John Clark at 5 on a Monday morning, relishing the first decent breaths in a week. I have a new chicken and egg postulate; which came first, the perils of age, or the increasing ferocity of respiratory ailments?
I’ve been at the mercy of a hellacious cold/flu for more than a week, spending more time horizontal than vertical and imagining myself as Sisyphus, only having substituted endless tissues for the boulder. If there’s a more frustrating sensation than persistent weakness, I do not wish to experience it. Sleep comes in short bursts like commuter trains through a station…Two hours here, three, there.
Creative ideas are as slippery as eels in olive oil, barely perceptible before sliding into another amnesiac coughing jag. Ribs ache, sinuses throb, food tastes like not much of anything.
Even reading is unsatisfying. I must have a dozen books I’ve begun to read since this began, but have only finished one. That alone, tells me how severe this malady is.
One ray of hope in all this is my beginning to write again after two + months where the tank was damn near empty. I decided that in order to have any hope of creativity, I needed to dive into something as dark and foul as our current political mess.
What I came up with is, for lack of a better description, a new adult post-apocalyptic dystopian road trip It has two main characters, both of whom have decided they need to have new names to match their completely different world.
Here’s the premise: A rolling EMP (electromagnetic pulse) hits (likely triggered by a huge solar flare) beginning in the far east, wiping out all electronics as it flows toward the US. The orange-haired fool reacts by pushing the red button, sending hundreds of nuclear missiles aloft where their circuitry is fried by the EMP, leaving them hovering in the outer atmosphere. They begin to fall, some detonating, others simply releasing radioactivity. The two survivors meet when he rescues her from a gang of cannibalistic thugs and have to figure out how to survive.
I’m averaging 1,000 words a day(16,000) as of the time I publish this) and enjoying the freedom of simply writing it for my own enjoyment. I’m channeling the lyrics from a classic Ricky Nelson song as I do so.
But it’s all right now
I learned my lesson well
You see, you can’t please everyone
So you got to please yourself.
Thank you for my morning chuckle..though I question if my laugh is more like the hyenas’ hysterical baying with the current going-ons in our government…illness is rampant right now with many absences in schools and agencies too but the CDC is no longer allowed to post statistics about that ($#%?)…I enjoyed your article today..it made me smile.
Hope you feel better but glad you’re writing. Write on!
Whatever keeps you writing. I know how dark you can gl. Glad the worst has subsided. This season’s cold/flu the worst ever.
Kate
Dark you can get. The computer seems to have a mind of its own…and it’s a stupid one.
It’s a beautiful thing when the muse finally decides to show up again!
Hugs and feel better. In the meantime – one letter in front of the other – keep on writing.
Glad you’re feeling better and found your stride. February is a tough month in general and I was really feeling it yesterday. So I packed the kids up, left the stack of work on my desk, and went sledding. We at popcorn and drank hot chocolate and watched an old samurai flick when we got back. The work is still there but I don’t have any regrets.
I’m deep into dystopian books right now. Seems appropriate given the lawlessness that’s going on. Finish it…PLEASE! I’ll take the first copy! You have a true gift for twisting the usual into the unusual and hitting subjects at unexpected angles. It’s what I enjoy about Neil Gaiman. I’m currently rereading Blue Fire by John Gilstrap. Very interesting premise about how useless securing the 3 branches of government is when there’s nothing left to govern. I have serious questions about his timeline. That’s why I’m rereading it to see if what I remember really develops too quickly or it’s just me.
If the story occupies your brain, let it flow.