Hi there!
Well Well Well! I have just finished a new short story. I wrote the last half of it just now, after stewing on the half-done version for 2 weeks. So please read the first draft final version of it here:
It has been freezing here in Central Otago NZ where I live. it’s been getting down to minus seven or so. It’s even worse when you still haven’t organised better insulation. In NZ the old carpenters made the houses often with no insulation! Crazy stuff! But then wood was cheap & every home had a blazing fireplace.
It’s great to have finished two short stories in the last month or so, the other short story (a long one) being below.
Soon I will have to take a month of my day job & try to edit all these short stories – this of course seems like a massive massive task. Sometimes I think I’ll never get around to making all this writing ‘blossom’ – but I hope I am wrong on that. I guess a more assertive thing to say would be “DAMN IT I WILL BREATH THESE THINGS INTO LIFE IF IT’S THE LAST THING I EVER DO”…..but writers don’t really talk like that.
I believe in the system way of thinking – my system is to produce core writing & enough of it so as to create some good final product. I’ve been on that journey 5 years & I guess I might have got to that point where soem good stuff can be winnowed down into a nice book or two.
In saying that – I should really make sure I do something proper with it all by age 50 – that gives me 3 more years!
Ihad a nice trip to Dunedin the other day – I stayed for a week & relaxed, bought books, and rejuvinated. In these post covid days we need to remember we have to fight the plan that we should not be leaving the house. And for writers we probably don’t like to leave the house much already.
Why do I do this stuff? I guess I hope I am describing the madness & occasional goodness of the human condition in an original way. maybe I am failing, maybe not – I guess that;s not for me to say. Anyway I enjoy it – & that’s the main thing. I think I have cracked a way to not stress out about writing. I always seem to come up with something reasonably soon. Writers block hasn’t hurt me for a long time now, touch wood.
Anyway I hope you are all well.
happy reading
Martin A. Smith 23/06/2024
Anton Martin Smith Writer 