Writing keeps me sane. Writing drives me insane. Often the only stability that I have in a tortured world is my writing. Of course, writing doesn’t pay. Long ago I made myself a note inside the cover of my commonplace book: “whether published or not, I am a writer.” A factor that is difficult to include in this equation is depression. Like many writers I live in a miasma of low-grade depression much of the time. It even fuels my art. I write my most humorous material when I am despondent. There is a depression that is debilitating, however, and even causes writing to become a strain. “There is a wisdom that is woe,” Herman Melville wrote, “but there is a woe that is madness.” Yes, Herman, I have been there with you. At times it is so dark that I can only glimpse Poe or Lovecraft as my guides, distantly ahead. In the twilight we find each other. Since being released from my contract with Vagabondage Pre...
Blog of a struggling writer.