Mercury

And thus January comes to an end, and a particularly damp and dreary end at that. The sky bleeds like someone’s made a botched attempt at amateur surgery on our once glorious firmament. I’m going to be honest, it’s been a pretty dire month as January’s go. I usually adore rain but there can be too much of a good thing, nor has the ambient temperature come anywhere close to it’s seasonally appropriate winter chill. It’s been almost offensively mild (though my electricity bill will no doubt change my view on this in due course.) On top of this I have spent the balance of this month gripped by a vague and malignant malaise of spirit and soul. A cocktail of general-all-purpose fatigue, listlessness and the continued manful battle to not vomit everywhere. It has prompted me to actually get round to registering a the local health centre. As you read this I will most likely be being poked and prodded by a crack team of physicians, chirurgeons, quacks, apothecaries and shamans. After their examination they will, to a (wo)man, declare “Well Mister Verbumancer you seem to be perfectly healthy, if somewhat clinically dead.”

You know, standard January fare.

Hyperbole and my own slow decay into soft, yet highly nutritious loam aside, this has not been the greatest of months for writing. With the exception of a frenzied night time 800 at the start of the month (while I was dwelling in the spiritual and emotional depths of what I call my “Dark Place”) I hadn’t written a single word until the start of this week. I was consumed by that insidious friend of ennui: the not giving of a single shit. I was trapped upon a rocky islet devoid of inspiration and surrounded on all sides by a sea of “meh.” Eventually I got something down, mostly because failure is not a vice I like to indulge in. At least not intentionally. My own feckless ineptitude serves me up plenty without any additional assistance. But dear lord I didn’t half phone it in this month.

James Clayton – New Room on the Mimas Moon

The Rogue Verbumancer – What did the Romans ever do for us?

Check back tomorrow for the start of February’s Pictonaut Challenge!