Sunday

 I read articles from The Guardian first thing, then I got through some of my email.

I submitted "Colonel Tom" to Bluestem Magazine and The Good Life Review.

I submitted "Problem Solving" to a contest on Witness.

Through Lapham's Quarterly I found Robert Gordon Dies: Singer Who Took Rockabilly To Downtown Punk Scene Was 75. Wayne Skinner introduced me to Robert Gordon back in '78.

This was how I also learned of Link Wray.

From Lapham's I also read The Calamities of Others by Polybius. I knew about Polybius, but this is the closest I have come to reading him.

or what gives my work its peculiar quality, and what is most remarkable in the present age, is this. Fortune has guided almost all the affairs of the world in one direction and has forced them to incline toward one and the same end; a historian should likewise bring before his readers under one synoptical view the operations by which she has accomplished her general purpose. Indeed, it was this chiefly that invited and encouraged me to undertake my task, and secondarily the fact that none of my contemporaries have undertaken to write a general history, in which case I should have been much less eager to take this in hand. As it is, I observe that while several modern writers deal with particular wars and certain matters connected with them, no one, as far as I am aware, has even attempted to inquire critically when and whence the general and comprehensive scheme of events originated and how it led up to the end. I therefore thought it quite necessary not to leave unnoticed or allow to pass into oblivion this the finest and most beneficent of the performances of fortune. For though she is ever producing something new and ever playing a part in the lives of men, she has not in a single instance ever accomplished such a work, ever achieved such a triumph, as in our own times. We can no more hope to perceive this from histories dealing with particular events than to get at once a notion of the form of the whole world, its disposition and order, by visiting, each in turn, the most famous cities or indeed by looking at separate plans of each: a result by no means likely. He who believes that by studying isolated histories he can acquire a fairly just view of history as a whole is, as it seems to me, much in the case of one who, after having looked at the dissevered limbs of an animal once alive and beautiful, fancies he had been as good as an eyewitness of the creature itself in all its action and grace. For could anyone put the creature together on the spot, restoring its form and the comeliness of life, and then show it to the same man, I think he would quickly avow that he was formerly very far away from the truth and more like one in a dream. For we can get some idea of a whole from a part but never knowledge or exact opinion. Special histories therefore contribute very little to the knowledge of the whole and conviction of its truth. It is only indeed by study of the interconnection of all the particulars, their resemblances and differences, that we are enabled at least to make a general survey, and thus derive both benefit and pleasure from history.

Having long ago seen the movie White Mischief, I also read Set on Fire. A Kenyan murder mystery that does not seem ready to go away just yet.

Enough procrastinating, time to deal with my "Psychotic Ape."

I spent the afternoon hacking my way through my story. I had Roy Buchanan for company through. I think he is pretty much forgotten now, but 40 years ago he was the blues guitarist before Stevie Ray Vaughn showed up. Vaughn had the hits, while Buchanan never did. I believe he killed himself. 

I picked on some obscure Seventies singers. This guy might have done better if he could sing:

I finished my first draft of "The Psychotic Ape." I just gave on my original draft from 2010. I ended up with 3408 words. I tell you I am a slow typist. Bathroom breaks and smokes and a little nap to rest my lower did extend the time, but I started somewhere around noon or even 11 AM. It is now 7:20 pm. Another thing which will not find a home. A lot of ideas and a little action in 13 pages.

Another rejection for "Problem Solving":

"Problem Solving" has been carefully read by our editors and, unfortunately, we feel it is not right for Hypertext. We do thank you for allowing us to consider your work and we wish you luck placing it elsewhere.

Sincerely,

The Editors of Hypertext Magazine

Would that I could write a temperate tale in a straightforward way. Not that I did not know this would be a problem.

I have had enough of the computer for a while. I will trim off some of the email, then go watch Doctor Who.

I heard this the other day on WXPN and today seems like a good day for Sharon Van Etten (ah, if I were younger!)

Well, I watched Doctor Who. A pleasing diversion, except I kept playing the end of "Psychotic Ape" and I just finished rewriting the end. It is now 3,662 words.

I will watch a bit of the House of the Dragon after I finish typing this. The alarm is set for 5 am and I have a job interview at 10 AM. I think tomorrow I will do a bit of running around Muncie. Also, I think I will see Black Adam.

Good luck and have a good day.