Random Thoughts: Working on Getting My Act Together (Maybe)

Fate isn’t always the most effective facilitator.

I pad downstairs after lying awake for 90 minutes following a 1AM phone call from a relative headed to the emergency room to seek relief from a bout of respiratory distress. I wrap myself in a Restoration Hardware robe once worn by a favorite musician (an acquisition from a charity fundraiser versus a stolen souvenir of a night of unbridled passion, regrettably) and turn on the electric kettle.

It’s an ideal opportunity to write, something I have done all too infrequently since standing up my blog in late July. As I wait for my wild sweet orange tea to steep, I spy a forgotten fortune cookie secreted amidst the salt, pepper, olive oil and balsamic vinegar containers. The current year will bring you much happiness, it predicts. Ah, if only this was January and not December!

I log onto my laptop, which solicits permission to update. Why not? I have tea to attend to.

Twenty five minutes later, I’m finally able to access WORD. The brilliant ideas and punchy character dialogue that danced through my head while prostrate in bed are fading fast.

Perhaps a blog entry is appropriate. I need to recommit to my craft, to stop using the exhausting schedule associated with my day job as a convenient excuse not to write.

It’s 3:53AM, however, and I should return to bed to prepare for that 6:15AM wake up call. I’ve jotted down a few fresh thoughts as they impact, in this instance, lovers Portia and Jake. Maybe tonight I’ll have – no, I’ll make – the time to tweak those remaining scenes and polish that months-old query letter…