Water water everywhere

Posted By: Peter DavidPosted On:

Day after day of unrelenting rain. And I’ve been sitting here in my basement office relieved that I don’t have flooding down here.

Finally, last night, the incessant rainfall…uh…cessed. Around midnight or so, the constant drumming of rain above let up. Imagine my relief.

Three in the morning as I’m struggling with a plot point on my Fantastic Four novel, I glance over and see that an entire section of the floor is wet. Water is oozing in from a section of the wall behind the television set.

Crap.

I haul out towels and mop it up. It’s still coming. I keep mopping. More water. More mopping. Finally the water stops seeping in. I sit back, watching the floor warily for some sign of continued seepage, and as I do that, the plot point clicks into my head and I figure out where the story’s going next. People wonder whence writers draw inspiration? More often than not, from desperation.

PAD

28 comments on “Water water everywhere”

  1. Neat. (sucks about your carpeting mold problems later on etc..) Makes me want to buy that issue just to see where water seepage comes in at. =)

  3. Sounds like you may be able to work respiration and transpiration in there, too (not to mention perspiration). Hope the seepage problem is minimal!

    TWL

  4. Tu quoque, PAD?
    I’m also struggling with a sequence of my screenplay, but the rain is just driving me nuts. Maybe I should let the water in, too.

    PD: I just came up with a great suggestion for X-Factor. Are you going to write about that book anytime soon so I can post it without being Off Topic?

  5. An office in the basement? You lucky bášŧárd! I always wanted my own personal Batcave.

    Seepage sucks. Well, actually, it uh… seeps.
    I suppose that anyone who drools in their sleep and subsequenty moistens both sides of their pillow can identify, at least a little.

    I always figured that writers (the good ones, at least. You know who you are) got inspiration from being able to view things from many perspectives and elements progressed from conflics that can arise when perspectives don’t match.

    But now that I’m thinking about inspiration I’m figuring “Any basement in a storm.”

    Feh, I need more coffee this morning.

    Mitch

    Footnote: I sleep with two pillows.

  7. The Fantastic Four’s basement is going to flood? Man that sucks…I hope Reed can come up with something to solve this crisis.

  8. In case you dont have one yet, it would be a good idea to get a dehumidifier. Keeps the mold at bay.

  9. I’m sorry about the potential water damage to your home and I hope it minimal.

  11. Our basement – which had previously withstood every bit of rain these past few years – succumbed to the incessant rainfall last weekend.

    The floodwaters ruined many family snapshots, a few clothes, some stuffed animals, and most of my artwork (various sketches and things I had drawn during the past ten years).

    Also lost both “Top Ten” TPBs, the “From Hëll” TPB (luckily the book was so big it soaked up a few gallons of rainwater), a couple of “Hellboy” TPBs, the whole run of “Starman”, “Preacher”, “Hellblazer” trades, and a bunch of other trades, hardbacks, and single issues.

    A lot of my books were in harm’s way on the floor because…you guessed it…I was in the process of moving them to a secure location. The water got in while I was out of town. Arrgh!

  12. See, this is why I’m glad that Union City is at least a hundred feet or more above sea level. That Hudson River ain’t coming to my room!

    Then again, maybe that’s also why I’m not a writer…..

  13. Same thing happened to me this moring. I was up till 2 am last night relieved that my pump was working.

    Got up this morning at 11 am only to find while I was sleeping my sump pump stopped working. It wasn’t deep enough in the ground.

    I had a river of water in my basement. As of this writing I am still pumping out water out of my basement….

  14. Same thing happened to me this moring. I was up till 2 am last night relieved that my pump was working.

    Got up this morning at 11 am only to find while I was sleeping my sump pump stopped working. It wasn’t deep enough in the ground.

    I had a river of water in my basement. As of this writing I am still pumping out water out of my basement….

  15. Same thing happened to me this moring. I was up till 2 am last night relieved that my pump was working.

    Got up this morning at 11 am only to find while I was sleeping my sump pump stopped working. It wasn’t deep enough in the ground.

    I had a river of water in my basement. As of this writing I am still pumping out water out of my basement….

  16. The bunkhead filled up and finally after the 8th days of rain here in MA water rose to the first step. The sewer pile has a ‘y’ piece to clear the pipe; I opened it and let all the dang water pour on it, my poor sewer tank.

    Talk about desperation, you should see some of the comic book forums I’ve been looking at. I’ll I ask is give me a penciler to help me better draw some characters. Every one’s like, no we want your story. Looks like I’m be posting on Monster.com…

    Oh, what ever happen to Gary Frank?

  17. humm… inspiration from despiration. I wish. tonight i was presented with a desperate situation,and i have yielded no inspiration, other than skiping the country, and starting a while new life. it sucks when the most honest thing you ever did turned our to be riddled with lies.

    this is what I get for trying to be good and honest and good. Should’a only ever thought about myself.

    Jerk-zo

    p.s. sorry for bringing a dampner on things.

  19. Please don’t tell me that this story ends with Hydro-Man attacking the FF in your novel. 🙂

  20. Ha I get it! The story is about Franklin’s bed wetting problem and how the submariner tells him it’s ok because his bed is always wet. What a great story.

  22. Hmmm… I’m just remembering the first episode of Robot Chicken….

    Hulk: “Got to go, got to go, got to go…”

    -Rex Hondo-

  23. Commiserations Peter on your water seepage problem. I vividly recall one terrible night when my rented townhouse did a realistic imitation of the Titanic on one stormy night. Ironically enough, my entire collection of Young Justice trade paperbacks was soaked during the deluge. Talk about karma.

  24. stinks about water in the basement. Our first house was about 80 years old and leaked whenever there was a lot of rain. When we were getting ready to sell the house, the real estate person was asking all sorts of questions on the house and she asks “do you have a pool” and my comment was “only when it rains.”

  25. I, too, have sacrificed comics to basement floods. Then they’re on Ebay: “Slightly Water Damaged TPB’s.”
    About 25 years ago I lent my ‘best’ friend several copies of Amazing Spider-man (issues 125-140) only to get them back soaked cuz his mom threw them outside in the rain. “How DARE you bring comic books into this house?!”
    I don’t lend my comics out anymore.

  26. Inspiration ALWAYS strikes at the most unexpected(and in MY case, innopportune) times. Like this afternoon, when I was stuck in a camera tower shooting horses running around and I suddenly realized my next scene should be a fire, because fire’s really scary.

    BTW, is the TV okay?

    BBTW, any other writers get the most brilliant ideas while speeding down the highway at two in the morning? And then not remember anything but the elation of having come up with a brilliant idea, and nothing of the idea itself, come actual civilized morning?

  27. I thought all writers got their ideas from that guy in The Idea Store. Man! Ya learns something new every darn day.

Comments are closed.