@Vern: How true. Life has a way of getting in your face and pushing hard to be noticed. I find excuses easily to not write and let them sway me. My first novel was a study in procrastination--and spread out much the same as you. It took over ten years to go from a short story to a novel. The desire is still there, but the inclination just isn't making it over the hill and down the other side.
@Si-Mack: Oddly enough, I have purchased a few books lately on the ins and outs of writing. They do help, and I get enthused for a little while (days, usually) but then the old lethargy sets in and I stop writing again. Maybe I should whack away at some short stories and put them out here for comment. That might help.
@Max Boyce: Great hearing from you again, Max. I wondered if you were still around. Doctors are investigating something happing to me right now that has me worried. Cancer got my first kidney seven years ago, and now they've found "something" on my other kidney, but "don't want me to worry" even though their investigation is taking months. Needless to say, this in itself worries me. At those times, writing is not something I can do for relaxation.
@Bobbie.R.Byrd: I am a voracious reade, Bobbie. I have a whole roomfull of authors. I tend to collect whole series of novel from a single author. I have all Clancy's books, as well as W. E. B. Griffin, Grisham, Woods, CHild, and a host of tohers. It is rare to find me somewhere not carrying or reading a book. I take one wherever I go "just in case" I have a free moment. It could be the constant reading gives me an excuse not to write my own books.
Yesterday, I mowed my grass and worked in the Iris beds for the first time. I'm hoping that when things begin growing in earnest, I'll relax enough to begin writing again. When I'm tense or worried it simply isn't conducive to deep thought processes. Spring is a time for outdoors, summer, when it's hot, is a swell time to be indoors--and writing.
Bill
