Whistling in the Dark

After a day that had it's ups (I'm down 20 and a half pounds on the Methadone Diet) and downs (see my last post), my lack of sleep control has reared its ugly head again. Tomorrow's going to suck.

You think of things while hammering out Western flavored text. When you're a big ol' writing geek and SF geek, you start realizing just how much Science Fiction story potential there is in the Old West.

I don't mean setting stories of Aliens in Tombstone or the like. As Ken MacLeod said (and which I read by way of Patrick Neilsen Hayden's blog), "History is the trade secret of science fiction." There's tons of stories to be set on faraway worlds here, with Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson giving way to far future counterparts, and with the events of their adventures being followed almost exactly but the serial numbers filed off.

It seems likely the entire story of the Earp brothers' ill-fated move to Tombstone and all the events that followed it could easily be made a Science Fiction epic, with almost all the readers never having any idea they were reading a rehash unless the author was good enough to point it out. I say that because I can count the number of Science Fiction fans of my own acquaintance who even know who Ike Clanton is, much less the root causes of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

(This doesn't count the Science Fiction writers of my acquaintance, naturally -- SF writers are an eclectic bunch, who tend to know great heaping gobs of everything under the sun, and can surprise you with facts ranging far and wide. They may in fact be the closest thing to Renaissance Men in literature today. This is no doubt why Science Fiction isn't considered 'literature' at all. But I digress.)

Still, even if one owns up to the source material (which to me would be only fair), the novel that emerged could be very, very good indeed. Which makes me consider writing it.

After this is finished. Ahh, commissioned work.

I wrote a good chunk today, and that feels good. Knowing it was at three cents a word was even better, if you get right down to it.

A really good day's writing does something to the brain. Even when you're upset over things or annoyed at others, writing can calm and soothe and make them all all right, and that's a lovely thing.

I love writing. I love the process. I love the words as they flow from my brain through my hands into the permanent record. I love listening to the voice in my head that whispers dialogue, the flow of imagry that encodes itself in words and slides into the lives of others. I love it. I wish I could do nothing but this for my living for the rest of my life.