Trkk

If I wanted the original drawing to be black and white psychedelic, I wanted the colored (over colored) version to chase after if not capture stained glass.

Actually, I didn’t think of that until I saw the image on the computer screen.

I’m in the tightening-up phase of my manuscript, “Swamis,” and right now, instead of chasing the latest possible surf/wind event hitting the northwest corner, I’ll be waiting, again, for the satellite guy.  Very nice; makes big bucks; replaced our failed ten year old HD box on Wednesday (after two pm on the 12-4 wait time) with one that didn’t fail for a day and a half.  He freaked our cat out.  She, Angelina, hid out for a day and a half.  Yeah, the same day and a half.

Spent another hour plus convincing various prompts that, indeed, I had tried to reset, unplug-plug, prayer, “the fucking thing won’t fucking work, fucker” (that was me to the evasive prompts; way nicer to Laura, who, eventually, spoke to me).  “Yes, if that’s what happening, you may be correct, sir, Erwin; the unit may be, as you say, toast.”

So, sometime today, between noon and forever.

Waiting.

No, I’ve got shit to do.  I did a stint at THE CELLAR DOOR last night, stand-in doorman tasked with collecting a five dollar cover.  I was standing in for my daughter, Dru, who is sick, being cared for by Trish.  Mixed reviews.  On the band and the doorman.  Person.

I would blather on, but I’ve already reduced the time I can spend on “Swamis,” and, with Trish still at our daughter’s place, I’m most concerned about our cat, Angelina, obviously more Trisha’s cat than mine, and where I’m going to put her when the big bad highly-paid (great benefits, too; 20 free phones, all gone, with unlimited everything) installer comes to call.

Oh, text update: Sometime between 1:45 and forever.

If I hadn’t gotten home so late, maybe…

Wait; something else about “Swamis,” other than I will be reading from it on Thursday, March 5, sometime after 6pm, Port Townsend Public Library.  Thanks to Keith Darrock.

I was discussing how the 110,000 word manuscript is now, about a fourth of the way through my editing process, over a hundred and twelve thousand words.  “Maybe,” my friend Stephen Davis (co owner of the Cellar Door) said, it’s become your ‘War and Peace.'”  “It’s at least my ‘Moby Dick,'” I replied.

You might not believe this, but the manuscript veers off the course a detective novel might adhere to.  Genre-bending.  Frequently.  I have to tell myself it’s okay because “Swamis” is more like a memoir.  Fake memoir.

My bigger fear is, since I can’t help thinking of how cool “Swamis” would be as an Amazon or Netflix mini-series (possibly provoked and furthered by watching Roku rather than DVRd “Jeopardy” and Colbert), is that each chapter is just too fucking (remember, I’m just typing, keystrokes on a computer, sending them out to whoever happens upon them- kind of like responding to a prompt) cute, too neatly packaged and wrapped.

And all the tightening might be making each chapter, and the entire manuscript more so.  Cuter.  I’m kind of thinking the more off-course chapters could be printed on pages of another color with a disclaimer/warning like, “If you want just the mystery story, skip this.”  That might be clever; might be, again, too cute.

If I was talking to you in person I’d probably say the same fucking thing: Beware, “Swamis” just might be too fucking cute.

Yeah, Steve and I, cruising between Port Townsend’s Goodwill (so I could get some proper doorman clothes and not have to go home between painting and manning) and the ultra-hip Co-Op (haven’t been there since right after it opened and I was no where near hip enough), did, at the “Moby Dick” comment, possibly giggle.  So immature.

Okay, thinking about locking Isabella in the bathroom when the guy shows up, thinking about why no wind is showing on a buoy (there’s always wind), thinking about when I’ll surf again (not today), thinking about “Swamis,” real and imagined.