Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Flying brain-men and impending doom

You know how, the more you blog, the more you have to blog about, and the less you blog, the harder it is? Well. I feel all floundery. What to blog about? I miss it! I miss the connection with so many people. I miss feeling like this space is an extension of my life in some way. It has been, lately, more like the room in the house that you never go in, the one with the closed door. Oh, don't look in there ..." And not even in a fascinating Bluebeardy way, full of dead wives or anything -- just in a boring way. That room is boring.

Huh. Bluebeard. That reminded me of something. When we first moved into our house, 9 years ago, the girls across the street (kids at the time, now grown up) were putting on a play in their yard, and it was Bluebeard. They had even made "dead wives" on butcher paper, life size, and rigged a closet to hang them in, for the heroine to discover. It was gruesome and awesome.

But anyway. My blog-closet hides no gruesome secrets. Just a lack of TIME. Time time time. There is time on a daily basis for a) Jim and Clementine, and b) writing. Right now, this time falls into "writing." Jim is home with Clementine, and I am at the cafe down the street that is my new writing space. Each morning after breakfast I attire myself in something a small presentability-step above pajamas, and I walk down a gravel road, about four blocks, with an umbrella (because god, Oregon, really. Haven't you heard it's JUNE?), to this very small, very quiet cafe.
And here I sit writing away. By lunchtime my clothes smell like roast coffee, which isn't a great smell, a few hours later. I kept thinking I reeked of cigarettes and couldn't understand why. I mean, obviously no one was smoking in the cafe. I have always had a poor sense of smell. A poor ability to identify smells, anyway. They seem obvious once someone else names them, but until then I'm like, Um, onion? garlic? I don't know. Tastes too. Whatever station in the brain is responsible for that function, my little brain-men aren't manning it well. Or maybe they put the sleepiest guys on that job, I don't know.

What? Don't you have brain-men? They are very very small. Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they aren't there.

There is a heavy concentration of brain-men (and women) around the writing station, though, and they all have their opinions, very very strong opinions, and here's what I think happens. One of them takes the helm and we write an awesome chapter. Then I take a nap, and when I get back to work, there's a different brain-man on duty, and he has all new ideas for that chapter. I am powerless. We end up rewriting. This goes on for a while until I knock my head against the wall and they go flying around like crash-test dummies ...

Um. Sometimes when I'm blogging I really worry you are going to think I am insane. Don't worry. All is well.

So here I am, at my cafe. I have something on the horizon with which I have very little experience. That something is ... a DEADLINE. *gasps in horror* It's a scary word! It even has "dead" in it! Doesn't it just sound sort of "impending doomy"? I sort of had deadlines for the Dreamdark books, and there was one winter, truly, when I did very very little besides write Silksinger. I remember it well.But never before have I had a real firm deadline AND a baby. It is an interesting combination, and explains my poor blog showing of late. Honestly.

Life at its simplest. My wardrobe consists of what is on top. On top of the glider chair, that is, which doesn't get glided in much on account of being my new open-air closet. I still live in nursing tanks, and put a t-shirt over it to leave the house. So glamorous. Mostly I wear black yoga-ish pants, because my jeans are all long and require platform shoes of some sort, and I am less and less that person, though my wardrobe hasn't really caught up to whatever person I am now. Today I wanted to wear jeans though, so I am wearing my black platform boots, and the four gravel blocks to the cafe felt like quite a trudge.
When writing, I wear a silver wishbone pendant Jim gave me for our anniversary. It's kind of a totem. Ponytails are ubiquitous. Showers are not ubiquitous. I mean, that's like 20 minutes of writing! heh heh. Fortunately, I am not a stinky person. Not that I've gone more than a day without a shower. Nooooooo. Heh. Because that would be gross... Ahem.

So you see, my life of glamour. Jim and I did get out for a date the other night, though, and it was marvelous. Funnily enough, we went to see a kid's movie! But honestly, when you live in the rabbit hole and then poke your head out to see what's playing at the movies ... what a bunch of crap right now! So we saw How To Train Your Dragon and holy, it was AWESOME!!!! Have you seen it? Doesn't matter if you have kids or not. It's just great. I even wore a dress out (from the actual closet, and WITHOUT a nursing tank, and then we went out to dinner and had a decadent three-course meal, with house-made pasta, and wine pairings. Wine pairings! And no squiggling wiggler on my lap. Of course, we missed her, and got out the iphone midway through dinner to look at pictures of her . . .
(tee hee.)

But now, time is flashing past, and my brain-men are cranking up the writing station, so I'd better go see what they're up to before they decide on any new ways the last chapter might unfold. (No! Bad brain-men! Onward, only forward!)

:-)

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are insane and people are in fact worried. Terribly worried. Terribly worried. Terribly, terribly, terribly worried.

Jennie Bailey said...

My hubby and I loved How to Train Your Dragon! We don't have kids, but theater was full of them. I was in a stall in the restroom after the movie and heard a small child say to his mom, "Mommy, I want a dragon!" To which his mom replied, "You can't have a dragon, honey." And his response? He whined and said, "But whyyyyyy? I would take good care of it, I promise!" Super cute. His mom laughed and told him she would think about it. I wonder if he is still bugging her for his dragon.

I love your space at the cafe. We only have Starbucks around here and they are always overflowing with people who have very loud voices and go there to socialize. I can't concentrate to write in that. I have to settle for different rooms in the house or a sunny afternoon in the yard with my dog! She's a good snuggle while I write.

Laura S. said...

I'm looking forward to seeing How to Train Your Dragon! I heard it was fantastic. It's in my Netflix queue. :)

I like your little cafe writing station! I'm glad you found a spot you can get a lot done, even if a roast coffee smell does cling to your clothes, LOL. The things writers must put up with just to get some words on the page!

Amber said...

"Fortunately, I am not a stinky person..."

As far as YOU know. But then. You already said you couldn't really smell smells all that well.

;)

Lisa Schroeder said...

It was so fun to take my boys to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON and have all of us enjoy it SO much. I didn't know what to expect, and then, I was blown away. It made me laugh and it made me cry - the best kind of movie.

Your little writing spot at the cafe look quite cozy. It's like your own little office, with rent the price of a cup of coffee. :)

ann foxlee said...

Oh my, can I ever relate! If you look at my blog you'll see it was *ahem* APRIL when I last got around to posting anything. I don't even know what's been filling all that time... certainly not extra writing time on the book! I'm as behind as ever...

And seriously, the rain has GOT to stop. Maybe I'll use that as my excuse this time-- S.A.D. is affecting my ability to edit my WIP!

Glad you got a good date night, and maybe we'll see the sun soon!

Laini Taylor said...

Jennie: I know all about the cafe-loud-talkers. Very annoying! This cafe is usually very quiet, but I still wear my ipod and tune out the noise.

Amber: You may have a point. I hope you don't, but you might . . .

Lisa: I know. I totally think of it that way! Pretty cheap rent!

Ann: Yes please, some sun :-) However, the last sunny day we had, and an isolated sunny day at that, I actually complained it was too hot, ha ha! (I think it was like 78). I was at the park with Clementine and we had to stay in the shade. I'm such a sun-wimp!

Faith Pray said...

C.S. Lewis wrote a short story called "The Shoddy Lands", describing what your brain-men do. I love hearing it from your perspective. I chalk a lot of my missing marbles up to my brain-men.

I like hearing about your writing wardrobe. I like to imagine myself scribbling furiously in the attic with my writing smock like Jo in "Little Women" but sadly we have no attic, I don't write with blotting paper and bottles of ink and have no writer's smock.

The fact that you are loving on that little peach of a baby is the real accomplishment. And incredible bonus that you are writing faithfully as well as fulfilling a deadline!

By the way, I just finished "Blackbringer" and loved it so much that it's my blog topic this week.

jaecy bells said...

I totally feel the "no time for blogging". At least you have an excuse, i.e. a baby and novel to work on.

My excuses are not quite as good. Softball season. School. Life.

Anyways, that's cool how you have a new spot to write. A little cafe? that's so quaint! I'm jealous of you :-)

Also, as always, Clementine is adorable in that picture!

Tinker said...

So glad I'm not the only one who has brain-people working for them. Though mine haven't quite caught up with the 21st century. They type on manual typewriters, so there are lots of pieces of paper around for the brain file clerks to file. Then there's the brain cameraman and the brain projectionist too. Ok, maybe that's a little bit crazy, but still not quite as crazy as Tron...

We haven't been to the movies much lately, so we haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon, yet. I'm sure at some point I'll see it with the grandgirls, so it's good to know it's worthwhile. I'm looking forward to seeing MicMacs whenever we can too. At least the trailer looks interesting.

Hope you get some nice weather soon!

Laini Taylor said...

Tinker, Micmacs looks fun -- I'll see anything by Jeunet!

tone almhjell said...

Oh yes, I know what you mean. I often see a funny detail or a little scene when I'm out and about with Magnus, and I think 'I could blog that'. But then it feels weird cause I haven't said anything in a week, or two, or three. And then I just don't.

Thanks for sharing the writing scene. I like it, ponytail and trudging and brain-men and and all!

, said...

I got my copy of Lips Touch. I cradle and protect that book as if I wrote it. It's very special. I'm halfway through the second story!

Laini Taylor said...

Aw, Heidi, thanks! :-)

And Tone, that's exactly it. A million things that might be blogs, but they're gone from my mind, or seem too small by the time I sit down to write!

Heather said...

What a beautiful little distraction you have there!