{"id":6399,"date":"2020-09-30T07:05:17","date_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:05:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/?p=6399"},"modified":"2020-09-30T07:05:18","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T14:05:18","slug":"semi-naked-novelist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/meditations\/semi-naked-novelist\/","title":{"rendered":"Semi Naked Novelist?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!--themify_builder_content-->\n<div id=\"themify_builder_content-6399\" data-postid=\"6399\" class=\"themify_builder_content themify_builder_content-6399 themify_builder tf_clear\">\n    <\/div>\n<!--\/themify_builder_content-->\n\n\n<p>I have seen a great many strange things during the Pandemic, but nothing more strange than what I saw today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was in town running errands and kept seeing a young woman wearing practically nothing wandering around clutching a sheaf of papers. No backpack, water bottle, energy drink or cigarette. Just the papers. Odd indeed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She wore a spaghetti strap black top that barely covered her breasts. She had on faded jeans that barely covered half her ass and revealed pink panties. There was a wide expanse of bleached skin about her chest and stomach that she occasionally rubbed as she walked. Her hair was black and short.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But those papers! What were they about?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I ducked into the bookstore to work. I emerged 45 minutes later and she was across the road moving at a rapid pace. I went to my favorite Oregon Tavern Age joint for my customary noon beer and to work on a short story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A few minutes later, the woman appeared right outside the window of the bar. I was sitting at my usual table and got a closeup look at her face. There and not there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I also got a look at the sheaf of papers. They were printed out and annotated here and there with editing marks and arrows going everywhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I&#8217;ve written enough books and read enough manuscripts to know those markings were scrawled on a manuscript. Jesus! Was she a writer? Had she written a shot story or begun a novel or composed a 50-page stream of consciousness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I was shocked and puzzled. I didn&#8217;t know what to think. I shouldn&#8217;t have been thinking. I should have ran out of the bar and asked her about the papers, but I didn&#8217;t because a brain lock seized my humanity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Ten minutes later I unlocked and knew I had blown a great story and interaction during the Pandemic. I just know I&#8217;ll never see her again and get to read her words.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have seen a great many strange things during the Pandemic, but nothing more strange than what I saw today. I was in town running errands and kept seeing a young woman wearing practically nothing wandering around clutching a sheaf of papers. No backpack, water bottle, energy drink or cigarette. Just the papers. Odd indeed. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6400,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6399"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6401,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6399\/revisions\/6401"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6400"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}