Reading: old Analogs
Music: Henry Rollins Band
TV/Movie: Maisson Ikkoku
Link o' the Day: Gary Kronk’s Meteor Observing Calendar

I’m sure this has happened to many of you—especially those of you out there who are writers.

You wake up in the morning. All is well. You guzzle some cold soda to wake you up, maybe have a slice of cake or a slim jim for breakfast, then head out to the bus at 5am to go to work. (It’s like I’m describing your own life right now, huh?)

And bam… you get an idea. Some dialogue. Some exposition or descriptive turns of phrase. You get the glimmer of a plot and before you know it you just need to write and write and write.

But damn! You’re downtown trying to avoid getting hassled for spare change and you’re halfway to work where you’re stuck and unable to write until you get home. If you’re lucky, you won’t be too tired to be creative. You might not need to take that all-important nap, then make dinner, then do some work around the house.

Maybe you’re right.

Or maybe not. You might be able to make some notes. You might be able to dredge up those ideas you had in the morning. Then the cycle begins anew.

Okay, that sounds frustrating and all. Fortunately it doesn’t happen to me all the time. Many days I get to write even later in the day. Sometimes I can even sneak I some writing early in the wrokday before things get busy.

But on those days when you want or NEED to create, and can’t… boy—that’s when you start thinking that it might be time to find work in show business, chicken farming, math, and such similar.

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I recently finished Dan Brown’s DECEPTION POINT. This is one of his erlier books, previous to THE DAVINCI CODE’s successful debut. It’s not a bad book. There are still those maddeningly short chapters (as also appeared in ANGELS & DEMONS) and the pace is somethings a bit too fast. He’s not quite fallen into the Michael Chrichton trap where he’s writing more for Hollywood than the reader, but I can see how he’s getting close. Short-attention-span reading.

Still, it’s relatively intelligent, and it contains some honest surprises and unexpected twists. Unfortunately not all the twists are unexpected, and some of the characters are a bit too stock to be one-hundred percent believable. My biggest beef is the way Brown leads the reader on for a good hundred pages before getting to the meat of the story. It’s always: “I have a secret to tell you, but first, why don’t you look at this,” or “We have this big big really big secret, but I want you to talk to this person first,” or “We have a humungously huge secret that will totally knock your socks off, but first, let’s go to Pop’s Soda Fountain for a malted shake.”

Argh, gentlemen and ladies.

Still, I recommend it for those who need something quick and not-entirely-brainless to read.

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Today’s link is somewhat related to the Dan Brown topic above. Check out Gary Kronk’s Meteor Observing Calendar.

Enjoy!