I am in a happy place right now. Yes. Two reasons: reading and writing. Let's start with the latter:

There is not a lot to say. I began writing yesterday and soon found I was writing a story I had wanted to write for some time. Quite often, the business of simply starting to write - anything, whatever pops into my head - is what kickstarts the engine. Soon I find I am no longer rambling; there is a story emerging and things start to snowball.

This is what happened yesterday when I began. The story I had wanted to write crept into the paragraphs. Of course, I don't know what that story is. I know only vague details. The writing process is what reveals the story. So I won't know the complete story until I am finished.

The other interesting thing is how the story keeps changing as I write. What I thought was the story is not the story at all - the details evolve. They transform. And, the story I thought I wanted to write also appears to be an excuse to write a different story. The original story idea is actually a MacGuffin for another.

Anyway ... It's all very interesting to me. Hopefully this story will be completed soon. If it's any good, perhaps I'll put it online. (It may be a novella as opposed to a short story - don't know yet.)

As for the reading ... I picked up a new book by Steve Martin yesterday. It's called The Pleasure of My Company and it's very good. It's funny ... or perhaps I should say wryly humorous, or something like that. It's not something I've been laughing out loud over. I've simply been smiling a lot while reading it.

I really like the main character (the narrator). It reminds me somewhat of the main character in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon (a book I highly recommend). They are similar in tone and there are some vague (and few) similarities in characterization. It's a tone and style I really enjoy - I find it quite funny in a dry way - and have used a similar approach in some of my own shabby stories.

The only downside of the book is it's a short - about 160 pages long - so I'll be finished it very soon. You know, it seems sometimes as if the books you really like are incredibly short whereas books that don't do much for you seem as thick as the New York phone book.

But enough of all that ... Have to get back to writing my own stories now. Toodle-oo!