You Must Be a Writer When...

You must be a writer when...you spend the first 45 minutes of the drive to Phoenix working out character names/descriptions/relationships.

You must be a writer when...in addition to a blanket, i.d., and beer money, you take a spiral bound notebook & a pen into a Van Morrison concert.

You must be a writer when...the solution to an opening you've been struggling with comes clear half-way through "Here Comes the Night."

You must be a writer when...the shmacka-fracka pen you brought with you turns out to be bone dry.

You must be a happily married writer when...your fabulous husband cons the folks at the Hawaiian vacation give-away booth into giving him a pen for you.

You must be a writer when...you spend most of the jazz-styled rendition of "Moondance" writing out a page and a half of the opening scene - and you know it doesn't suck.

You must be a writer when...even though you only got 3 hours of sleep, you're still in a better mood than you've been in months - 'cause you got the damn opening down.

Nice to be a happy camper, even if it's only until the next chapter...

Edited for those who are more interested in how the concert was (that's right, that's you Steve):

Van Morrison is famous for doing either craptastic shows, or amazing shows with little in between. There was no suckage in last night's performance. The Cricket Pavilion is a huge outdoor shed venue, but it was a lovely night for a show & I actually was glad to be on the lawn instead of on the floor - the pink clouds were gorgeous & fitting.

The jazz version of "Moondance" was a little weird - couldn't quite make up my mind about whether I liked that one or not. The newer, country-esque songs & country/blues covers were awesome. Van also satisfied fans of his older tunes with "Here Comes the Night," "Brown-Eyed Girl," "Wild Night," "Jackie Wilson Said," and closed the show with a truly kick ass Chicago Blues style version of "Gloria." His band was amazing - Cindy Cashdollar's (from Asleep at the Wheel) steel guitar was unfreakin'believable, the fiddle player (can't remember his name off the top of my head), and the rest were just incredible. And I can't believe the man didn't pass out in the Phoenix heat - he wore a 3 piece suit and hat for the entire performance, looking much like he did in the photo for yesterday's post. What can I say? No disappointments for this fan! Great show with the added bonus of kick starting my little grey cells re. writing stuff.