Writing Update

Well it's been raining again up here in 'sunny' Queensland, shades of last year's pre-flood downpouring. But I'm no longer complaining, as the clouds had an unexpected silver lining today. The local school and daycare centre were open but the roads to the office were close to impassable. Hence the kids went where they had to go but I stayed home. Honest to goodness, it was an unexpected day off from all my usual responsibilities. Heaven! And great for the word count. I wrote almost an entire chapter on a book I'll soon be talking about... contract and release news will be revealed in due course (yes I am teasing).

I'm happy enough with myself that I thought I'd share a snippet of what I wrote today--unedited of course, so please forgive any mistakes. Happy hump day all,

Abruptly, Hayley stood, breaking the erotic spell that had wound around him. “What are you doing in here, Mitch?”

“Running?” Mitch tried not to sound irritable as he stated the obvious, but the strain of his cock chaffing against his jocks made it nearly impossible.

“Inside. On a treadmill.”

Rising to his feet and trying to subtly adjust his shorts to conceal his erection, Mitch drawled, “That’s how I usually do it.”

“Sure, when you’re in the city. But did you notice the long stretch of sand right outside this window?”

“Oh, yeah. They call it a beach, right?”

Having moved several paces away, Hayley at last turned back to face him. She gave his response the sarcasm it probably deserved. “Did you consider jogging on it? Or wait, let’s go for broke. Would you consider taking a leisurely stroll on the shoreline?”

“Hayley, you know strolling’s not my style.”

Her smile was tinged with sadness. “I know.”

Mitch, you idiot. Had she been asking him to go for a walk with her? And had he really responded with mild loathing like some creep with an 85 IQ? Hey babe, I’d rather act like a complete asshole than go for a walk with you. Shit!

 

Sami

Six Sentence Sunday - Erica's Choice

So it's my first venture into the world of Six Sentence Sunday -- be gentle with me :).

Yes, Corey's a fireman :)

The sentences I've chosen are from my upcoming release (August 2012, but who's counting the months?). They occur right after one of the book's heroes has just turned down a sexy invitation from a local girl because he's of course more interested in the heroine. I think it shows a lot about Corey's character, his innate innocence and his quiet fascination with a woman he's afraid to talk to. Here goes:

Corey wasn’t about to tell her work had nothing to do with his refusal. He simply didn’t want to spend the night with Madison.

The woman he did want to spend some quality time with was sitting across the pub right now with her nose in a book, her sleek red hair sweeping down to conceal her face, as out of reach as the moon. She probably thought he was some kind of man-slut because every time she came in here some random woman slipped him her phone number, or even her panties. Jeez. What did girls think he was going to do with a pink satin G-string?

Well that's it, I'm no longer a Six Sentence Sunday virgin. There are a whole bunch of other authors participating as always, so head on over to the Six Sentence Sunday site to find out who they are.

Cheers,

Sami

New Contract

Have also announced over at the divas that I've finally, FINALLY signed a contract for Erica's Choice, the epic mmf, mfm triad relationship angsty emotional story. There were days, many of them, that I honestly thought it'd never happen. So yay for me.

And yes, I am having a Friday night glass of champagne to celebrate :)

Sami

The Big Improvement

It’s no secret that I’ve struggled with my writing over the past few years. Last November I decided to write something new and to write it down on paper so that it would come out in some kind of pure form, staight from my subconscious. I told myself that no matter what came out I had to make a story out of it. I had to finish it, even if it was something that would never be published. This was how I thought I’d get back on the horse.

I figured it would be fun and relatively easy (ha!) to write a ménage novella. Chasing Sunset has done well for me and I really wanted to repeat this small success. But this time I thought I didn’t want to leave one hero out on his own, set up for another book. I was tentatively trying to get back into a routine of completing manuscripts and didn’t want to burden myself with the thought of having to write two books. So what was the solution? Write one where all three parties end up with a HEA.

Wow, didn’t that sound simple when I first conceived the idea? I figured the best way two men and one woman could be content in a committed relationship was if the guys were also involved with each other. So okay, I now had to make the guys bisexual. Did I make it so they were both already involved and looking for a woman to complete their relationship? Noooo. That would have been pretty simple but it didn’t fire my creative juices. I had to make one guy bisexual, to have his best friend be unaware of it, and to have that best friend discover his own ACDC leanings throughout the course of the first threeway. Easy peasy (emphasis meant to convey sarcasm). I haven’t written a single mm scene before nor do I read them often so I was going in blind.

So if that wasn’t hard enough, I introduced a heroine with a set of massive problems to deal with, and I’ve had to try and write her as well as I could, which has taken a LOT of research because of course I chose a particular problem for her that I’m not familiar with personally (I say chose, but throughout this process I’ve felt very strongly that these characters and plot elements chose me).

Was all this going to fit into a novella? What do you think?

The first draft was 40,000 words, the second 50,000. Eventually it reached 57,000. I submitted this version to my editor in April, but alas, she didn’t find it worked in that form. So I had to revise. The timeline had to be extended, the characters motivations better explained. Two more months of rewrites and the damn thing is 80,000 wds. Well shit. I had never intended to write something so BIG.

The book is once again at submission stage. I hope I’ve managed to get it right this time. I hope this book will sell. I hope, when it IS eventually published (positive thoughts, positive thoughts), readers will enjoy it. But it’s not your average book. The HEA is not typical, not even for a ménage storyline. The heroine’s problems will remain with her for the rest of her life one way or another. There’s no permanent fix for her, no golden moment where all her worries disappear, just the knowledge that she is loved and she has more power and control over her destiny than she’d ever realised. For her, that’s a big improvement so I have to hope it’s enough.

I went though my own big improvement while writing it. I FINISHED the thing for a start. I tackled something difficult and finally managed to pull it off (I think), after many trips to the drawing board. My confidence has returned, albeit tentatively. Surely, if I can write this freaking tome of a book, I can write anything? All those ideas I thought were a bit too hard for me to tackle are now clamouring for a look in. So Lord knows what I’m going to come up with in future.

For now I have promised myself something short, light and fun, something set at the beach Goddamn it. And this time I mean it!

Sami

Wednesday Wisdom

Writerly wisdom from RWA's Melbourne conference that I read and am trying to take on board (paraphrased).

99% of success is habit. If your habits aren't achieving your goals for you, change them (Bob Mayer).

Have changed my writing time from night until morning, which means getting up at 4:30 during the week. Yikes! But so far I've gotten twice as much done in a week than I was getting done, and I'm less stressed at night. Going to bed super early, but stress free. So yay.

Don't judge yourself by what others are writing, and don't feel pressured to write more than you're capable of (Marion Lennox)

I sell what I sell, and others sell what they sell. I write, and probably always will write, fewer books than some others. I will no longer use this as an excuse to beat myself up for how 'slow' I am. I write the books I love and I dedicate myself to them fully, and that's what I want to do with the time I spend writing. So I'm living my dream, no one else's.

The best thing you can do for promotion is turn off social media and write a good book (Bob Mayer again)

I've heard it before, but it's good to remind myself every now and then. The twitterverse won't actually miss me if I'm not there :).

Am repeating these three points like mantras in my head at the moment. So what do you say to yourself to keep the weird screamy voices from getting you down?

Sami

Wednesday Wisdom

You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you. ~Ray Bradbury

Am so close to finishing rewrites on ms that I'm trying to take this advice to stay connected to the story, ergo, blog posts and other social media have been a bit sporadic/lacking from me lately.

If it doesn't work I might just get regular drunk.

Sami

Writerly Wisdom

From Natalie Andersons Plot and Structure workshop:

Which comes first – the plot or the draft?

The answer is neither – it is the CHARACTERS who must come first. If we’re writing a romance, then

it’s all about the characters and their EMOTIONAL (inner) journeys. Yes, you can put your characters into a highly complicated plot position, but how they will ACT and REACT depends on WHO they are. And how they act and react is going to influence the rest of the plot!

So before you can do anything in terms of crafting plot, you must know and understand your characters.

So true! My biggest problem is that I can't get to know my characters that well until I've written the book; hence the multiple drafts. Fortunately I'm in good company with Natalie, who plots to a point, creates basic characters and then writes what she calls a discovery draft.

I like it, think I'll call it that from now on.

Sami

PS. Our guest blogger at Down Under Divas today is the fabulous Denise Rossetti. If you'd like to win a copy of her latest Ellora's Cave release, pop on over and leave a comment.

Weekend wrap up

Oh wow, what a weekend. Luckily for me it’s a public holiday up here in Queensland so I have a day to recover before heading back to work, because the Claytons Conference activities utterly fried my brain. My session on Saturday seemed to go really well and I had a blast. So much more participation than I expected—here I was thinking people might be shy about discussing sex! I should have known better. All the participants rocked. Thank you to all who attended and made it such a fun and busy session.

Thank you as well to the organisers, Anne, Mel and Neely. I don’t envy you girls your job, I could never be organised enough to do it! The usual family commitments prevented me from joining in the other sessions in ‘live time’, and my computer didn’t like the RWA chat room so I wasn’t able to jump in on the social stuff. Bummer. But I have many many notes to catch up on, starting with Natalie Anderson’s plot and structure workshop. Plot and structure, you are ever my arch nemises, the Lex to my Superman (delusions of grandeur I have, yes indeed).

I may post the stuff I find useful throughout the week. First of all I have to get back to my writing, or more specifically to rewriting a scene that’s been bugging me. Let me just don my cape…

Sami

Great Article

So with the tail end of this flu and a general case of exhaustion, I didn't get to my Wednesday post. Meh. Let's face it my schedule idea was always going to face tough opposition from my disorganised self :).

Stopping in to say that if anyone hasn't yet gone to read Kate Cuthbert's guest spot over at the Down Under Divas, please do. It's fantastic, and I agree with Jess Dee that the world needs more Kates. Certainly, the romance genre could do with an army of champions like her. She wrote an article that should be read by everyone too. If you've ever hidden your romance cover inside that of another book or acted like somebody else left that M&B novel behind in your house and you simply haven't gotten around to chucking it yet, you'll relate to Kate's thoughts. I only wish I could put it so eloquently myself.

Sami

Writing is a Challenge

Some writing friends were keen to do RWA's 50k in 30 days challenge, so with me trying to turn myself into the Can Do Queen, I've decided to join them. I'm going to start my month by writing nothing at all on day one, so that's promising. Ha! Tonight I'm the Can't Do Queen :) Haven't slept well for the last couple of nights and just know any attempts to do constructive work tonight will be fruitless. Instead I'm going to post this random hump day honey and head to bed early.

Sweet dreams :)

Sami

Clearing the Deck

I’ve been going through my back catalogue of unfinished/rejected manuscripts with the aim of making some final decisions about what can be saved and what has to go for good.

• In Charm’s Way has been critiqued by a very astute writer friend who gave me some much needed encouragement and some even more important ideas for how the ms could be revitalised. I have plans for it, but they are temporarily on hold because I have this great (I think) idea for a series that it could be a part of. I’m not up to a series right now, not with my new year’s outlook of one book at a time until I get my confidence back. So ICW is still on suspension—for now.

• Sweet Home Emmaline, my ill-fated RWA pitch novel, could actually fit in with the series I’ve just mentioned, as could my old old nano project, The Honeymoon Effect. I know, is it possible I could be so bold as to roll three of my left behind ms’s into one brand spanking new series? Time will tell. The ideas are brewing and I think I’ll let them do that a while.

• I’ve gone back through my old M&B rejected sweet manuscripts and made a decision once and for all. They’re history. Rejected by one publisher does not necessarily mean the book has no merit, but the other day while I was going through one of them I literally fell asleep under my laptop. Not a good sign. While there’s nothing drastically wrong with the stories, they honestly just aren’t up to the standard I now feel I’ve achieved with the books I’ve written since. True, I could rewrite them. The fact is I don’t want to. I’m not passionate about those characters anymore, and if I’ve learned one thing about writing its that you have to have a passion for the story you’re telling or doing the job is murder.

• That off the wall paranormal I had a crack at? What was I thinking? I'll leave that kind of thing to the likes of Lexxie Couper and co.

• Today I decided the novel I started 2010 with, Manhandling, needed another look. Reading over it this afternoon I realised it wasn’t as bad as I thought 12 months ago. If I do say so myself, parts of it (all 4.5 chapters of it) are quite good. What a difference a year can make to a person's outlook. With my enthusiasm for the story thus reenergized, I’ve decided to make it my next writing project.

Now to get back to the nerve-racking process of preparing my submission of the firemen book. Write synopsis-check. Query-check. Fingers and toes crossed-check...

Sami

Still Here

No, I have not been here for a while, my poor little blog has been put on the backburner while I've been typing like mad, trying to get my darned ms complete. Finally, FINALLY it is... sort of. It's being read by a couple of people now and this of course always freaks me out. I simply know they'll tell me at least ten things that are wrong with it and that'll mean more work, messy rewrites or whatever. Ugh. And of course there's the lovely synopsis to do. BUT I have been breathing a little easier since I typed those beautiful words THE END. I finished a book for the first time in two years. Two years ago I never would have believed it would take me this long to get to this place. So yay for me. Let's celebrate wtih some gratuitous man pics.

Note: post influenced by many months writing erotic story featuring firemen.

I also celebrated my book's completion with a new i pod touch, a lovely little device that let's me carry the bulk of my music collection around with me. I know it does other stuff, but I've been too busy downloading songs to discover what yet. The song downloading thing got me thinking about the way the retailing of music has changed in the last couple of decades, which got me thinking about the book industry and the recent developments there. The post got too long, so I'm going to rave on about that over at the Romantix, because I owe them a post or two as well. Hope to see you there (egads! it's the cross promotion monster!)

Sami

The Dreadline

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.  Douglas Adams

I never have understood that quote. I've never missed a deadline in my life. Not as a student, not at work, not as an author. I completed edits for Chasing Sunset early so having kid number 2 didn't interfere with turning in the work on time. I've always thought the due date was the due date--end of story.

I was discussing this with hubby the other day when he was trying to tell me not to worry so much if I miss the deadline for turning in my Market Watch column for RWAs Hearts Talk mag. I repeated my history--"I've never missed a deadline in my life", to which hubby promptly responded:

"Except your own."

I'm chagrinned to have to conceed a point there. I've set three deadlines for myself to have the current WIP complete and have missed every single one of them. First it was the end of 2010, a sort of symbolic up yours to writers block. I wouldn't have had to say I didn't finish a thing in 2010. But Christmas came and interrupted my writer's flow. Whatchagonnado? Then it was the end of January, which I thought was nice and generous--a whole additional month to get things under control. Alas, I found Queensland's apocolyptic weather situation a might distracting, not to mention the usual January stuff of preparing the Princess for her return to school. Amazing how much time that takes up. Then last week I promised the Divas I'd have the firemen ready for thier perusal--err, critique--by Sunday.

I'm currently hiding from the Divas, hoping they'll forget what I said.

Hubby suggests I prioritize my own deadlines as highly as I do those set by others, but sometimes there aren't enough hours in the day or ions of energy (atoms? molecules?) to meet them all. Something's got to slip and let's face it, women tend to make sure it's their own stuff that suffers rather than anyone else's. God forbid another person should be inconvenienced by our inability to do every bloody thing in the world in the shortest possible time frame.

So a change of priorities is, perhaps, in order. Set my own deadlines first and let everyone else's crap fall in around it. I honestly don't see how that would work, but I'm going to try and wrap my head around it and see how I go.

Now, back to the two little screaming deadlines who are hungry for dinner. How, exactly, does one tell them to wait their turn? Hmm?

Sami

2010, The Year That Blew (Or Dragging Myself Out of Writer's Block Hell)

Jan: Make grand plans to begin strict writing schedule. No TV. No wine. Rigid word count goals.

Feb: Half-pissed watching Law and Order with zero words to my name. That went well.

March: Seriously contemplated chucking writing in altogether. Why couldn't I have taken up something easy, like rocket science? Took the month off.

April: Bought a house. Much organisation required, no time for writing. One month reprieve becomes two.

May: Ready to begin writing again—thank God I actually missed it. Spend many hours alternating between half-baked manuscripts without making much progress, but am happy to be writing anything.

June: RWA conference in two months. In crazy optimism I’ve requested an agent pitch. Ah… best write something pitch-worthy.

July: Pitch-worthy? Who said pitch-worthy? Shopping lists prove challenging at this point.

Aug: Have a partial ready for pitch. It has all the hallmarks of a funny, sexy Blaze type novel. It says so right there in the pitch. Misplaced confidence comes across as veneer of capable authorship to very nice NY agent type. Partial requested.

Sept: Oh shit, shit, shit. Caught in web of plot problems of my own making. Who wrote this dreck? Seek second opinion of the Divas who coin the phrase ‘Sami Sparkle’. As in ‘this book does not have the Sami Sparkle’.

How disappointing.

Oct: Email agent with heartfelt apology. I do not want to send the sparkleless book to her. Insanity? Possibly. My gut says no. Now it’s time to work out through copious navel gazing what the eff the Sami Sparkle is and where the effing hell it’s flown off to. Make the rather radical decision to write first draft of a fun, fluffy ménage novella in a notebook, with a Bic. This is totally old school, but writer friend Kiss Carson does this so why not try? Drafting goes surprisingly well. I’m having fun with the story. Fun! A novel concept (I can even pun now!).

Nov: Retype my draft as a quasi nanowrite task. 40,000wds of no longer light fluffy ménage written. Who decided to make this a deep and meaningful study of themes of sex and death, unrequited love and loneliness? Bloody subconscious.

Dec: Okay, so it wants to be a serious story, not fluff. It wants to include mm content, which I’ve never written before. Must I always make things difficult for myself? Probably. I’m starting to think the Sami Sparkle is the rebellious instinct coming out to play, forcing me to swim against the tide.

Ah, so that’s where the year went. I spent it dragging myself gradually out of writer’s block hell. I don’t feel blocked now, just the ordinary level of neurotic that writers are. That’s an improvement.

How was your year?

Sami

Two Days or Two Weeks?

The last time I had my WIP open was two days ago. Thursday 23rd, when I got some good words down and felt that it was all flowing pretty well. I'd written past Chapter 3's problems and was on Chapter 5 rewrites.

I had my two days off for Christmas and have come back on Boxing Day feeling as rusty as if I've been away from the ms for weeks. I guess that advice about writing every day is on the money, but seriously, I wasn't going to write Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. Being Santa is a busy enough past time.

The reading has been fun though. I've discovered Tina Wainscott's suspense novels and thoroughly enjoyed Until the Day You Die. I felt like something violent and scary at Christmas, coz I'm odd I suppose. Digression: Does anyone else remember Tina Wainscott writing rom-com for Harlequin Temptation back in the nineties? There's nothing on her website about that but I'm sure I don't have the name wrong. Damn my 'toss it out if it's old attitude', or else I'd probably have those old harlequins still!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. I'm going to try and find my warm spot in the cave again and get this ms rolling once more over the next couple of days. Lord knows, the cricket's not worth watching unless you're English!

Happy writing (and reading), over the break to all,

Sami

5 Things That Made Me Say WTF? This Week.

1. Oprah ate vegemite on a sao and said she liked it. Then washed it down with Penfolds Grange. Seriously, we DO NOT DO THAT HERE.

2. Shane Warne caught snogging Liz Hurley. What is her deal? Hugh the hooker loving cad, that other guy who tried to disown their baby and now Warnie. She must have very complex issues.

3. Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens split up. Actually that one just made me go WGaS (Who gives a shit?).

4. Nine msn hit a new low. A 'true' confession about a phone sex operator who recognises one of her clients as her 16 year old brother and decides to go through with the call. Ick. Shudder. WTF?

5. The Hurley-Warne saga continues. Now she's dumped him over sex texts to another married woman. She didn't see that coming? Surely this whole 'relationship' was a beat up for publicity.

And now I've just talked about them. Oh well.

I have deleted so much this week that I can't post anything. It's becoming demoralising. I have a big gap between Ch 3 and 4 where I'm not sure how to link the scenes. I've written this in bold in the ms:

I simply don’t know how to stitch this up. I can’t find the right emotion. I am now going to leave it and ask the goddess muse to help me at a later stage.

Oh Goddess muse, where for art thou?

Sami

Editing, Man Sluts and More

I think Jake Gyllenhaal is a major cutie. I wrote that line in Sunset Knight where Lana teases Brody about wanting a threesome with the two of them:

“So you don’t want me to play at being the filling in a man sandwich?”



His look was lethally unimpressed. “No. Where do you get this language?”


“The Internet. Because thinking on an objective level I have to say”—she pretended to picture it, letting out a low whistle—“lucky Sidney.”


“Don’t go getting any ideas. I’m finding I’m a lot more possessive than Drew.”


Lana felt giddy because he was possessive of her. She’d told him not to act this way but he couldn’t help himself. “Are you sure? Because if Jake Gyllenhaal’s available, maybe I could be persuaded.”

She's a cheeky one that Lana. But what's with Jake? Is there any woman in Hollywood he hasn't 'dated'? Reese, Kirsten, now he's been linked to Taylor Swift. Is this all true? Is Jake Hollywood's biggest man slut? Does it turn me off him? Not really :)

Anyway deleted two whole scenes this weekend so can't post all that. One was a sex scene too. What? Erotic romance author cuts sex scene? Alert the media.

Here's today's deleted snippet:

Instantly he was lost in the ripe feel of her lips moving beneath his, the sweet taste of wine on her tongue. Her hand shot out to connect with his bicep, as though she had to steady herself. She moaned with the kind of blissful satisfaction women often reserved for restaurant quality chocolate mousse and fed on his mouth as though it were her last meal.



Corey had been kissed before, by women who weren’t afraid to take control. He liked it. He wasn’t one of those guys who had to have the upper hand in every exchange with the opposite sex. But this was different. Erica’s kiss was desperate, aggressive even, but it wasn’t about her taking control. It was about her losing it.

Well maybe I'll find a spot for that last sentence.

Sami

I Did Good

I didn't write 50,000wds, but then I never said I would :). My novel/novella, whatever it is (okay it's a novella, I'm going to cut it down I swear), is currently 39,879wds, but I haven't written the ending. I'm going back through the whole thing first to revise and edit, as is my custom. When it's all said and done I imagine I'll end up with something around the 40,000-45,000wd mark. Hey, that's what I said all along! Sticking to my guns here, take a picture.

Anyway, the slash and burn is on now, and I've added as much as I've taken out (again, one of my editing customs). Today I had to let a paragraph go that I always liked. But hell, I just don't need it. Being ruthless here. So sadly cut from the ms today:

Nice one Griff. Way to make a fool of yourself.


At thirty-six, Griff was a good ten years older than Corey and Erica looked to be around Wachawski’s age. Griff had one divorce and a string of messy relationships behind him, listened to classic Springsteen instead of Lady Freakin Gaga and this morning he’d found a grey hair poking out amongst the smattering of light brown ones on his chest. A grey bloody hair!


Lusting after the busty young redhead was a bad look for a man with Griff’s relatively advanced life experience.

I was fond of the Lady Freakin' Gaga bit :) Oh well.

Sami

Hanging On

A much slower week writing-wise than last week, but I still managed to get 1200 added to the ms tonight, after a long days work, shopping and all the etc. that pops up. A short post to say I'm still going on this no nano nano thing. I have maybe 10-12,000 to write before the end of the month to finish draft 2 of Erica's Choice. I don't like the title, BTW, but I'll worry about that later. For now I thought I'd motivate everyone with five of the best (de)motivational gems I scored off 101 reasons to stop writing (note: the last breaking news update on this site is dated Sept. 2009. Perhaps he stopped blogging too?)

Happy final week nanoers!

Sami

The Cave

Posts have been a little lazy on Sami's Scribbles of late, I admit. I've been busy whoring around the place, posting at the Divas and The Romantix weekly (nearly every week). I'd usually have plenty to say here too (oh, yeah, I'm full of things to say), but I've actually been getting some writing done.

Halle-fucking-lujah. Is that blasphemy?

Anyway, I've been in the cave, otherwise known as glued to the laptop. I got something like 8-9000 words typed over the past 4 days. Doesn't sound like much to some people (looking at you Rhian Cahill, with your 'thought I'd get a few k done before bed' talk), but for me? With my recent track record? This is bloody brilliant. And yes, technically this is supposed to be a second draft because I'm copying the words from my rough notebook version... but I've changed basically everything and haven't even glanced at the notebook. You knew I would. So I'm counting them as brand new words. Dancing the happy dance tonight and going to sleep well, because I actually love this book at the moment. Yipee.

So if I do a few more lazy posts over the next couple of weeks, forgive me. I'm sort of doing my own version on Nano. I haven't signed up and neither have I any intention of writing 50000k. But I do aim to get the second draft of this novella (I see it's going to end up around 35-40000 at least), down by the end of the month. I don't want to risk stopping to think about what I'm doing and hence inviting the ol' writer's anxiety back in. No way.

And if there are any spelling mistakes in this post, it's because I ain't gonna spell check it for ya.

'Night,

Sami