Speed as Histrionics
I set out on the outline of Hot Spring Honeymoon on January 1, 2012. I’d finished Bankrupt Heart in June of 2011. By finish I mean the manuscript was completed and the only thing left was to scrub the thing for errors in spelling and grammar. I rested my imaginations muscle for six months until on that first fateful day seventeen months ago I embarked on this latest novel. I’d wrestled with the outline and settled on April Fool’s Day as the best day to begin writing my first comic novel. We count the words of this current effort at forty thousand headed to 60 thousand at the finish. I am a pace of 3000 funny words per month, a hundred funny words per day, somewhat longer than a tweet, somewhat less than prolific. Of course for every three grand I make I’ve spent three times that amount getting there. This is not a lesson, it is an experience. If this is going to be what I say it is, a comic novel, it is going to require a vastly greater effort than any other writing project I’ve attempted. Here is where the practical limits of the creative process meets the modern worlds sense of pace. A book of this type takes as long as it takes and not a moment sooner.
HOT SPRING HONEYMOON
“Morning,” Keefe said.
“God you scared me,” Dusty replied as she came out the front door. “How are you Mr. Kenny?”
“I don’t have the whole of my life in front of me like you, but what I got left will do.”
“You got a long life ahead.” Dusty said as she loaded sheets and towels into her arms.
“Got honeymooners coming in this afternoon.”
“Newlyweds…” Dusty said, “Vow your whole life away for two weeks of hot fun.”
“You’re not ready to settle down.” Keefe said.
“Making love to the same person for rest of your life?”
“Right partner could make for a happiness that runs deep.”
Dusty wasn’t having any of it, “Only thing I’ve learned about getting married. That’ll make a life seem long.”
