These Days of Isolation

Some days seem longer than others, especially the nights. This, for me, comes after I’ve laid down and cannot fall asleep.

Sometimes I get back up and knock about until the insomnia passes. Other times I lay in bed, tossing and turning.

Neither are comfortable at the time, because of the lack of rest for my brain. It is during these times that my mind feels like it is on fire.

Much of my ‘knocking about’ time is spent at the keyboard, researching, writing, or editing.

During the day, my wife has kept me busy with around-the-house projects. Painting two walls, one in the dining/kitchen area and another in the front/living room, along with swapping out old light fixtures with new and re-framing the exterior windows of our home.

None of this falls directly in line with writing, however, I’m certain it’ll become a part of my story telling in some way or shape. In fact many of my stories are based on something that happened or at least happened and I created ‘much ado’ over it in the form of a written tale.

Call it fiction if you will, which is fine, but I like to think of my craft coming from the basis of experience, including all the so-called ‘horror’ writing I do. Dogs staring at a spot in the corner, a late night ice-cream truck driving up and down the street, the multitude of cats that like to mate outside our living room window after we go to bed.

It’s all there. These are things that I do believe others have in common with me and I simply re-work them in the monsters and shadows that the mind sometimes wishes we would ignore.

Anyway, how are you spending your ‘self-isolation?’ I’m writing and wishing you were, too.