Writing - the ups and downs

This morning I was sleeping peacefully when I felt eyes on me. I shifted my weight in bed and turned toward the wall. My eyes popped open and I came eye to eye with a black spider. He was on the wall about a foot to the left of my table lamp. Sure, he was three feet from the edge of my bed. But still. He was in the house where I figure he did not belong. I mean, even if he’d been in the basement I would have given him some slack. But no he was in my space. And that called for action. I lost no time putting my feet on the floor. I headed to the kitchen to find a weapon. I was no match for that fellow, Lord knows. I found a flip flop that seemed to be up to the job. Returning to the bedroom I noted he was waiting for me, same position, same glassy stare, same ugly black velvety body.  Here is a photo of where the stand-off took place. No pictures of the enemy as I would then be afraid of the photo and convinced that he was living in my camera. Nada. Nope. No photos of him.

Elmore Leonard — author of  Get Shorty ,  Out of Sight , and  Rum Punch  as well as other titles ---passed away August 20.  May he rest in peace. He was an amazing writer! This first photo below is the way I'd like to remember Elmore Leonard. Way back when. Hard at work at his typewriter surrounded by books and his own words. Many people have already shared Elmore's rules for writing. But, I for one can bear reading them again and would probably benefit from reading the list before each writing session. I'm working my way through a second draft of a novel and struggling as if it's the first sentence I've ever written. Perhaps this review of his words will assist me when I return to my desk. Pictured below is a more sophisticated and successful Elmore. Perhaps a truer image of him before he passed. But I'm a fan of the younger Elmore. Without saying anything more, I hope  you get something from reading his rules for writ

Those of you who still have your natural eyebrows, please hold up your hands. Okay. Nice show of hands. Now, let’s see the hands of those who have eyebrows that are not the greatest but still in place and serving you well.  O-kay. Good count. Thanks! All those who had your hands in the air are now dismissed. Sorry. This class is going to discuss and dis-cuss (not really! well, maybe!) the lack of nice regular eyebrows. When I was a kid like most of you girls in the audience, I had normal eyebrows. Nice shape, nice color. It was in my teens, when I started to pay attention to them, that they began to let me down. I first learned to pluck and tweeze the hairs above my eyes from watching my sister Sue do hers.  She had black brows in a perfect arch over big brown eyes. Nice.  Nice wasn’t my experience. Far from it. I either took off too many or too little. I never got the hang of tweezing or plucking so I gave that up. For a few years I let my brows grow in a