Deadlines as Lifelines

Hey Readers,

• I sent off the next novel for an edit.

• I sent off my Edgar Allen Poe inspired short story for the anthology.

• Another anthology I’m in was released (details at the end of this post)

These deadlines have kept me tethered to reality and a sense of time. I feel like I’ve now severed that connection and I’m in some sort of liminal space, between projects.

Having the deadlines, even the self-imposed ones, helped me even when I didn’t want to, or couldn’t, work on those pieces of writing. They held me in place and made me accountable. Like Ariadne’s thread¹, these deadlines have been my path through and have given me mental space, no matter how small.

In the physical world, let’s call that reality (!) we are still knee-deep in our home renovation. I am dealing with the tangible every day; sometimes badly. It has been extremely testing.

I’m accustomed to the intangible, winging it, and making stuff up. The writing deadlines kept me going when all around me structures were (and still are) changing; in my home, and the wider world.

I watched The Stand (1994 version) recently and a line from Ed Harris’ General Starkey has stuck with me.

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;²

My centre held, because of these creative projects. I better get another one on the go-fast.

The Labyrinth of Ariadne, by the sculptor Italo Lanfredini. At the open-air museum “Fiumara d'Arte”, in Sicliy.

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If you are looking for more liminality, you’ll find it in Obscura- New Uncanny Tales for the bargain price of 99p. There’s a story from me along with eleven other writers including fellow Substackers

Andrew Lyall

and

Paul Childs

.

1. https://www.ashmolean.org/article/myths-of-the-labyrinth

2. From “The Second Coming” by W.B. Yeats. You should go and read the whole poem.