A sideways glance into the mind of filsmyth (previously Phil Smith), author of Virtual Dreamer.

Friday, June 22, 2012

Six Months from the End of the World

...No, I don't really think the world will end on December 21, 2012.  Did find it a bit odd, though, that I didn't hear anything, as the Summer Solstice passed, about the Winter Solstice.  That date that everyone used to throw around is now exactly half a year away, and I didn't see or hear anyone mentioning it anywhere...


Maybe people have finally gotten the memo, that the precise date in question has no real meaning.  Maybe today's date whooshed by them (what with time seeming to move faster these days) and they just didn't realize, or maybe they were too busy celebrating the Summer Solstice -- or too hung over from over-celebrating West Virginia Day?


OR, maybe the reason I didn't see anything was because I didn't look for it.  Not going to now, either, will just go ahead and assume I'm not the only one talking about it...


Then again, I'm not here to talk about that, really.  It's just that these blogs of mine have been idle for quite a while, and I thought I might breathe some life back into at least one of them...


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-- so here goes --

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The photo above was taken today (yes, the Summer Solstice of 2012) and shows my peach tree -- grown from the pit of a peach I ate, and bearing fruit for the first time this year.  It makes me very happy.

What SHOULD be making me happy is progress on my novel, you know, the one I've been working on for five and a half years now -- and really, it's the novel I want to talk about.  There has indeed been progress, but it's more of the same:  Not actual chapters being drafted, just more and more depth to the world in which it's set, more and more structure to the story, more and more life to the characters...

...IN MY HEAD.  A novel's not worth much of anything if it only lives within the author's head.  I WANT to work on it, but keep finding excuses not to (like any good slacker/underachiever/procrastinator).  To be honest, this is a project which intimidates me.

One reason I haven't been blogging is that I've instead been making entries in what I call an "Author's Log" -- because, while I need to type out all the things that cross my mind about Virtual Dreamer, these thoughts aren't exactly for the general public.  Spoilers, and all that...  So, as much as I want to talk about it, it's best to just sort of talk to myself, when it comes to this particular subject.

However I CAN tell you that the end of the world -- or at least the end of the world as we know it -- becomes imminent in my novel.  Maybe one could even say the story begins with that end being about six months away...

...and maybe, just maybe, if I begin to apply myself tomorrow to get this thing written, I could be done by December 21st.

Maybe.

And maybe, just maybe, the publication of my novel will be part of the actual process of ending the world as we know it.

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filsmyth
21/22 June, 2012


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