I’m finally back on a nighttime sleeping schedule so I woke up when Cody came home from work this morning. It took me a while to get up because I kept trying to get some more sleep in. I’m going out tonight and I’ll probably be out late so I wanted to sleep as late as I could this morning. So I lingered in bed and watched a show about Mary Shelley on The History Channel and tried to doze but the call to pee and get something to drink was too strong. So I finally got up.

Later on when I was sitting at my desk Cody mentioned that he wanted me to read some stories he’s been working on. Even handed me his little USB storage drive so I could get to them easier. This surprised me really because I didn’t know he was writing again. I knew he’d been flexing his skills a little by writing background stories for his City of Heroes characters but it has been a while since he’s written anything he actively wanted me to read. So after talking to my mom a bit this morning I grabbed a cup of coffee, found my glasses, and read two short stories.

I’m so glad he’s stopped trying to define what kind of writer he wants to be. I think that’s always been a detriment to him - defining the length and genre and all that stuff. I know he was frustrated that his stories were usually too long to be considered ’short stories’ but too short to be ‘novels’ when, ultimately, it didn’t matter. When a work is good it’s just good.

Hell I’d be in a serious mess if I tried to define what style I paint or draw in - even though I haven’t in, oh, five years. “Late Abstract Expressionist three-dimensional figural painting”? Who knows.

One story I’ve read before but many years ago during his last creative writing class at UNM and he’s changed it a good deal. It’s more personal now. With a male voice this time which makes it a lot better. A story told by a woman to a man who’s remembering it which isn’t complicated but adds some interest. I like it from his point of view better because I never entirely understood hers. And neither does the narrator now which makes it more understandable to me.

I didn’t know some of the details about the period of time he’s writing about here but after growing up reading Nicole’s work I’m really good about separating the writer from the family or situations that inspired their stories. Look at what they’re saying not what they’re saying about you. I think having been the model for so many friends during school did a lot to teach that detachment too. Somewhere there are plaster casts of me made into a shrine to the Virgin Mary with exposed breasts. That kind of thing teaches you to not get too involved in how the artist feels about you personally because the I “gaaaroooonteee” the guy that did it wasn’t putting me on any pedestal.

He wrote the other story just last night so it’s fairly rough but I love the idea. It’s about garden fairies but told in a different way - none of that floaty magic nonsense - this is told from the perspective of a biologist, specifically, an entomologist. And it’s pretty damn funny. I hope it’s supposed to be. Yeah, I think it is. With some work that one’s going to be pretty good.

There are two more to read but I’m not sure if I’ll get around to them today.

Now if I could get my butt in gear and paint my Frankenstein.