The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. (Aristotle)

I wrote a scene, a couple scenes, today that I really didn’t want to write. I get so emotionally invested in the scenes, from all the characters’ perspectives, that it’s painful to put them, especially Taylor, through things. And I begin to wonder if there isn’t something wrong with me for imagining these horrible circumstances. But I feel better when it’s over having had confronted the demons and lived through it. Does that make sense to any writers out there?

So I’m listening to "Linus and Lucy" and a Loreena McKennitt Christmas album, trying to shake off the place I have to take myself in my head to write this way. And I hate, I mean HATE, Christmas music, but it’s a tip and I tried it, and it works. Not all songs, just some, they take me to a better frame of mind somehow, oddly enough “God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” “Good King Wencesalas,” and “Dickens’ Dublin” work best. Go figure. Of course, Loreena McKennitt can make the worst songs work. Just love her voice and style, so surreal, like a cross between a pre-Raphaelite painting and a Beltane fire. Love it.

Other than that, we’re wringing wet here, but not nearly as bad as other parts of the country. I can’t weed my garden (rats!) until it dries out a little. I might sink to China. I cringe thinking of how bad the cows are tearing up the pasture. Oh well, not anything I can do about it. Fight the battles I can win. Somehow I don’t think the cows are going to give a tinker’s damn if I go over and ask them (politely) not to tear in too bad.

Finished Every Which Way But Dead by Kim Harrison today. Really good series. It’s neat to see how many twists writers can put on vampires. I don’t even really like vampires, like I never got into Anne Rice at all, but I like the way certain writers tell stories and so I read vampire novels. Still plugging away at Pamela, who doesn’t show any signs of getting less whiney. I’m almost rooting for the boss to seduce her, just so she’ll quit being so worried about her damn virtue. Almost.