Bits o' Things

So it turns out that on top of being funnier and Scottisher than I am, Craig Ferguson is also a better writer than I am. Seriously, I've developed this massive non-sexual man crush on TV's Craig Ferguson and I'm not afraid to tell the internet... Anyway, I picked up a copy of his debut novel Between the Bridge and the River earlier this week and am enjoying the hell out of it. Now, I'm sure this would be old news for anyone who read the book between, oh, say, when it came out last March and now, but we do what we can. So should anyone be looking for a sometimes hilarious, sometimes insightful, always interesting book that covers sex, drugs, death, god, and the handling of poisonous reptiles, pick it up. Meanwhile, Ferguson instantly catapulted himself in to the small group of authors who make me want to write. This is good news for, well, me and probably somewhat bad news for this here blog. See, up until about June I hadn't really wanted to write much. I wasn't in a good place. The Muse had disappeared. I've had something of an explosion of creativity in the last few weeks, but it hasn't really been directed anywhere. However, between my last story over on Right Behind, storytelling, and the sudden discovery of Craig Ferguson as one of the few and the proud who makes me say, "I want to write and write well," I think I'm ready to do something I've been, well, afraid of for a while. Back when I was at school I came up with an idea for a novel. The idea of the novel terrified me, however, as I simply knew I couldn't do it justice. I wrote bits and pieces of it, tossed out a few character sketches, and occasionally tried to start writing it, but it wasn't working. I was wrestling the Muse too much. As much as anything, I knew I wasn't a good enough writer at the time. I have a theory about writing. I believe that any good book should take at least three years to write. The actual writing process itself might take only a month or so, but the book should exist in the mind of the writer long before it gets written. See, if you give a bad idea long enough it will eventually disappear. But if you have a good idea it will sit there, waiting, growing, working its way from the probably bad initial concept to something that's hopefully wonderful. I'm still not a good enough writer to tackle this particular book. I'm a better writer than I was when I came up with it, but I've also managed to make the book a lot harder to write in the interim. But, hey, one of my life philosophies is that you should always bite off more than you can chew, otherwise you'll never know what you're made of. Anyway, as for what this has to do with this here blog, um, don't expect me to be keeping up the torrid pace of the last month or so. The Field Guide has been too much fun to write, so I'll definitely be continuing on with that one. I've got other stuff, too (like, I've still got to dismantle the conversion of Constantine and explore the Documentary Hypothesis). But random, near daily entries might be slowing a bit... So, yeah. This is really just in case anyone out there cares.