music
Dispatch from Lagos where the weather is Puerto Rico warm and the mosquitoes have evolved into weapon-resistant giant mutants of the 20th century species. They've also evolved to not itch while they bite, a development I appreciate.
The internet is pay-as-you-go so I have to hurry. Liked arriving in Lagos, it reminds me a bit of Sana'a, though the latter is simpler, more serene. I'm enjoying it - the food, my brother and family, the flight...Looking forward to Cairo.
I'm to "do something" with my hair tomorrow, because my folks can't stand it not done in some fancy way. Better than last time, when I had to get it done within 24hrs of arrival; next time I won't oblige at all.
Happy New Year.
7 comments:
Happy New Year to you, T!
Thanks Erik.
It's such a lovely new year already what with the mosquitoes having a change of heart (or dying? my friend told me that they must have been especially active that day because it was hotter than usual), some actual socializing on this trip home (including three weddings in three consecutive days), oh and I started writing a novel - first time ever...
Plus, it's about to get much better (the Australian Open begins this in days and CAIRO begins a few hours later.)
Happy New Year...still waiting to hear from you. So what did you do to your hair? I guess you are off to Cairo now. Drop a line when you can. Hugs. M
Dee - M?
Thought I knew Dee, but now not so sure. Heard your broter's music quite a bit yesterday.
Hair: weaving. Like normal secondary school weaving. It hurt like hell for three days. Now it still hurts but not too badly. Don't know how I survived attachments back in the day. That's like a week of pain. NYways, on that silly thing called Facebook - and you?
Re: Novel
I remember now that I wrote something as a kid, a story, but nowhere near this long of course. I was 11 and I don't remember what it was about.
I experienced victory over writer's block, which is not a major block, as the way to feel the flow is to physically put the pen on paper and write a line or two. So it's not so much a block as fear that paralyzes a writer in the middle of a story, the fear that this emblem of theirs, this piece of perfection will be destroyed by the writing to follow, and that they must, in the name of beautiful immortality, not touch the piece until they are ready, until God says again "Write!" Writers are lucky, they hear the voice of God vividly, then they don't want to go forward unless they feel his hand upon them. This weekend I was scared, but in the end I wrote, I am exhausted, and it felt great.
Still writing. I slowed down for a while. It's fun, it's work, what can I say, I love it.
The status is: I've been working on the outline all these months. I'm 2/3 done with the outline. Ok, I'll try to finish it this month. Then I need to research a few things. Then i need a break.
Someday in May, I'll start typing it, rearranging the outline and filling in with dialogue. It will maybe double in length in the process. Insha'Allah, sometime in July it will be finished.
How is life in Cairo? Fabulous.
I stopped again, and wrote about 60 poems in the interim. 20 of them are short, so-called Haiku. I'm repairing maybe 10 of them.
In additon, I have about 20 poems pre-June 2008, that makes 80.
(Must I always count? Have targets?) I want to write 20 more and publish. It's no use if nobody reads these things, you know?
Post a Comment