Electric Pikachu wishes you a Happy New Year

This should be an interesting post. It’s 7:57 a.m. I’ve been up since 5:00 obsessing/freaking out about the book. (I didn’t actually get out of bed at that hour, mind you, but instead I stared at my ceiling and chewed my lower lip and silently implored my cat to please stop making biscuits on my stomach, that I would feed her at a decent hour.) And now, I’m trying to write a journal entry while my son watches “Pokemon” and gives me running commentary, sort of an 8-year-old’s DVD extras.

Living with an 8-year-old boy is sort of like living with someone who has Tourrette’s, and the tics take the form of arcane information about Pokemon, Star Wars, and various Gameboy games. I’ve long since realized that my job is to be the straight man. The sidekick on the late night talk show that is his life. “No, I didn’t know that.” “I’d love to know what kind of Pokemon.” “Fire powers! Really? Wowee.” “Yes, Mace Windu is cool. Very cool.” Occasionally, you will be thrown by a question like, Who would you rather be, an Aerodactyl or Pikachu? Roman Legonnaires or a Grimnak? This is a fool’s errand, because whatever answer you give will be the wrong one and you will be drawn into a protracted discussion of which powers you could have had if you had chosen differently.

Today, the power I would like to have is the power to finish this book. I was up until midnight last night trying to make sense of it all. Kind of like when you pull everything out of your drawers and cabinets to clean and pare down, but all you can see is crap covering every surface of your home, and you wonder how you will ever get it together. I know I’m on the right track now, but it is such a sloooow process. And painful. I realized that every time I sit down to write a book, I think I can avoid the painful, through-the-fire part. And every time, I get my ass handed to me on a platter. There is no avoiding the pain. The work. The frustration. The uncomfortable, wow-being-a-human-being-ain’t-easy discoveries you make on one page or another. But it’s necessary. Otherwise, you end up with processed cheese food product novel. (of course, this novel could still suck big time so it could all be for naught.)

(My son has just interrupted to say that eventually he’s going to get an Electric Pikachu in his game. Eventually. When I murmured, “Right. Electric Pikachu,” he looked at me like I was the stupidest person in the world: “No, Mommy. Electric is the TYPE of Pikachu.” Right. God, I’m a moron. I HAVE AN ENTIRE NOVEL SPREAD OUT ON THE FLOOR OF MY HEAD! GIVE YOUR MOM A BREAK, KID!)

I am about to be wrangled into a game of Heroscape and I’m only on my first cup of coffee. Doesn’t the Geneva Convention forbid this?

I’m getting the Grimnak this time. Just see if I don’t. And I will have massive powers of attack and lay waste to everything in my path. Mwahahahahaha!!!

I’ve had no time to make resolutions this year, so please feel free to post your top resolutions here so I can borrow. What was the best part of 2006 for you? The worst? What do you hope for in 2007?

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year.

Oh, and I plan to get back to answering posts after the novel’s turned in. Honest. Unless the Grimnak eats me. 🙂