Monday, July 6, 2009

Gang Aft Agley

Gang Aft Agley

shit-happens Recently, someone asked me what the theme to Dawn’s Rise is. Among others, I came up with, “The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, gang aft agley” (often go awry). Which I have converted to “No sufficiently advanced technology can save us from destruction. Or ourselves.”*

Take stairs, for instance. Not very advanced technology. Yet how many people are injured on killed on stairs every day? Hundreds, probably. Well, my dear wife fell down some this weekend, and practically ripped her foot off her leg. It was awful. She needed surgery including screws and plates and a basic reconstruction of the ankle. It will be months and months before she can even walk, and more months before she’s back to normal. This comes right on the heels of my own hospital adventure. At least this time we know exactly what the problem is. Needless to say, I’ve gotten absolutely no writing or critiquing or blog reading done.

I had a lot of running plans this summer, and they’re all falling apart. My wife had a lot of travel plans, those have gone up in smoke. Who knows how much all these bills will come to. I can’t imagine surgery is cheap. I’m starting to get sick of the drama and unexpected expenses. I just want to focus on my writing career, but life is getting in the way. Sure, maybe this is good “writing fodder” but enough is enough. 

Everything that can go wrong is going wrong. Maybe I need to work on a book with a more positive theme.

*Thanks to Robert Burns, Arthur C. Clark, and Edward Murphy, if such person ever existed.

 

Posted by at 7/06/2009 10:52:00 PM
Topics: , ,

5 nice comments:

  1. There will always be something to get between you and writing. That's what makes it hard.

    Sorry to hear about your wife, my sympathies to her.

    I'm not one to put a positive spin on things, so I'll just say; keep fighting. Don't let it get you down.

    Drown yourself in writing. Get your wife involved while she's down for the count. Who knows, you could be the next big writing team :)
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  2. That would be funny. She's a big fan of vampire romances (Kenyon, MacAllister, Meyers, etc).

    Maybe I'll turn Brenda into a Vamp and convert the scenes in space into a vampire bloodbath.

    Then when Dawn and John finally meet, she has to decide whether to accept help from his vampire crew, and whether or not to lose herself to his Vampy seduction.
    I could totally turn DR into a thriller, but I'd rather be hospitalized with a stomach ache again than write that kind of dreck. :)
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  3. Oh, man. I'm so sorry about your wife. I hope she gets better fast and I hope the bills aren't over the top.

    Some of my darkest writing came from times when things were so down for me. And there were times when I had to take a year off from writing as well. But I've always come back to it. I hope everything will straighten out for your soon.
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  4. Wow, that was some fall. Sorry to hear that. The only advice I can give is to continue writing even if you are not writing your book. Whatever comes to mind as long as you do a little each day, if you can. Any kind of writing can only hone your skills. I was disabled for one full year one time and I did much journal writing to vent frustrations, learn of myself, etc. and it was both therapeutic and skill building. Keep on trucking on and don't get yourself down!

    My best to the both of you....
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  5. Oh Dear. Both of you have my sympathy. Stick to the basics and don't beat yourself up too much if the writing has to take a back seat. Your family needs you at the moment. Later, when you are through this rough patch it's all going to make great material.
    ReplyDelete

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