Pain Meds, Obsessions & Writing ‘The End’

Let me preface this posting by saying, I have a pretty high tolerance to pain. I’ve had plenty of horrendously bruised body parts in my day, broken bones, a few twists, sprains and strains, even got whacked in the head with a steel bar and bled like a stuck pig once (thanks Craig, I still have the scar…); and while taking tae kwon do I sparred on a regular basis with guys twice my size and managed to live and tell the tale. But the bruising of the ribs, I think that may well take the cake. I would suggest, if you ever find yourself in a situation where your ribs are about to be pulverized by someone’s foot, that you avoid this at all cost. Just breathing is proving something of a chore. I can’t get a deep breath, and I find I really want to take one. These shallow gasps just aren’t cutting it. I require a larger oxygen supply. But the sharp jab I get every time I make the attempt leaves me contemplating the whole necessity of breathing in general. And still there is the sick, competitive warrior side of my brain that snickers and says, ‘cool…battle scar’. I don’t need pain meds, I need therapy.

And speaking of therapy, I must admit I am deep in the throes of a Christian Bale obsession. I’ve had to lock away my visa card to stop from ordering any more DVDs. This of course occurred after I had already ordered Royal Deceit and Laurel Canyon off of amazon.ca. yesterday. Batman Begins arrives in theatres this Wednesday and I’m sure I’ll be there, standing in line trying not to scare the kids by drooling like an idiot, shoving them out of my way when the doors open to get a good seat. Sad, I know, but what can you do. I blame my writing for this. I get a mental image of a character in mind, and, being a movie buff with a Hot Guy obsession, I usually end up using the physical likeness of actors for the most part. I have no control over this. I don’t even say, ‘this character is going to look like this actor’. They just appear in my head and seem to assign their own faces. The secondary character in D&B, who ends up being the main character in SG picked Christian Bale. What’s a girl to do? I’m willing to obsess for the sake of my art. I find getting these little crushes make the writing more fun. I need to fall at least a little in love/lust/infatuation with my heroes. How else can I convince anyone else they should do the same? Am I alone in this?

With D&B and SG starting to overtake my brain, I’m happy to say I have every intention of writing ‘The End’ on The Outlaw Bride by the end of this week. It will require putting in a few hours each evening, as well as my regular time in the morning. But I want to set it aside for at least 2 weeks before I bring it out again to do the final read. While its setting on the shelf, I’ll get to work on D&B’s formatted outline, using First Draft in 30 Days. I can’t wait to get started! I'm so excited about this series of stories I want to jump right in and start NOW.