Michael Pickell

  Song mood: Something Just Like This by Coldplay and The Chainsmokers. Yesterday was a bad headache day. I took Ibuprofen and then I took Tylenol after that and it was still bad. I continued working. Then I did my exercising and wrote my poem. And it was still bad. So I lay in bed and played Zelda for a few hours, in which my body felt better and the headache was dull. It was so bad, I cried most of the night because of the pain. My joints hurt. They hurt a bit today. On top of that is the internal organ pain. Which wasn’t as bad as before my gallbladder needed to be removed. So I didn’t get any writing done yesterday.  The holiday is coming up. I have a few days off. I think I will go to Kansas City to go to the museum and take pictures of art. That will be Friday and Saturday. Then I will come back to Omaha and hang out with family. What I was thinking was may be this could be the weekend legends are made of. I could sit down and write a hundred pages over the long holiday. But

  Song mood: You Get What You Give by New Radicals. I’m writing this post, to write something. So that the forces of darkness doesn’t win. So that the Karens don’t win. Well, they always win because they don’t actually live in objective reality. In their tiny little heads, they win because facts don’t matter. But anyway. Anyone who is willing fight a Karen for you, must really love you. I’m switching between three different audio programs. One I’m listening to How to Write Best Selling Fiction by James Scott Bell, which is a recap of most of his how to writing books. Then I’m listening to the Audible podcast Marigold by Sara Gran. It’s about a ghost hunter who interviews a young woman about the haunted house she lives in. The young woman has a really bad attitude and so the podcast is rough to listen to. And thirdly, though I’m nearly finished is Pietr the Latvian by Georges Simenon. The first Maigret novel. It’s about this international criminal who passes through France and de

  Song mood: Champagne Supernova by Oasis. Oasis was always the second Beatles to me. Father’s days are usually a little rough for me. My father died on a father’s twenty-two years ago. That was twenty-two years ago yesterday. Yesterday, I just didn’t feel like eating and so I didn’t. My father was a good man, far better than me. But still, many of his traits were passed on to me. I understand my father better these days. He was agoraphobia, the fear of being in public places. He injured one of knees and that added with his agoraphobia, he stopped working. He gained weight and developed cancer. Because of the agoraphobia, he didn’t go to a doctor regularly until he had a mild heart attack. When they found the cancer, it had spread. I need to get back to writing. The two more pressing projects will be the mystery for my uncle and the book of poetry for my mother. I want to get that one done before her birthday in September. I don’t like that she’s living alone in Fargo. Though, I

  Song mood: How Bizarre by OMC. That’s how bees are. I’m nearing the end of The Martian by Andy Weir.  I am enjoying it, despite Wil Wheaton narrating.  I like it because the main character just has a lot of trouble in his journey of trying to escape mars.  Something will go right and the next moment, something drastic happens that makes his situation worse.  I kind of think that’s how life is, or for me at least.  Something good will happen, and then something happens that just f*#&s it up. I haven’t decided what’s next for listening.  I have a few more hours of listenig before I need to decide.  A few more walks around the lake. The next few days will be warm.  I will attempt to walk out in the heat.  I have to toughen up a little.  I can’t say hey, ‘it’s too hot, or it’s too cold, I don’t think I’ll walk today.’ This weekend, I did a little road trip to Nebraska City.  Getting my stamps and checking out places to set up my own little writer’s retreat. I’m also thinking

  Song mood: Bittersweet Symphony by the Verve. I hate it when I wake up around 4:30am. Sure I may sleep for twenty to thirty minutes after or something like that, but still, it makes for a long day.  I try to fall back asleep but there is the damned meadow larks chirping loudly, who, chirp softly the moment I’m up and walking around.  I know from experience that I can’t drink more coffee.  The extra coffee just makes me more jittery.  So here I am. The truth is not in an Instagram post or an item on my browsing history on Amazon.  When I’m tired, I just like to watch videos on IG, sometimes youtube, but my attention span is rather short. I kind of want to go on a small trip today.  Maybe I will.  I think I should do some serious hiking.  Yesterday I was thinking I should lift weights for hours.  Last weekend I thought I should sit down and write a book in a day.  I’m stuck between the desire of concentrated effort and apathy.  Apathy wins the majority of the time. Last night,

  Song mood: The Sun Always Shines on TV by the A-ha. I saw a sign today. My heart is a church in the middle of Paris that I unexpectedly visited but had to because of the name. I want to go on a road trip, but I want to save money. I gave myself the mohawk haircut I usually give myself when I want to save the thirty dollars. Because I would like visit that church in the middle of Paris on my way from the Louvre to Champ de Mars a.k.a. the Eiffel Tower. This time I will visit the tower. I will need to improve my French for when I call the hotel ibis to make reservations. I’m still a ways away from planning anything. What I learned from the last trip is to research the hotels online and call them directly. Been reading The Photography Storytelling Workshop by Finn Beales. I’m at the part where he tells about how to tell a story. Which I know, but think it’s interesting to see the POV of a photographer instead of a writer. I’m going to have to do some brainstorming to figure out w

  Song mood: Take Me Out by Franz Ferdinand. I did make some progress in prewriting the Inspector Trevor novel. Yes, I know, how much I talk about writing in the dark, and I plan my mysteries. But there are things that I have to know, like who was killed, why and how. Then you have a detective who pushes himself hard to catch the killer.  My thing now is what I’m calling write what you know. Not the advice many writers get unsolicited. This is just sitting down what ideas you already know about the story you are going to write. Write everything you ever thought about the story. It sounds really simple, but it works well. Then writing a six sentence story that has every important moment in the story. After that expanding on every sentence until you have a clear picture of the story that you are going to write. Well, that’s what I got. Then last night I did nothing. No reading. Just getting further on Zelda: A Link to the Past . I finally got to the castle where Zelda is being held i