TALK THERAPY

I've read obssessively, over my lifetime, about writers' habits. How they write. What techniques they use and re-use and what gets them through. It seems like everyone has their own way of doing stuff that works for them. If it's not on their web site, you can usually glean alot from their aknowledgements page.

I'm an avid reader of aknowledgements pages. Sometimes I will just pick up random fiction books and read that first (sometimes last) few pages where the author leaks about their support structure. Yes, Borders personnel often look at me funny.

So in my wondering--and I am always wondering about something--I wonder, where do these people, these wonderful people who give emotional support, who read, who provide espresso, who emotionally hold hands and prop up flagging resolves...where do these paragons come from? Can you pick them up for a good price on Ebay? Can you put a few in your cart at Walmart? Because I cannot write in a vacume. I need more than friends. I need writers.

I need talk therapy.

God, not only am I a mental mess on a normal-person-with-manageable-problems level, my mental deficiencies also slop over into my creative side.

I need a bookiatrist.