A Steely Drivin' Man Monday, August 11, 2003

An afternoon ended on an up-note: My reporter for today sent me a note a full half-hour before deadline saying, "Looks good. I gotta run and catch the ferry." I could've kissed him. Actually, he won my undying affection earlier in the day when he wrote, "Looks like a good edit to me"--this after fifteen inches of cuts, many more inches of adds and tons of rewriting. This also being a story I wanted to kill early on. Not bad, but more watermelon juggling tomorrow.

Ran for a ferry myself, read more of Waugh's "Put Out More Flags." A very funny, and subtly sad, book. I dig the hero, Basil Seal, an unscrupulous rake and "adventurer" (in the old, nasty sense). Trouble is, I read stuff like that and imagine I could write it; then my stuff has all these weird anglicisms for weeks. Instead of a-literate Queens-isms.

Came home to find the astonishing wife beat after a day in the ward. (She helps kids in hospitals.) So she retired early and I hid in the office and worked on a revision of the current Secret Thing. My good buddies gave me great direction on it, as usual. Here's hoping it pans out.

Still figuring out what this blog is supposed to be. I don't know if many outsiders are visiting; don't even know if my friends are reading regularly. Foremost, I think, I'm just trying to keep my chops up--for all of you who don't know me, I write things and have been going through about two and a half years of performance anxiety. (Ever since some guys blew up my office with airplanes. Hmmm...) So I'm treating the blog like a notebook to jot down random thoughts; but at the same time force myself to make them at least halfway presentable.

You like? Drop me a line. You hate? Drop me a line.

@ 11:24:00 PM,

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