Wordsprings

It is always best to have a piece of writing growing in mind and word processor.  I have been happily engaged in a new science fiction story which entailed a bit of research.  As sometimes happens, the research took on a life of its own and will probably generate more stories.  Writing is often better for this — wandering afield.  This one, fortunately, has a more distant deadline, and can benefit by dreams, digressions, and small tweaks at intervals.

That is a good thing, this being the season for early gardening.  If I made more money writing, I probably wouldn’t have (or tolerate) so many interruptions.  But maybe I would anyway.  Everything is grist for the mill.  When my children were growing up, some of the stories were written for their entertainment.  Some incidents in my children’s books were based on real happenings.  Kneading bread is another great opportunity to compose an essay or two.  And certainly, time spent in the garden sprouts more than just lettuce.

I’m not sure I could go on from here and justify shopping trips or vacations.  But maybe if I did make a lot of money I could tell the IRS I was doing research at the mall — or I just had to fly to Europe to check out some details of the setting.  I suppose some writers do –

Of course my literary conscience is a lot tougher than the IRS.  I really have to wriggle about to get away with my reading binges.  I owe quite a bit on “back writing” and am likely to be penalised if I don’t get busy.  I ask my conscience humbly not to ban me from the library.  There are some interlibrary loan books I want to request.  And how is my budget, Oh Conscience, on Amazon book orders?  And do I need to buy a new bookshelf?

Actually, I must go out and weed the strawberries.  And while I do so, my mind will be some seventy years in the future and quite a few degrees north at the setting of the story I’m working on.  I am rewriting a bit of the middle, you see — and yes, I think that spin off into Icelandic literature, global warming, arctic archaeology, and a few other things, can be justified.  Maybe.