Circumstance Induced Mania (CIM)

Is there a drug for depression? Not the kind to stop depression—the kind to bring it on.

I know one shouldn't joke about depression but a depression inducement pill is what I need. I want to go to bed just like when you are depressed, because I am afraid I will explode. I have Circumstance Induced Mania — CIM.

I made CIM up, but that is what I feel possesses me. It started with the commission to do a play for Presentation House on April 30th—nine days ago, and then really started surging in me when I developed a plan for the piece in a day that is pretty well developed.

Yesterday I woke up to a $3,500 tax refund—not a bad breakfast at all. And by the end of the day, I had a very, very satisfactory first scene written and a rough draft of the much longer scene two. And scene two is dialogue which is much harder for me to write than monologue.

Then, this morning at 7:30 exactly on time as promised, the CEO—that's CEO—of McGraw Hill called to talk about my book Artist Survival Skills. This connection being the latest serendipitous step in our storey.

His verdict:

• He liked the title and design very much.
• It is not the kind of book McGraw Hill publishes any longer.
• "The numbers [sales] are impressive."
• "A reference book like this could have legs like [book whose title I have forgotten]."

I told him it has to be re-written and needed a chapter on social media. I also told him that I lacked the ambition of youth and so he proposed that he "take a couple of weeks to talk to some people" about a re-development of the book with the same title but by me plus another writer who would nationalize it and revise it with me. I'd get [modest no doubt] royalties. He is going to call me back in two weeks at a precise time.

Within seconds of hanging up the phone, I had CIM and needed that pill. I have the tax refund to afford one no matter how much they cost.