Put in some work on the book today, as well as something silly for here that I’ll put up as soon as it’s done.  And I wrote a short thing about that time Steven Tyler called me “baby.”

I’m feeling very much like Dr. Frankenstein, blindly trying putting this weird-ass book together.  Like I have a warehouse full of body parts laying around, I’m just sticking things together to see what happens when I give it the juice.  The villagers did not react well to The Doctor’s monster.  I’m hopeful my monster will inspire fewer villagers with torches and pitchforks, but one never knows.

N.P.: “Slow an’ Easy” – Whitesnake

Had a bit of a brainstorm in the shower this morning and got kind of a big idea for how to arrange the book,  so I had another go at the table of contents today.  This thing now lists 41 chapters plus an introduction and conclusion.  Which seems like a bit much, potentially.  We’ll see.

It’s kind of weird, I think, to put things together this way…arranging titles of things not yet written or completed on a board, settling on an order, and then writing/finishing pieces to go with the corresponding titles.  I’m pretty sure The Wall wasn’t put together this way.  But that’s cool.  Things are taking shape.

N.P.: “Alabama Song (Whisky Bar)” – The Doors

A pretty bad-ass day.  Not that anything particularly amazing happened…just kind of another day.  But occasionally I’ll sort of switch into a third-person perspective, where I’ll almost watch myself navigating through the day as opposed to being completely in my head while I’m doing it…and yeah, there is a lot of badassery going on in even my most mundane days.  I need to remind myself to do that more often.

That said, not much of today’s badassery had much to do with a word count, and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to write much tonight.  But tomorrow….tomorrow is all writing.

N.P.: “Just Push Play” – Aerosmith

Not as productive today as I have been the last few.  But I still managed to get some good ideas down, so I’ll take it.  Must now collapse.

N.P.: “Heart’s Done Time” – Aerosmith

Managed to write a few pages at a remote location today (usually I can only work on the book in my room at Hotel California).  I’m pleased that things are finally starting to take shape.  Hopefully things will come together rather quickly now.

N.P.: “Fortress Around Your Heart” – Sting

A pretty significant source of anxiety recently has been the ever-growing, ever-less-manageable amorphous mess of prose that has been steadily piling up in various files in the vault.  I’ve made a couple rather valiant (if I may say so myself) efforts at going in there and tackling the whole mess and sorting through it and trying to figure out what goes where, but those have lasted only briefly before I was sent scrambling for the desk whiskey in the hopes of staving off a panic attack.  Needless to say, that tactic has not been successful in the least.  So today I decided that I have three books in the works.  Two have titles.  They now all have tables of contents – at least basic versions of them.  Which helps rather a lot.  In the few hours since I finished laying out the tables of contents, I’ve been unusually productive.  Nothing is quite as helpful on a journey as knowing what the destination is.

N.P.: “Land of Confusion” – Disturbed

I drove through some pretty thick fog this morning, unenthusiastically.  Wrote a few things without enthusiasm.  Went for a decidedly unenthusiastic walk this afternoon.  Am presently eating a bbq’d hot dog with an absolute dearth of enthusiasm.  I’m not sure if I should even bother to try writing anything at this point.

We are unenthused.

N.P.: “Faust” – Emigrate

I left my window open last night specifically to be lulled to sleep by the comforting sound of falling rain, and then to be awoken by violent thunderclaps mid-morning today.  The rain was both lovely and effective, but this morning: quiet.  Only now, hours later, am I hearing distant rumblings, somewhere well to the north of The Creek and Hotel California and me.  I guess I’ll take it.

I’m going to try to finish this section of one of the books I’ve been working on today, then I’m going to decamp and head to a nearby Mexican bar to meet up with some old friends, drink large beer, eat meat, and watch the last half of some sort of athletic competition.  I’m just going for the beer and the meat.

N.P.: “Miss You” – The Rolling Stones

Ate Death Wings for dinner.  Mother of God.  That was the hottest my mouth has ever been.  Not even sure if I still have lips.

Today was a bit errandy for my tastes, but it had to be done.  This, of course, means tomorrow is clear for writing.  I’m so far behind.

N.P.: “I’m Shipping Up to Boston” – Dropkick Murphys

Haven’t written much today, dear reader.  Did more talking than writing, which is always weird.  There’s still some time left in this day, though, so I’ll see what I can do.

It rained so goddamn hard today…’twas amazing.  The skies were black over Anhedonia most of the morning, and once they opened up, I feared for the structural integrity of the skylights.  That sort of Old Testament weather shit needs to happen more frequently around here.

N.P.: “Put Me to Work” – Big Data