So today, after an all too typical week of detox, getting the last story out of my system and being increasingly depressed and agitated every day about not getting any work done, I might actually have the beginning of something new. If nothing else, even the illusion of a new project should make it easier for me to do the revisions I'm procrastinating on, because that way the revisions will count as a distraction from the Main Thing I Should Be Working On, and I'm terrible at resisting distractions of any kind.

I'd been mulling over the idea since midway through Star-Gazing of writing something that I could submit to the pirate issueof Shimmrer and/or Jeff Vandermeer's pirate anthology. (The deadline for the former is the end of January, and for the latter is the end of February, so those provide useful deadlines to get the story done, revised and ready by then if that turns out to be possible.) So the general flavor and contours of the story have been banging around in my head for a while, and it might finally be ready to take shape.

I wrote the first couple hundred words today, fingers crossed that it might actually have enough momentum in it to yield further words in the coming days so crucial to the survival of a fragile young story. Tentatively entitled "Of Rum, Madness, Thunderstorms and Prayer," it promises to include all of the things included in the title, as well as three-headed parrots and things that go bump in the night. Also characters and themes and stuff, space permitting.