I type all day, most days

Thanks to my long career as a copywriter I type most of the day, most days. (Whether it's actually "writing" is another matter, but.) As a result I type *very* fast. My fingers often get away from me and attempt to type things I don't intend. It's a kind of physical memory that seems unconnected to my mind. For instance, whenever I begin typing "power" or "polish" or "pom-pom" or even "pewter" it often comes out "poetry" and I have to use the backspace key to correct. I do it so often, now the backspace key-strokes are part of the game.

This is why I revise on a manual typewriter. (Lots less spring, much slower pace, way more deliberate. Mind has to slow to match fingers, rather than both racing ahead.)

I'm too busy with offline things to really engage with the blog lately. One thing after another has prevented me, so far, from getting my Dusie chapbook finally printed, and getting the finalized MS of my book (For Girls (& others)) to my (bless them) reader/editors. Which is just rude. But there's no point in handing it over till I've made up my mind about most of it. The book's all there--has been there, done, complete--but because it's less a miscellany than Down Spooky there are additional considerations. (Um, plus this time, there's no one to decree but me, or enforce deadlines either.) I've changed the order several times and waffled between two sections or three. I think yesterday I nailed the first section, and decided on three sections total. This is all impossible to do on the computer. It requires me shuffling on the train, ripping spreads in half, spreading them allover the coffee table and/or living room and/or office floor, shooing the cat, picking them up, shuffling, repeat. Then there are the line breaks--working mostly a very short line in these poems and some of the enjambments are literally waking me up at night (!). I've got one cover sketch done, but want to try a few more ideas and then show them around for opinions, but I've still got time on the cover. Thank god I don't need to ask for blurbs. (Is there any process more excruciating, y'all?) By the end of this weekend I *must* have it done.

Except my damn Studio monitor needs the backlight converter replaced & the part hasn't arrived yet. My screen's so dim I may as well be a mole. If it goes out completely before I can switch it out, boy, am I screwed.

Which is (all) to say, I wish that kind of physical automoton memory could pick up the slack on a few of my other tasks.