Musings & Thoughts for Tuesday, May 23, 2023, or: Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, It’s Back to Work I Go….

“Summer is only the unfulfilled promise of spring, a charlatan in place of the warm balmy nights I dream of in April. It’s a sad season of life without growth…It has no day.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise

Hello there, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in my corner of Lithia, Florida, on Tuesday, May 23, 2023. It’s a sunny, warm-and-getting-hot late spring day; right now the temperature is 79°F/26°C under mostly sunny skies, but the forecast calls for a high of 88°F/30°C and scattered rain showers in the afternoon.

I suspected that it was going to be at least a bit rainy as soon as I woke up around 6:30 AM; the sun was rising then, and when I went to the kitchen to brew some coffee and eat breakfast, I looked out through the sliding glass doors that lead to the backyard and noticed a veil of gray clouds. Currently, there are breaks in that grayness, but even though the skies are partly sunny, the light that streams in through the windows is dim and somewhat gloomy. I don’t know – maybe it’s my mood, or maybe it’s the fact that another season will end in one week, and another – meteorological summer – starts on June 1.

Obviously, I woke up at a more decent hour today. I’m not sure at what time I fell asleep – probably between 11:30 PM and midnight – but at least I slept without having to get up to go to the “throne room” in the wee (or is it “wee-wee”?) hours of the morning. I’m still a bit groggy, which is why I’m writing this post rather late in the morning, but unlike yesterday, when I added 0 new words to The New Story, I think – I hope – today will be more productive on the writing front.

“Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

I plan to write at least one scene for Chapter Nine; if I get to my daily goal of 1,000 new words today, I will be ecstatic, but I’m willing to settle for just completing the scene even if the word count falls short of the “1K” mark. I already know the setting – both temporal and physical – of the scene, as well as who is “on stage,” but other than that, I haven’t the foggiest notion. (This is, of course, a result of my “no outlines” approach to storytelling, so I can only blame myself for not having a “plan” beyond “Read what came before, then answer the question, ‘And then what happens?’ in a way that makes sense.”

With that in mind, I need to cut this short and shift gears from “Blogging” to “Writing Fiction.” So, wish me luck, Dear Reader. And until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.