My Beloved Monster and Me

Above: Inspired by a Livejournal comment by Mary Ellen, which was in response to my exercise routine survey. For more info about my Little Nightmares drawings and prints, see this page.

Working on last revisions of my book before sending it off. I've also started brainstorming about ideas for upcoming non-fiction and fiction projects. It's like my subconscious has become aware that I'm finally going to be sending this manuscript off and is doing cartwheels: Woohoo, at last! Now I can finally deluge you with all the stuff that's been percolating while you've had tendinitis and I want you to write it all NOW.

I'm not taking my laptop to Italy, but I'll definitely bring a notebook to catch any idea spillage that occurs during our vacation. For the past couple of years, I've gotten into the habit of taking my Moleskine with me everywhere. Lordy, I do love that book. I accidentally left it in Centro after my birthday dinner (I was writing down the name of a wine I liked), but the staff called the phone number I had written in the front cover, yay.

Today I want to talk about one of my favourite blog reads, My Beloved Monster and Me, written by Rob Rummel-Hudson. Rob used to keep an online journal called Darn Tootin', but these days focuses more on his daily blog instead. Here's an excerpt from his bio:

"In December of 1999, my daughter Schuyler was born. From the very beginning, she was a happy and vibrant little girl, with a mischievous sense of 'I don't like to be told what to do' that she clearly got from me and an angelic face that she (fortunately) got from her mother. What we didn't know for the first three and a half years of her life, however, was what we both gave her genetically. Schuyler was a happy, normal little girl except for one thing: she couldn't talk, almost not at all. She went through hearing tests and screens for just about every possible disorder, but it was only after she underwent an MRI scan in the summer of 2003 that we discovered that the problem lay in her brain, and had been there all along."

I got hooked on Rob's writing when I came across this entry, which focuses on the day that Rob and his wife heard the diagnosis for their daughter's condition. You can find follow-up entries on this page. What I like about Rob's writing: He has a forthrightness and emotional honesty rare in blogs these days, and can be incredibly funny and moving in the same entry. He's cynical, hopeful, deeply caring. But most of all, I love his writing style. Rob could write about what he eats for breakfast every day and I'd still be hooked. He was recently diagnosed with diabetes and now is a columnist for B5 Media with his Diabetes Notes.

Sure hope I get to meet Rob in person someday, and I look forward to buying a copy of his book, Schuyler's Monster, when it come out. Here's the last page from the book.

Anyway, do check out My Beloved Monster and Me.

Reminder: The frequency of my Blatherings is likely to become more sporadic over the next while as I focus on pre-trip workstuff and other prep.

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