DEAR DIARY | THE WRITER'S LIFE
It's interesting (to me) how some of the greatest pleasures are the remembered ones: The things which definitely happened, because they're recorded in the past. I'm a futurist and a sci-fi writer, but nostalgia still tugs at me.
Lately on my planet, I've been getting into radio, specifically BBC6 Music. I've got a hefty old bit of Cambridge Audio kit and I've always loved music, discovering new stuff and buying loads of old CDs in virtual record shops (because I don't go out). The radio introduces me to more new music and I'm quite enjoying the company of some chat and documentaries on Radio 4 and Radio 4 Extra. Like Benjamin Button, I'm evolving in reverse. But as my mind expands, I'm finding the joy I never found before in low tech, like radio. My typewriter is a perfectly contemporary laptop, and I'm connected, but like a 21st century version of all those American geeks in the 80s, who'd now be on the dark net. But I'm frustrated, like those nerds, yet I'm finding my identity.
In another move back to the 1980s, I've started wearing a headband, while I decide what else to do with my hair (it's getting long). It's fascinating as a study of human psychology. To anyone who's never seen me before, me wearing a head band isn't a new thing; perhaps a little eccentric but unlikely to illicit a response. When anyone who's not seen me for a while sees me, they may comment. Those who don't know me but who see me regularly (local shop staff, for example), do give me a second glance. I have to remember my cognitive behaviour therapy to remind myself that they're probably looking at me in a positive way. I shouldn't care: I feel comfortable with the way I look at home, it's practical and comfortable. But social anxiety breeds paranoia, so it's still a personal challenge to go out. Now it will be an evolutionary process in microcosm, and probably a few weeks before the people who see me regularly think it normal for me to be wearing a head band. I predict it would take several months for it to become a trademark: “You know the guy: Wears a headband.” I'll try to keep wearing it, because it feels right.
Often when I return home from my daily mission to Tesco Metro, there'll be boxes and barrels of produce at the bottom of the iron staircase leading up to the studio. Where once I might have been jealous, bitter, or perhaps even inclined to steal, now that's changed. For starters, I wouldn't steal any more. I did that, got caught, realised you always will, and gave it up on the advice of the law. It would alienate me from my neighbours and it would be morally wrong. No, nowadays, I smile inside when I'm confronted with fresh goods below the flat. It's beer barrels, boxes of bottles of wine, crates and cartons of fresh fruit and veg, mainly from independent organic suppliers. Those are destined for the restaurant / bar downstairs, next to the coffee shop on the village high street. In those establishments, people have a nice time and it improves them. It's nice to see things from the liberal left wing and live in a studio perched on top of all that life.
My village is a personal nirvana anyway, but twenty years ago, when I used to go out a lot, it would also have been perfect: I'd have a light meal at the restaurant downstairs (there's an Indian next to it), then off to one of the four or five pleasant pubs in the village. But that's not me any more. The tranquillity which I'd have enjoyed after hectic nights out locally, is the one I have almost 24/7. And it's peace and quiet which I most crave now, it's fed to me in spades. What did I do to deserve this? But I still live every day with the other side: The permanent reminders as a life sentence. But how do you deliberately finish something you've learned to love dearly?
Personal heaven and hell is one of the underlying subtexts of a new sci-fi short story I'm writing: The afternaut, coming soon. It's about a man who hibernates for four millennia between planetary evolutions, and other things. The difference engine will be on Schlock web zine this weekend, and on this blog.
Another recent evolution has been knocking off from scribbling at 2am instead of 3, then have the final hour before crashing, chilled with a joint. I favour the Blaze channel in the early hours: Ancient Aliens, Hangar 1, The Conspiracy files: Unsealed etc. Late night UK Freeview TV is like we used to see American teens watching on cable in the 80s.
But even while I'm trying to reboot, I have a notepad handy (there's so much pulp fiction fodder on those geeky shows). I write longhand notes with my favourite pencil: The Staedtler Norris 122-HB. It's the yellow and black striped one with an eraser on the end. It's my favoured pencil, as explained in a story I wrote: Echo Beach. If someone were unfamiliar with my writing, I'd guide them to this. It's one of 25 short stories in my anthology and the one I still sometimes hang my hat on.
Life's good, apart from social anxiety preventing me from fully enjoying it. But indoors, in my studio and now as a writer in residence, I'm in a self-made mini utopia. Watching late night geek TV or listening to the radio, looking like Charlie Sheen with my head band, writing with a pencil. I've also had an original Rubik's Cube for the last few months and I'm no better at it than I was 35 years ago.
Identity, mid-life, or existential crisis? I don't know. It's as though I've had to regress in order to evolve. As such, I'll continue my battle with Ernő Rubik, without resorting to tearing his invention apart.
I suppose this was a letter to my present self, from my future and past selves.
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