I’ve been quiet of late, my creative energy flagging as
writing ideas evade me like two consecutive days of decent weather here in
Alabama. The Polar Vortex that dared
plague my home state as if it were Minnesota or a Dakota has finally moved on
for good, but it’s wet here with temps in the 30’s and 40’s for several hours
every day. I’m ready to get on with the
business of complaining about how it’s too hot to move around outside down
here. I need sunshine, people! I’m not getting sufficient vitamin D for my
brain to come up with a grocery list much less the necessary 25,000 words or so
left to complete the book I’m supposed to be writing!
There’s another reason for this hideous episode of writer’s
block I’ve found myself up against.
Brace yourselves. Little Sister
has fired me from the job I loved so much!
After LS and my brother-in-law sold their business recently, LS decided
that she could no longer afford to pay me copious amounts of money to fetch her
lunch and pretend to pore over sales reports while secretly writing my blog and
a novel or two. Talk about a creative
buzzkill! (Please note that I am
utilizing the literary device of satire here, Mr. or Mrs. Future Employer who
may be Googling me as part of an interview process. I am happy to supply a reference from my
sister the Boss, or my aunt the Administrative Director, or my cousin the
Operations Manager, or my other cousin the Store Manager. They’ll all say I’m a fabulous, highly
dependable and steadfast worker…or my momma the Consultant will whip them.)
[PhotoSource: www.marriedtothesea.com]
I’m finding it difficult to sit in a room all alone at my
own home and come up with words to string together in entertaining ways. I’d much prefer to sit at my mahogany desk,
looking at a patch of drywall just to the right of Little Sister’s head while
brain storming as she talks to me in that voice all the adult characters in the
Charlie Brown cartoon use. “Wha,
wha-wha, wha, wha-wha-wha.”
LS may have put me on the road…with a few tears shed over
another Honey Baked Ham Tavern Club sandwich she wouldn’t have spread out
before her by her favorite big sister and a generous severance package…but ol’
girl forgot to take my key! Shazaam!
So, here I sit at my old desk flanked by a wall of windows, the
thermostat set at a comfortable 68 degrees as my fingers dance over the
keyboard, happy as a pig in the Alabama sunshine. I’m alone here, too, but every hour or so I
call Little Sister and put her on speaker phone and it’s almost as if she’s
back down the hall in her own office asking me, “When’s lunch?” After
this post I plan on tackling a couple of chapters of Solomon’s Bell. I’m back,
peeps. And the lease doesn’t expire
until August!
