Collab

If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result, I think it prudent to try something different in this instance. I'm having one of those days when I'm creatively frustrated. Let's make that capital F Frustrated. Nothing's actually wrong. It's just that a half-dozen small things pile up on top of each other until I feel less than productive, and that starts to really tick me off. 

It's cold again. A lovely 38 degrees currently, that stubborn March cold snap we have every year. And yesterday, I was hit was one of my really ugly, crippling headaches that's persisted today. And my back's messed up, too. I'm convinced all this pain is weather-related; it's too coincidental not to be. But, understandable or not, it kills my creativity, and it I HATE when I have a day that feels sluggish like that. 

Ugh. 

Anyway: normally on a day like today, I'd pull back from social media, and not blog, and just sort of...sit in front of my blinking cursor, willing the words to come. This NEVER works. So I'm going to press pause on the writing for the day, step back from editing, and blog first. Then read a little bit. I've got three new books, which I didn't need, but which I'm looking forward to starting. Good Omens, especially. 

My brother asked what I picked up on Friday, and when I told him about Good Omens, he said, "I love Terry Pratchett, but I've never read Neil Gaiman." 

And I said, "I love Neil Gaiman, but I've never read Terry Pratchett." 

I laughed about it, because he and I are currently working on a collaborative novel-writing effort, and it seemed fitting. 

If you've seen me mention my "secret project" on Insta lately, I'm talking about our collab. A few weeks ago, I started a story thread on Twitter; an idea that popped into my head while I was at the barn. I wrote it out in a Word doc later. I liked it - I really liked it, especially because it had been inspired by some of my favorite American fiction. But I wasn't sure where I was taking it. When I talked about it with my brother, though, he latched right onto it, and an hour later, we'd hashed out not just one book, but a potential series, and now we're writing it together, and it's so fun. 

Collabs aren't always my strong suit; clashing ideas and approaches can make work not only difficult, but sometimes impossible. But with my brother, our lit backgrounds and tastes are similar enough, and we know each other well enough, that we can talk through obstacles without ego, nor the worry of stepping on one another's toes. 

Right now, it's my B project, behind Golden Eagle, but I love that I'm finally tackling, with some great help, a genre that I've always loved. I've always been a lone wolf, so it's refreshing to have a co-writer. We're still keeping it very much a secret for now, but hopefully I'll be able to share more about it soon. 

Hope your Monday is less frustrating than mine as been! I'm going to go curl up with a book until it's time to feed the horses.