FIRST of all, Kelley has written a most marvellous and heartfelt piece about the necessity of finding everyday magic to write:
...But am I, today, right now, capable of being the writer I want to be?
Last year I found my yes. Many of you helped me with that by sponsoring those works, and I am forever grateful.
But I am not being the writer I want to be. I am writing, a lot. Mostly screenwriting, and also building towards some new fiction. But I am losing the time war: I am slowly but surely giving ground to a thousand responsibilities and other challenges of my life right now. I’m doing my best to find the balance. But I need more help to sustain it.
Nicola is the best partner, editor, cheerleader and wellspring of love and support that any writer can have. But I need to know that my writing matters to people who don’t wear my ring. Right now, I need my Layla’s.
I commit to write on one of my projects every day for the six weeks of the Write-a-thon. I commit to write something good every single day. I won’t be doing flash fiction on my blog — I’ll be working on long-term projects that are deeply important to me. I won’t be walking the highwire in public, but I guarantee I will be doing so in private.
And I will take my sponsors on that journey with me. Every week, I will send my sponsors an email talking about my process that week. What I accomplished. My struggles and successes. The writing challenges and the aha! moments. What I’m thinking about as a writer. Whether I’m finding the balance, and how. This writer’s life.
If you support me by donating to Clarion West, you are not only helping a wonderful organization — you are helping me. You are telling me that it matters to you whether I show up in spite of whatever is going on in my life. That it matters to you whether I write.
You’ll be giving me some everyday magic.
Last year, you got to read her magical 41-pieces-in-41-days for free. If you enjoyed that, please consider sponsoring Kelley this year. Writing isn't always easy. You can help.
SECOND, a writer who influenced Kelley strongly (which you'll see if you read this piece she wrote as a direct homage as part of last year's 41 days' Write-a-thon) was Ray Bradbury. We woke up this morning to news of his death. She writes about him here. The Guardian has a more formal obituary.
THIRD, and unconnected to the first two but important to me, Nature has a piece on fatty acid metabolism and MS--in mice, but still, it's another brick in the foundation supporting Dr Angelique Corthals' hypothesis that multiple sclerosis is not a disease of the immune system but the result of faulty lipid metabolism. In other words, yes, MS is a metabolic disorder.