Jane Austen and I

Happy Valentine's Day to all my readers.

It’s perfectly clear to me why Jane Austen did not reveal in her novels what was going on in the real world and she didn’t have television to interfere with the process of her art. For the past few weeks the action in Tucson, in Egypt, and now in Iran, has distracted me to the point of almost forgetting I have a blog to feed. It’s not easy to perform in the real world and at the same time in the writing world of which blogging is the smallest part. A bigger surprise is that the reading has dragged too. Now, if someone(s) would just straighten out the problems of the real world, it would help in more than one way.

It’s time for writing and mailing in our entries for this year’s Idaho Writer’s [sic] League writing contests and I have worked today on that project. Not with quite the same enthusiasm as that of last year, but that will come. I suppose. One does not wait for inspiration, of course, but just starts writing and inspiration shows up sooner or later. Then one can chop off all that writing without the inspiration and proceed with what’s left. Today I cut down the current story from 3,669 words to 3,498 to fit the limit of 3,500 words. That is fun and tightening up the wording is great first-aid. But to get on with it, I’m going to a mirror and cut my hair short. Then I can write with more ease and my stylist can finish the job next Thursday.

♥