Doctor Mormeck and Sources of Inspiration

(At night, scribbling furiously on pieces of paper, in front of this fountain.)

"The Journals of Doctor Mormeck" serial fiction will continue on my blog by tomorrow. As you might expect, teaching at the Shared Worlds SF/F teen writing camp—and also helping manage things—takes a lot out of you. So I didn't do much writing while there.

However, the trip back through Raleigh-Durham, Charleston, and Savannah proved that Doctor Mormeck is alive in my mind. It's the kind of story where everything you encounter can be transformed. That's true of many different kinds of fictions, but doubly true for Mormeck since it involves parallel universes. I entered this kind of state of reverie in which everything around me was being converted and reimagined as part of a parallel universe, even the fountains above. Part of it is the sensory overload of encountering so much cool real-world stuff all at once, part of it was being away from Mormeck for about two weeks and lots of material suddenly coming to the surface all at once. But basically I spent a great deal of time just wandering aimlessly at night, being fed scraps of paper to write on by my wife and our friend S.J. Chambers.

A mosquito smashing into my eye like a tiny electric shock not once but twice. An encounter with an odd building and a grim lighthouse. All of these things sparked all kinds of ideas. It's exciting to me because I'm truly post-Ambergris now.

So it's safe to say that Mormeck is alive and well in my imagination—even more so than before Shared Worlds. Some of it is making my jaw drop in anticipation of writing it, and as always I'm mystified as to where all of this stuff comes from, but I try not to question it but just get it all down and worry about editing and control later. There are marvels and wonders ahead, along with hearbreak and despair…as always.

Doctor Mormeck and Sources of Inspiration originally appeared on Ecstatic Days on August 3, 2011.