got stuck. I choked. Realistic expectations told me I couldn’t get all the pages done by dawn. Practical concerns drowned out my voice. I thought I lost my talent. I thought maybe I never had any. I found it difficult to breathe. Then I put on a pirate hat. Felt silly.

It’s helping…

“My mouth is like a circus but I’m always in debt”

-Cherry Poppin’ Daddies, “Pink Elephant”

“I’m flat broke but I don’t care

I strut right by with my tail in the air”

-Stray Cats, “Stray Cat Strut”

"Well you're in your little room
and you're working on something good
but if it's really good
you're gonna need a bigger room
and when you're in the bigger room
you might not know what to do
you might have to think of
how you got started
sitting in your little room"

-White Stripes, "Little Room"

I’m fading fast

and it’s past three in the A.M.

and I still have dozens of pages to write

and I think I’m staring at my double fisted cans of PEPSI

the way Popeye might look at a can of spinach, after getting his ass kicked.

Just for grins, here’s what Josh is listening to, while he writes his dark epic poem – here’s the first 25 tracks I get (when I hit RANDOM) on my thesis playlist:

1. Gary Numan, “Dark”

2. Smashing Pumpkins, “Bullet With Butterfly Wings”

3. Stone Temple Pilots, “Vaseline”

4. Alice in Chains, “Bleed the Freak”

5. Nox Arcana, “Winters Knight”

6. System of a Down, “Chop Suey!”

7. Disturbed, “Fade to Black” (cover)

8. V-Shaped Mind, “Monsters (Under the Bed)”

9. Alice in Chains, “Down in a Hole”

10. Nox Arcana, “Gregorian Hymn”

11. Midnight Syndicate, “Born of the Night”

12. Nine Inch Nails, “Dead Souls”

13. Graeme Revell, “Bury the Hatchet” (soundtrack theme from Sin City)

14. Nirvana, “Lake of Fire”
15. Lacuna Coil, “To Myself I Turned”
16. Moby, “Everloving”
17. White Zombie, “Blood, Milk, and Sky”
18. Trevor Jones, “Into the City” (soundtrack theme from Dark City)
19. Candlebox, “You”
20. Evanescence, “Ascension of the Spirit”
21. David Draiman, “Forsaken”
22. Rolling Stones, “Paint it Black”

23. Crash Test Dummies, “Mmm Mmm Mmm Mmm”
24. Stone Temple Pilots, “Tripping on a Hole in a Paper Heart”
25. Lucigen, “Cadaver”

This news story made it into a chapter of my book:

EXPLODING TOADS

In the real world, it is still an unexplained mystery.  In my fictional world, there is an Aesop reason (if Aesop was a little more twisted) for the events.

So I took this semester off campus, to finish my thesis and a draft of the novel for the White Wolf contest, at my parents’ house.  It sucks to say this to a stranger, “Yeah…I’m living in my parent’s house…”  But, for those who know me and my folks, they know hanging around here is not a bad prospect.

My mom, for a few weeks, is visiting family in Florida.  So it’s just me in the house, typing away at my book…and occasionally, I see my Dad.

The other night I’m telling him about my trouble sleeping (in general…but lately in particular) and he has trouble understanding this because, he can drop off whenever he needs to, regardless of how much caffeine he’s ingested (my brother is like this too and I envy them).

“Are there any worries keeping you up?” he asked.

“No, nothing like that,” I said.

“You probably aren’t getting enough sex.”

“………………………………….”

I think my mouth probably hung open, in mild shock, for a bit.  Even if I had any words to answer that, I couldn’t really deny it.

“…..uh….yeah…huh…that’s true….”

Well, far be it from me to rebuke the wisdom of my elders.  I guess I’ll just put it on my TO DO list, after I finish my Thesis this week…

-Name a CD you own that you think no-one else on your friends list does.-

Winter’s Knight – by Nox Arcana

–Name a book you own that you think no-one else on your friends list does.-

Malleus Maleficarum (“The Witches’ Hammer”) – the guide book the inquisition used

-Name a movie you own on DVD/VHS/whatever that you think no-one else on your friends list does.-

Black Days – Haha…it’s not really out yet, I just have one of the handy cast/crew copies!

-Name a place that you have visited that you think no-one else on your friends list has.-

The Fulani village in Senegal, Africa – where I gave a little girl my sunglasses and she smiled bigger than the sky.

-Name a piece of technology or any sort of tool you own that you think no-one else on your friends list has.-

A snake hook (used for the safe removal of feisty serpents from their cages, or the wild…and by removal I mean picking up…not exterminating).