Gotham City Blues

City of Gotham

Department of Vehicle Licensing

Batman, Mr.
Bat Cave
Gotham City

It has come to the attention of this department that

1. you are the owner/operator of the vehicle known as the Batmobile, vehicle registration identification missing
2. no record of vehicle registration,  licensing or certificate of fitness for use on public roads is on record for this vehicle
3. no record is available indicating payment of annual license fees
4. said vehicle has been in continuous use since 1939

Accordingly, please remit the amount of $38 423 297.43 representing outstanding license fees, penalties for late payment of license fees, and interest accrued on outstanding amounts at the statutory rate. Vehicle is considered unlicensed until all outstanding fees are paid and may be subject to impoundment if used on public roads. This may incur further costs for towing, storage and release. Payment within 30 days of this notice will avoid accrual of further penalties and interest.

Further, considering the age of the vehicle, we require presentation of a valid roadworthy certification no older than three months from the date of presentation before this department will consider the issuance of current license tokens.

Time for Reflection

So... Blog No. n, where n ≥ 5.

I've had to think long and hard about starting it, having tried every which-way to fit it in to one of the already existing Blags of Decades Past. It doesn't. I am still not totally sure where this one is going to end up; it is (for now) part self-therapy, part self-motivation exercise, part putting stuff out there with the intent that I should then be ashamed if I fail to follow through, part thinking-tool, and part musing on the journey of reinventing myself as a writer of stories. Made up stories. Hopefully, one day, published stories that actually entertain people. It's late in life to start such a trip, but, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Was that Mao Zedong, or did he just steal it from Laozi?

I started out well with this story I have tapped for a first novel, unofficially doing NaNoWriMo as a way of getting it through First Draft, having first spent several weeks intensively plotting it all out in some detail. It was going so well. Hitting my targets most days without overstressing. Writing through the pukesome shit that sometimes has to come out so that the story can keep moving. There was pace. There was momentum.

Then I fell ill. Viral infection. And it just knocked me for a six. I am bored to tears by Cricket and don't understand the game at all. The only thing more boring and incomprehensible is Baseball. The rest of November was spent lying on a couch pretending to read, but mostly sleeping. Eventually it passed, and about a week ago I pulled up the draft, then sitting just short of 30k words, and... nothing. Momentum blown all completely to hell. Not sure how I'm going to get the word rate back up to where it should be, because right now it feels like I'm pushing a large boulder up a mountainside with one hand tied behind my back.