Friday, September 6, 2019

~ Pillow Talk ~





I may not be Doris Day in my perfect 1960's pajama set but when I lay my head down at night
I'm the star in my own version of Pillow Talk. 
My creativity button only works when I’m horizontal!
The minute my tired brain hits the bed at night, my eyes pop open and story ideas begin to flow onto my pillow as if someone forgot to turn off the faucet. 

I keep my cell phone handy on my nightstand so I can record my thoughts and then transcribe them into my book notes later. These nighttime scenes would make a great comedy sketch. Me hunched over my phone whispering in the dark as if I’m carrying on a clandestine affair. 
Sleepy midnight questions drift over from the pillow next to me…
"What? What are you talking about?"
Me: jerking my head up as if I’ve been caught with my hand in the cookie jar.
 “Nothing. Nothing to see here. Pay no attention to me.”
Luckily he’s used to my nonsense and just rolls over the other way,
 leaving me to this crazy writer’s life.


Later when I’m transcribing, I’ve been known to come across a recording that makes no sense. The voice on the other end (me) is faint, as if some long lost transmission from Tokyo during WWII found itself in a time-warp and landed on my phone. Seconds stretch out between words as I nod off between sentences, and the message is so cryptic, I need a secret decoder ring to decipher the contents. Needless to say, some of my most inspirational and life transforming lines have been lost to the cosmos as empty words drift into space.
 Garbled and indiscernible. 
Perhaps some space traveler will bump into them one day and wonder…WTH? 
And who knows maybe it will make sense to them. 



This is my process. I don’t push a story. It comes to me in drips and drabs. 
Sometimes the faucet runs freely and I can barely keep up. Sometimes it’s a single drip. Each story unfolds at its own pace and my job is to patiently wait for it to be revealed to me.
 Insomnia is just one of the side-effects I’ll gladly put up with.