Idea stash

I revealed in previous posts that I have a slight penchant for the literary genre known as "chick lit". Which means light, frothy cotton candy confection novels, usually with a bright pink book jacket. The paper thin plot usually consists of the heroine shopping, lunching/chatting/visiting friends, and obsessing over men.

I always feel vaguely guilty for reading this stuff, as if my time would really be better spent on a more "improving" type of book. But honestly, I spend much of my working day contorting my brain over weighty and difficult matters. When I come home, I just want to be floppy.

What I haven't yet confessed to is that my taste in the pulpier types of fiction also extends to the odd Stephen King novel or two. Now, my enjoyment of the King oeuvre is more closely subscribed to say, vintage King, as opposed to some of the awful schlock he's churned out in rcent years. Although in a pinch I will probably read even the bad stuff. I particularly like "The Stand" which, to my mind, is one of the best tapdances on the grave of a post-apocalyptic America ever written. And who doesn't love a good apocalypse?

Anyway. In another novel called Bag of Bones that I happen to like quite a lot, Mr King tells the tale of a bestselling fiction writer in Maine. One afternoon, the writer's wife goes off to the grocery store and drops dead in the parking lot. And it turns out that, unbeknownst to the writer, she was pregnant. (You find this out on page three or so, I'm not exactly giving anything away.) The writer goes off to their house on a lake to mourn her death and hang out with ghosts. Literally. As you do.

One interesting element of the plot is that when his wife dies, the writer gets really bad writer's block. And seeing how he is a bestselling writer with things like three-book publishing deals, this puts him in a spot of bother. Lucky for him, he has actually churned out more than the required amount of novels per year, and has a couple on ice in a safe deposit box. A secret hoard of manuscripts to offer up to the publishing gods.

Sometimes I feel like that with posting. In case you haven't been paying attention, my progress along the treatment trail has been woefully slow. It's been mindnumbingly frustrating to deal with, and it can get buttnumbingly sore sitting in front of the computer screen trying to think of something new to say about it all.

Like the fiction writer in that novel, I occasionally get an idea for a post, and save it up for when we hit a really boring patch. But I worry sometimes that the hoarded supply may dwindle.

Other times I feel as though there is a never ending vein of infertility-related goodness to be mined, and if I wait long enough, another idea will come. So I am sure there is plenty more material there. However, it does occur to me that it might be fun to talk about something else on occasion. And so I am beginning to think about topics for those days when my infertility-themes idea stash is running low. If nothing else, to remind myself that before infertility (and maybe even during) my facets were- and are- many and varied.

I just thought I would warn you. In case you paid your admission fee expecting a documentary with ultrasounds and blood draws, and instead discovered, for no apparent reason, the chronicle of how I was once evicted at gunpoint by a crazy landlord.

Comments

[Dee]

Oh, Mare--I've gotta admit it--I too am a big fan of chick lit, and this from an English major! You're right though, after a day of mind-numbing fun at work, I just don't have the strength to read something 'heavier,' if you will.

But wait--there's more! I'm also a huge Stephen King fan (actually crossed paths with him once while walking down a side street in Chicago a few years back, after he had that horrible accident). And I have to agree, The Stand may be one of his best works. I think I've read it four or five times now.

I'll take a story about a gunpoint eviction or one about u/s and bloodwork--either way you choose, I'll be reading. Both are glimpses into your life, past and present.

[susan]

I'd read your chronicle of picking lint out of your bellybutton. You'd find some enlightening and humorous insight in even that. Bring on the crazy landlord!

[K]

Heck, I'd pay to hear the gunpoint eviction story! I understand how things can drag on and on and on...We are in year 3 of trying, and are currently pursuing embryo donation. Hang in there.

[Amyesq]

Ooh goody! Can we hear more about shopping and such?

[dish]

I love reading King for the overwhelming level of detail in his descriptions. It really gets me into the book. And I never realized how glaringly accurate the descriptions were until they did a remake of the Shining as a TV miniseries. I though- ok, the King movies are usually garbage, but I'll give it a try. Well, as soon as they showed the hotel my jaw dropped because it was the hotel from inside my head (and the real hotel upon which the book was based).

I even read the Langoliers (not my favorite) on an airplane just for the fun of it.

Oh- and so glad to be able to comment again! I need to escape Blogger, too.

[Pamplemousse]

I hate people being snotty about Stephen King as I think he is unparalleled in fiction. Those books just hook you in and the stories, oy! The Stand is one of my all-time faves and yes, I have read all the serious books of literature too! I just love a great story with characters that jump off a page.

I am with you on what to talk about when the IF rollercoaster is in the shop (though I am a newbie to blogging). I fill in with the rest of my life's detritus eg. gardening, TV, my horrorscope, whatever.

[deborah]

Here's an idea...you write it, I'll read it. It's pretty much that simple.

Oh, and about that chick lit? Me too. Only my floppy is much, much worse because it extends to the television, as well.

[Anna H.]

I'm with Deborah on this -- thrilled to read anything you post and very, very floppy when it comes to tv. As for literary escapism, there's nothing like a good mystery/thriller and gun-wielding landlords seems to fit that bill quite nicely...

xxoo

[sweetisu]

Will read anything you write, coz it's about you!

So about the eviction... do tell.