Life has been good since Art Outside. I’ve enjoyed good time with my lovers, and last Saturday was my housemate Kristen’s 37th birthday party, complete with viewing of Monty Python & The Holy Grail in the pillow pit on her new projector. Life has had enough pleasure in it to make the hedonist in me happy, and enough work to keep me writing.
Last weekend, with the help of the latest Austin Art Nerds salon, I finally got a reasonable start at reviving Honeycutt Tales, a novel I began years ago with Kiki Christie but which has remained on the backburner for some time now. I’ve made a personal deadline to finish a first draft this month (or at least make serious progress toward that goal by Halloween).
Every Art Nerds salon has a theme, and this one was “Fear.” I have been afraid I would not be able to get back into this project, because it has lain dormant for so long. But with so much of a novel written, it is ridiculous not to bring it to a close if I can. Having a time set aside to work on nothing but the book helped, and I managed to nail down the basic outline of the last story in the book, “Reflections of a Pale Maid.”
Honeycutt Tales is an erotic, humorous science fiction novel which began in a writing exercise in an online writers’ group. Kiki wrote the very first line, I expanded it, and we were off and running. The book explores a lot of concepts from classic space operas of television, movies, and books, but in an explicitly (and explicit) sex-positive, kinky universe. As a result, I am actually watching Star Trek as legitimate research. Sometimes being a writer is pretty damn cool.
Art Nerds was held at a new place, the home of my friend April. While I worked, others made costumes for Flipside’s upcoming town hall, and carved jack-o-lanterns. I’m really excited that Austin Art Nerds is now in its second year. If you’re interested in having a place and time set aside just for the pursuit of creative projects, this group is unbeatable.
I’ll keep everyone posted on the progress of this book as it heads toward completion. Hopefully before I know it I’ll be editing it, and considering where and how to publish it…
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