PUGGY'S HILL

Last night, we went to Town Hall to see Richard Thompson solo acoustic concert of perpetual bliss.  He always does that to me.  A genius songwriter and guitarist - but also a performer of tremendous generosity.  The air changes when he's in it.  I love his albums, but LIVE . . . I swear to you, he cured my flu one night in Boston - for 24 hours, anyway.  Miraculous.

Opening last night was his perfectly competent, rather dull son Teddy. Never mind, I thought; it's the perfect chance to think about all those thorny issues in the book you're writing.  No distractions, you know?

But, no.  I was just bored.

And then RT came on.  He started playing, and my brain & heart cracked open like a John Donne or George Herbert poem!

I was glorying in the songs, I was thrilling to the guitar riffs - and the novel started marching through my brain, throwing off sparks - I was watching it all happen - I was seeing all the connections - and during the guitar solo on "Vincent Black Lightning," not only Delia but probably my poor neighbors heard me shout, "Yes! That's it!" followed I'm afraid a few beats (and visions) later by a chuckled, "Of course! Damn I'm good."

And then I just enjoyed the show.  Because I now had the entire second half of my novel to hand.

Oh, dear, and now I want to write a long screed here about how the Power of Richard has moved in me, from the stormy cross-country drive where my friend Nick popped a cassette of Shoot out the Lights in the car stereo, and I went: Holy crap!!! This is just like that book I'm writing (Swordspoint)!!!! . . . . to the chance meeting I had with RT on the shuttle plane from NYC back to Boston where I was making Sound & Spirit . . . to last year's City Winery all-request show where kind friends saved me a seat down front . . . . .

But I must march myself and my backpack back up to Butler Library, where a long table in a quiet room awaits me, smelling of brass and old wood and many, many books, and tall windows let in the sun over 114th St.   After all, I've got the second half, now!

Oh, what the hell:

...after 8 glorious days in Western Massachusetts, housesitting for friends and riding my (well, their) bike into town along a black bike trail already streaked with yellow leaves (and let me tell you about the day I waited til after sundown, to discover that it wasn't lit....woooo-ooooo! I am brave), making endless cups of tea and pacing the kitchen and bending the ears of various pals with my writerly angst.

At the end of which, I can safely say that the new novel is well underway.  Not as many pages as I could wish, but a very strong sense of who these people are and where they're going, and pretty much how they'll get there.  And some scenes I like a lot.  I've got to turn back to some more pressing deadlines, now, but I think I've got what I need to return to this with vigor (instead of the previous sense of vague dread and impending despair) when I'm done with them.

I will spare you my meditations on what a tremendously inspiring and encouraging speaker I am when it comes to other peoples' process and WIP, and how dismally and utterly I can fail to take my own advice.  Really, it's quite remarkable.  Sometimes I amaze even myself.

Tomorrow morning, I hit New York Comic Con, where I'll be interviewing Wendy & Brian Froud on their latest book - and first official collaboration - TROLLS.  It's stunning (and, despite it slenderness, it weighs a ton!).  Terri Windling's husband Howard Gayton - and his creative partner Rex van Ryn -  interviewed Brian & Wendy this summer, in the village they all live in together.  It's a lovely discussion on collaboration.  You can read it here.

Me, I'm on a collaborative streak:  Just went over the page proofs for the story I wrote last year with Caroline Stevermer for the upcoming Datlow/Windling anthology, QUEEN VICTORIA'S BOOK OF SPELLS . . . halfway through recording the audiobook for THE FALL OF THE KINGS (which I wrote with Delia, pretty early in our relationship) - D & I have 2 meeting this week with our director/producer, Sue Zizza, about music & casting for the "illuminated" version . . . .Am working with Ysabeau Wilce (yaayyy!) on something for a Jonathan Strahan anthology . . . . and Terri Windling & I are talking about drafting something together when she's here in November for FaerieCon.

I like working with other people.  When it's the right project, and they're the right ones.  I've also had some real stinkers of collaborations, so it's not like I'm the dream partner for everyone (nor they for me).  But when it's right, it's divine!  Maybe another reason I am drawn to theater.