posted the audio recording <\/a>I made during the talk By posting the audio on Rudy Rucker Podcasts I reach a few more listeners, like maybe fifty more.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glochainshadow.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
With me living in the cottage at the Writers Center for the week, a few people asked me if I was doing some writing <\/em>here. As if this stay might be a unique opportunity for me. But of course I write a lot at home\u2014for me, writing is the norm, not the exception. And, as I had my wife along, we were treating it more as a vacation, going out to see Rocky Neck or kayaking or riding on the \u201cpinky\u201d\u009d schooner Ardelle or taking the train up to Boston for the day.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glo3kayak.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
But I did worry that I was missing an opportunity to delve deep into my craft. In the past I\u2019ve occasionally dreamed of such a \u201cwriters\u2019 colony\u201d\u009d opportunity. Walking around the waterfront or sitting in my cottage\u2019s back yard in Gloucester, I managed to jot some ideas onto my folded-in-four pocket-scrap of paper. And then later I typed the scribbles into my writing journal. And I took some nice photos reflecting my fleeting thoughts, like what Alfred Stieglitz called \u201cEquivalents.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glomastcloud.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
To begin with, I wrote up an outline of my \u201cTransrealism and Beatnik SF\u201d\u009d talk in advance. And I did some work on my notes for my next novel, The Big Aha<\/em>, although these days it\u2019s slow going. Like what is this novel supposed to be about<\/em>? Also in Gloucester I wrote up some ideas for a story about aliens trapping humans in things that work somewhat like lobster pots. It was great to talk to Greg Gibson about writing—we’ve been writers together for almost fifty years. <\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/bosrudypaul.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
I visited anothr writer friend, Paul Di Filippo, in Boston one day. I talked about the lobster pot story with Paul. We were laughing about this disgusting <\/em>phrase that was stuck in my mind, \u201cbean-hole beans.\u201d\u009d It\u2019s in fact a kind of recipe or preparation method, but it sounds so nasty. I have this Tourette streak, where some days I just keep saying a phrase over and over. Bean-hole beans. Possibly this fits into the lobster story. People caught in a bar that\u2019s really a trap and they\u2019re forced down the bean-hole.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glodelft.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
So, okay, I didn\u2019t score any wild, ecstatic, six-pages-of-text-at-one-go sessions at the Writers Center. Ideally the text is fiction, but even notes are a rush, if that\u2019s all I can get.<\/p>\n
I definitely crave \u201cthe narcotic moment of creative bliss,\u201d\u009d as the John Malkovich character puts it in the film, Art School Confidential<\/em>. Soon come. Petition the Muse for long enough and she comes.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glotwistibeam.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Being a visiting writer was a nice exercise, even if I felt a bit like a charlatan. That\u2019s part of the process, too\u2014getting to the point where I feel like I\u2019ve been faking it all these years, and I\u2019ll never write again unless I bear down and do it now<\/em>.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glostandshull.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
And now it\u2019s now<\/em>. I flew out of Gloucester to visit my brother in Louisville, Kentucky, for a few days. I\u2019m sitting on his country porch with my laptop. The afternoon rain is pouring onto the pastel green fields. I want thunder in the low, gray sky. I want the fierce cracks and lightning stutters in the night.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glogull.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
And meanwhile, telling all this to myself, my fingers are flying. So, yeah, I\u2019m writing. Making a landing-strip for the Muse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I visited the Writers Center in Gloucester, Mass, for a week. My wife Sylvia was along as well. We were lodged in the modest former home of the late Vincent Ferrini, a friend of Charles Olson\u2019s and a beloved Gloucester poet in his own right. His film-maker nephew Henry Ferrini raised the funds to set […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-the-big-aha"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6459,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions\/6459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![](\"https:\/\/www.rudyrucker.com\/blog\/images4\/glowriterhouse_s.jpg\")