martinimade

* Yanked from Neil Gaiman's site, only because the cat in question is in Albany, which is not far from me and not because I am looking for a new cat. Because "new cat" is fairly far down on the list of things I want, just under "infestation of grackles, the most noxious bird ever" and "tongue bath from Dick Cheney."

* I will know that I have made it as a writer when I become a bobblehead.

* Paying work: my latest column for the local almost daily: On the subject of the McDonald's Playland.

* This is just one of those odd pieces of emphemera but a writer on a mailing list that I am on asked how each of us overcomes writer's block. Here are my admittedly idiosyncratic methods:

-- Balancing my checkbook always kicks my blocks in the pants, if only because it forces me to sit down and get something on paper, even if I know that that something will be changed later. The checkbook thing reminds me that there is no muse and that actively working is what gets it done.

-- Writing something small, like a letter or blog post or poem, helps. Even if it is just a haiku.

-- Picturing my inner editor never fails to get my ass in gear. My inner editor looks a lot like Coury Turczyn, who was my actual editor for a few years, but my inner version has bigger eyes, like the kids in Keene paintings. He sighs heavily when I come in with my excuse du jour. I find it easy to ignore editors who yell but the thought that I've let the team down tears me up. YMMV.

-- Here's a thought that incorporates all three -- write a description of your inner editor while balancing your checkbook.