8 April '08

Quietude

I'm both antsy and drained these days, after a year that saw me finish two novels. It might be the weather--the gray days of March in Boston lend credence to that childhood nonsense about lions and lambs. But gray days or not, my persistent ennui is a symptom of an author's most dreaded time: the creative lull between novels.

I don't like authors who complain about their jobs so I'll spare you the hypocrisy and paint a rosy picture of the author as content, spending his free time at the boxing gym, in the garden, playing Streets of Rage 2 on his Sega Genesis emulator. The author is also halfway through writing a text game for the iPod, a little post-apocalyptic tale called Wunderland (working title). I grew up playing Steve Jackson CYOA books, and from there the progression to Infocom was both necessary and inevitable. So I figured a text game for the iPod would be a fun side project, my (very) humble homage to the geniuses at Infocom. When it's available, I'll post it on this site. 100% free. No registration, no email required. Just download, play, and send me your feedback.

What else. The Boston Globe magazine is running my personal essay in their "Coupling" column, pub. date unknown but likely coming soon. I'm reading Japanese Tales by Royall Tyler. Great stuff. Some of which may find its way into my next book.