So far I'm only doing these on the days when I break isolation. Today I went down to town for what I think will be the last time for a very long time. I've managed to arrange for everyone else on the property to stop having reasons to leave, but for one more trip, until the state of emergency is lifted or we run out of food. We have lots of food. Tomorrow I'll bottle up a few gallons of mead and get another batch started, so alcohol won't be a problem for a long time either.
In principle we could ride out two months here. In practice, I'll probably ride out when the weather is nice. One can hardly get sick on a motorcycle, as long as riding in the clean air is all one does. If we run short of anything I can make limited stops to pick up what we need and put it in the saddlebags, washing my hands immediately after leaving any stores with soap and bottled water.
The novel I'm editing is better than I remembered. It's really pretty good. I am removing a lot of commas, and smoothing some dialogue -- it wasn't bad before, but it sounded like the Medieval sources rather than like anything anyone would know how to hear today. Still, I'm pretty happy with it. I'll never write anything this good again; academic training has killed the instinct for beauty that I once possessed.
Ah, well. Perhaps 'killed' is too strong. There will be a lot of time for meditation in the coming weeks. Maybe I can recover something of what I once had.
9 comments:
All you need to do is forget all that human stuff you learned in school and use your ancestral intuition.
Everything your people did are inside your dna and body, grim.
" academic training has killed the instinct for beauty that I once possessed."
Not buying that. Maybe the training just needs more assimilation.
Like music- one could say endless hours practicing scales has burned out the creative, but really, it just the fingers getting exercised-once it is automatic, no more thought need attend to that, and the creative is free to flow, but enhanced now by the improved skills.
Academic training and beauty...Mark Twain wrote that when he became a riverboat pilot, trained to look at the water and understand the pattern of depths, it seemed to reduce his aesthetic pleasure in viewing the scenery.
If this is the novel I had the pleasure to read a draft of lo these many years ago, I cannot encourage you enough. It's deserving of a much wider audience.
It may have been. I've only written three novels in my life, and this one was the only Arthurian one.
Yes, I think that's the one. Sweet! I look forward to seeing it come out.
I have to agree with Raven- it may be rusted having been put aside for a time, but first a song, and now editing a novel- should bring things right back round, insofar as they were ever gone.
Write! I comment here very rarely, but read often. Would love to see a novel.
I don't know if you run to jigsaw puzzles at the Hall but if so you might like this one:
https://www.seriouspuzzles.com/leighton-the-accolade-1000pc-jigsaw-puzzle-by-eurographics/
My husband told me he almost bought me this one for Christmas, inspired by the numerous times I've sent him to this site to read something.
Post a Comment