Writer's Night Out

I went out with Cherri Galbiati for our weekly writer's night out, last night. For some reason, writing just didn't come up as a topic very much. I guess we just weren't in the mood for it.. Then we were joined by Matt, a friend of our waitress (or is it server nowadays?), Lauren. We ended up talking about lots of things then, especially after Lauren got off her shift and joined us.

Let me take a pause here to give a shout out to Lois, Lauren, Sarah, Ashley, John, Kim, and the rest of the Denny's crew who makes our weekly get together's work so well. You guys are great, and very understanding of a couple of old geezers who want to come in and hog the same booth every week with their laptops. Thanks a bunch, guys!

Anyways, we stayed out way too late and I actually woke up slightly ill this morning when it was time to get the kids off to school. Thankfully, Karla stepped up like a champ and saw that everything that needed to get done...did. Thanks, Karla.

Finally, since this is Charcot Marie Tooth awareness week, I thought I would mention one of the issues I face as a writer with CMT. My problem is that over time the condition/disease has spread into my hands...and not evenly. My left hand is more affected than my right. Naturally, I'm left handed. This means that writing with a pen or pencil has started to get very difficult for me. When I'm having a bad day, it's impossible. Sometimes I worry about this, because hands are kinda important to writer. Fortunately, the spread is very, very slow and I can still type.

But it always kinda sits in the back of my mind that I need to get my writing done while I can. So that's one way CMT affects writing.

On a more positive note, it also gives me a worldview that I was simply incapable of writing from before. Ten years ago, any fantasy hero I would have attempted to write would have been some knockoff of Conan the Barbarian. Now, due to the perspective and insight I've gained from living with this condition, character's like Cargill of Khrem are possible...even though he doesn't have a physical handicap himself, he understands that the world is a lot bigger than him, and has to be dealt with from that standpoint. It makes for a different type of fantasy character.

Oh well, that's it for today. I've got a cub scout meeting for tonight and a whole lot to do before it's time to leave. Bye.