http://www.slatev.com/player.html?id=1529427102

It's short...only 103 seconds.

*It is entirely possible that this line is false since I make this kinda crap up in my mind all the time. I have a favorite in my head from G.B. Shaw and years of googling and looking up quotes I've never been able to find evidence of it.

'If so-and-so didn't say it, he should have' --Linkmeister

2 : I wonder if you're thinking of the Hemingway quote about getting started that I always think of (to little effect, most times) when I'm having a day that, as Junot Diaz once put it, is "all ass": "All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence you know."

1. A short bio of Emerson Dickman, a tall pitcher with a short career before the war.

2. A short story that is essentially a spaghetti western with muscle cars.

3. A crime novel with characters based on my real life.

Only the first of these has much of a chance to be completed, because I promised it to someone. Submitted my first draft a couple of hours ago.

The second was an idea that I had after watching Deathproof. I had an idea for a trilogy of short stories about a character not unlike Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, only transported in time to the early 60s. I ran into a brick wall when I had trouble figured out how to write a car chase. I have a brief outline at the end of story one, but I need to flesh it out.

The third was inspired by an author that I saw about a month ago named Chris Knopf. He's written a series of crime books about a beach bum named Sam Acquillo. He was in a panel with three other writers. This was part of the Big Read program earlier this spring. The Hartford area had a lot of library programs tied in with The Maltese Falcon. One thing that I got out of the panel was that these writers were more about character development than plot. Got me thinking about writing about characters that I know, not some sullen adrenaline junkie from the Eisenhower and Kennedy years.

I have a little yellow notebook where I've been writing a little bit here and there about a guy at a small brokerage firm and a filing clerk there. Finally got around to a murder after a little digression about counterfeit stock certificates. The murder plot is hardly innovative, you may have seen a similar one in an old movie, but I plan on tackling it from a different POV than Alfred Hitchcock did.

Combined with the fractured, disjointed day you've probably had in trying and not succeeding to write anything except Golf Road... Hm.

7 : I was going to write about all that--I posted that card because of its throwback pose--but that's the thing with days like these. Nothing really seems to come together. Much thanks for helping to fill in the blank.

I also had some thoughts about what seems to be a Canadian flag flying in the background, a remnant of the Expos.

When I read books I often dog ear the pages where I find the "true" sentences. Even in books I love I might only dog-ear 10 or 12 pages. The last one was Henderson the Rain King and there were definitely less than 10 dog-ears. Your word count may not have been what you wanted, but I suppose the thing I was getting as is that line and the explanation following cut to the quick as well as anything I've read.

So 400 words, 1 dog-ear. Your rate stats are through the roof.

Man, the tear-er of these cards must have had it out for Redding: once across the width, and then, for good measure, tearing one of the halves in half again...

So you can feel free to totally reject my suggestion, which is this: stop putting so much pressure on yourself. It sounds like you're trying to write the Great American Novel, and killing yourself out of fear that you won't or can't. Maybe take a break from writing for a while, & focus on your job, your hobbies, your wife. Or maybe take on small, short-horizon projects, like essays or reviews (I've really enjoyed the book reviews you've written & linked to). The novel, if it's there, will come, whether you try to force it or not. So give yourself a break.