Okay, so, I thought I was over this cold that I picked up in Ireland. Naturally, I’m not. I still have a hard time breathing out (because that’s what asthma does; it doesn’t really inhibit your ability to inhale, unless it’s REALLY bad, but it will mess with your ability to exhale big time), and I’m coughing a lot. And because my body has decided to include costal chondritis in along with everything else, after a few days of this sort of thing my ribcage starts to hurt something awful. I can sort of relieve the pain by pressing my fingers into my belly, just below my ribcage, and kind of pressing up, behind my ribs, but the relief is temporary, and that probably isn’t the healthiest of remedies. So, it’s up to the cortisone and the Advil now.

But I’m still feeling creative. I did a bunch of work on the Daikaiju Webzine website today, while waiting for server upgrades (again) at work. I left work early to go to the doctor (who looked and listened and said, “Yep, your lungs are tweaked”), and then came home to watch some Doctor Who and do some writing. While Jennifer went to a knitting group, I went off to Borders with my cheap laptop, and while I was there, I managed to finish off the next revision of Chapter Two of The Solitude of the Tentacled Space Monster.  I’ve discovered that what really works to stimulate my creativity is being with a cheap laptop (no Internet or games to distract me), close to a ready supply of coffee. At home, there are far too many distractions; cats, Internet, movies, wives, games, and so on.

One thing I do sometimes when I’m feeling sick is to buy things. The act of spending money doesn’t actually make me feel better, but if I buy a new book or CD or movie, at least I can be distracted from my lungs for a little while. Tonight I bought Jennifer a copy of the soundtrack to Children of Eden (it was her birthday a couple of weeks ago, while we were Ireland), and I bought myself this CD:

It appealed to me for some reason. I’ve been looking for some film music that would inspire me while writing The Solitude of the Tentacled Space Monster, and I realized that this is exactly the CD for it. I mean, the story is, when you get right down to it, a cowboy story. Fred’s a lawman. Jenny and the others are the townsfolk. Doctor Nefario is the black-hatted villain. See? It works. Just like a cowboy movie.

Except that it takes place in the 21st century. And, you know… It has monsters from outer space.

Definitely a cowboy story, right?

Well, maybe not. And maybe the asthma has interfered with my ability to write coherently. So I’m just going to sign off and head out now.