Author: hamishmacdonald

I’m in a crappy mood and I want to tear the world in half like a phonebook. Lucky for the world, I haven’t yet mastered the phonebook trick.

I learned last night that I’m not getting credit for the book I’ve been working on with the company I do copywriting for. This is totally fair: it’s been edited heavily since I worked on it. I’m also not so attached to the idea of being a non-fiction writer. These weren’t my ideas, I didn’t shape the project, and my commitment is more to the book being good and valuable (which I truly believe it will be) than to promoting myself.

Still… I am a writer, I thought I was going to be published, and now I’m not. That just plain sucks, and there’s no way around it.

I’ve asked them to take my name off it completely. If I’m going to be a ghostwriter, I should be that, and keep things clear so that there can’t be these kinds of misunderstandings or disappointments.

Time to put my head down and concentrate on finishing my own book. I’d like a castle right next to JK’s, and I’ll have my orchestra keep playing loud into the night.

My novel is coming along well, actually, and I’m really happy with my progress. I wrote all of Chapter Sixteen on Sunday, which surprised me.

***

I had acupuncture today. That was neat, having this woman stick long, thin needles into my thumbs, calves, and feet. Did it do anything? I have no idea. When I used to do Aikido, I had no doubt that there was something to this notion of energy: I could go into that class in any state of mind, and I’d come out feeling like a breeze in a field. Judging from my mood today, I’d say that doesn’t apply here.

Yesteday was my birthday. I’d gone to bed naked so I could wake up in my birthday suit, just the way I’d been born. Then, to celebrate, I worked. I figured that represented what my life is about: I got to be a writer for the day. In the evening, I met with my friend Sergio, and we talked about writing and the meaning of life (like, seriously) over a pint. I wanted to meet with a friend and, rather than doing the freak-out birthday thing of getting all depressed about how old I am and what life I should be having instead, I acknowledged the life that I do have, and the things that I have done. And you know, thirty-five is pretty cool. I’ve done a lot of neat stuff that I’m proud of, and I love my life.

***
I just deked out to my doctor’s office to have blood taken. They took six vials of the stuff, which was fine, but by the time I was leaving, I felt woozy and had to sit down for a bit until — I guess — my body made up the difference or balanced something. It made me realise how unrealistic action movies are. “It’s okay, I’ve just been shot through the shoulder, but I can finish running around and fighting until the climax of the movie is over and the ambulance comes.” No way. If the hero lost than a little bit of the stuff, he’d be throwing up and falling down like a little girl. (You know, little girls that throw up and fall down — one of those.)

***
Oh. Funniest thing I’ve seen in a long time: the intro to the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. It’s a spoof on “The Matrix:Reloaded”, and last night I played the audio over the phone to an old friend and we were crying laughing about it. Of course, he’d called me at 1AM when I was asleep, so I wasn’t completely compos mentis to begin with. Find it, download it.

The friend who called was Tim Howar. We go back a long way, and now we’re both over here in Britain. He’s rehearsing a show now based on Rod Stewart songs which will be opening on the West End in London at the end of November. I’m going down to see him, a) because he’s my bud, and b) because he’s going to rock in it. He is one of the most singularly talented people I’ve ever known. I’ve been very lucky that way, meeting folks who are not only good people, they’re also very good at what they do.

Which reminds me, my friend Kirsten Koza found me here on the web and contacted me out of the blue. It’s been great catching up, reclaiming a whole chunk of my life that had slipped away. She’s got a book coming out soon called Lost in Moscow. Knowing her, I’m sure it’s going to be caustically funny.