I can’t remember the last time I got through a whole week with so little doomscrolling. The oddest part was how things that would’ve been normal four or five years ago felt like absolute novelties. Like legit White House Press Conferences and intelligence briefings. I mean, apart from people so far receiving slaps on the wrist for insurrection attempts and plots to sell government laptops to Russia while BIPOC are still serving decades in jail for weed. Dunno, it kinda feels like the calm before the storm… a real storm, not the big Qthingy.
Between all that and the handle I’ve got on my dayjob stuff currently, I’ve had time to get back on the horse.
WRITING PROGRESS
Longest Writing Chain This Week: 7 days, for 8 days in a row and 23 days in January.
Not a bad start for the year, if I do say so myself. It is a struggle for me not to compare January to what I got done last November and December. But I’m through subjecting myself to Harsh Writing Advice, my own or anyone else’s.
HARSH WRITING ADVICE:
(*just recites Alec Baldwin's speech from GLENGARRY GLEN ROSS word for word*) pic.twitter.com/BYTXtsjBCl
— Don Pizarro (@DonP) January 29, 2021
FEEDING MY HEAD
The other day, I attended one of the Winter Salons held online by Belt Publishing. They published a piece of mine in one of their anthologies, THE CLEVELAND NEIGHBORHOOD GUIDEBOOK, awhile back. The discussion was on “Writing About Cities,” featuring writers and editors of various books about different Rust Belt cities, which is what attracted me to this outfit in the first place. I even picked up a couple of new books that I’ll probably write about here once I get through them.
READING
I got a few pages into these three books that seem to be the “in things” in the writing world this week…
- Matthew Salesses, CRAFT IN THE REAL WORLD
- George Saunders, A SWIM IN A POND IN THE RAIN
- POCKET WORKSHOP: ESSAYS ON LIVING AS A WRITER, ed. by Tod McCoy and M. Huw Evans, essays by instructors for the CLARION WEST WRITERS WORKSHOP.
I haven’t had the brainspace to go more than a few pages at a time, so I don’t have a coherent impression of each yet. I’m intrigued, and that’s good enough.
FEEDING MY EARS
Picked up my favorite Yacht Rock blue-eyed soul singer Bill Champlin’s latest album LIVIN’ FOR LOVE. I need a couple more listens to get a handle on it, but contrasted with the stuff he did in the Champlin-Williams-Friestedt albums–80s AOR for the 21st century–LIVIN’ reminds me of Champlin’s 90s late 80s/early 90s output, redux.
THOUGHT OF THE WEEK
C’mon, this wouldn’t even protect you from an active shooter…
Every year I see this, and every year I laugh… pic.twitter.com/BE35Q06HWJ
— Don Pizarro (@DonP) January 26, 2021
IN THE WILD
I, like Asher, am open for business!
