I am cosmopolitan as well as erudite

Says so right here, in one of those online bookstore reviews that we're really not supposed to read:

Lastly, the author is cosmopolitan as well as erudite because he sprinkles culture and science throughout the novel, adding that much more to the story. A french phrase here, a civil engineering concept there, and what remains is much more than written words.

Cosmopolitan as well as erudite. Oh, yes. I could live on that for a week.

it's not my fault i didn't do it don't blame me

I had just plunged both my characters underwater, in a dreadful drowning scene - and there was a sudden rushing gurgling noise as of great waters, and the entire library was subsumed in a rainstorm of unimaginable proportions. I've never heard it so loud or seen it so dark, so very under the weather. That was ... impressive, oh yes. But I didn't do it, no sir.

(And now I have to go home. In the weather.)

Somebody save me from myself

I read once that George Sand worked very deliberate hours at her writing; and if she finished a chapter during that time, she would lay it aside, take a fresh sheet and begin the next chapter. Which is a fine practice, and to be commended - except that if she finished a novel during that time, she would lay it aside, take a fresh sheet and begin the next novel. Which is perverse and demented and not admirable at all, and I swore never to act like that; an end is an achievement, and demands its recognition. You don't have to celebrate if you're not that kind, but you still owe it to the book to pause, to respect the moment; you owe it to yourself to breathe, to exhibit a little humanity, to turn away for a day and look elsewhere.

Today? I have written 2.5K, to finish the aspidochelone (which is not a short story, no, it is a 13K novelette, oh lawks). I have walked home in the rain, I have dried my person and changed my clothes - and now I'm going to start the next story. Anybody want to love me and pet me and call me George?

(NB - I have no idea whether the story about George Sand is actually true. It's a story; that's all that counts. It doesn't need accuracy, only credibility. Narrative conviction.)