If I’ve learned anything over the long years about writing fiction it is that to write it well there needs to be both an intellectual impulse matched with an emotional spark. Often I will lack one or the other and thus, the art suffers somewhere near its origination stage and the work languishes.

But . . . I do not un-create these paused creations while they lay in wait for whatever is missing. And thus, my creative cupboard is never left bare.

Using the word thus twice is probably a bit audacious but here we are. Oh, and now I’ve used it thrice 🤦🏾‍♂️

— BLR

Written 9.30.23, revised 10.22.23.