Let's talk about stealing.
I just signed up for Chuck Palahniuk's newsletter here on Substack. If you're interested in writing or just random stories from Chuck's life, it's a good one. He started yesterday, the crazy bastard.
His first bit of advice was to steal those bits of stories you hear from strangers on the plane. Or at the bar. Or, in my case, at the sex party. If you read it, you'll hear about all sorts of conversations that ended up in his books.
It's something I have some familiarity with.
When I joke that my stories are fan fiction of my life, I'm not joking. A friend pointed out once that she sees me at sex parties all the time but rarely sees me playing. And she was right. I don't often play.
Because I'm too busy stealing.
Despite how hard this last year has tried to force it onto us, nobody makes art in a vacuum. We all pick things up here and there, find inspiration from people around us, and do what we want with them. And in my case, that often means watching people play, listening to friend's confess, and trying to get myself into some trouble that's interesting enough to make a good story.
If you read Disgusting Beautiful Immoral, you might remember Brent had an ex-girlfriend named Teeters. Well, I met Teeters, and she was lovely and seemed quite happy with her nickname.
The entire idea for Portraits of Alice came from an early date with Piper. She told me that she was afraid she'd look twelve until she woke up one day looking sixty. That one off-handed comment turned into a whole damn book.
And at least a good third of my sex stories come from sitting down with friends who were kind enough to tell me about sordid dates and scandalous affairs.
You might be wondering what my point is. Isn't Guy supposed to be sending me filthy things at midnight instead of random musings about someone else's newsletter in the middle of the day?
Well, I suppose I'm going to steal a bit more from Chuck. In this case, that means writing more about writing, sharing insights and struggles, and remembering that these are letters. And you're there on the other side reading them. (Hi Pam!)
I'm also trying to get out a bit more.
Talk to more people and maybe even get up the energy to go on a date or two. Gasp! Can you imagine? A date? In this economy? Who knows. Maybe it will be fun. Might even be invigorating. Possibly sexy?
Hell, I'll settle for awkwardly erotic.
Because fuck if I don't also need to find some new material. And I'm pretty sure someone out there has a bit of scandal they'd be willing to drop where I can see it and pick it up.
And when they do, I'll write it down and send it to you at midnight.
Thanks again for being here.