Magic Formulas -the rituals of writing

Coffee, peaches and writing, writing, writing - too much coffee and a handful of peaches in honor of my writing buddy, B. Miller who goes to Killercon this week to pitch her novel,  Blood in the Orchard, set in South Carolina. 
Writing is a lonely job, we need the alone time to get it done, but it's also daunting, when hours, days pass by and you haven't spoken to any human beings except your characters.
But maybe that's what needs to happen, so the characters speak to you, grab your typing fingers and lead you on to adventures you'd never imagine on your own.
This just happened to me this weekend.  I've been writing on The Foxglove Broadsides, at a steady pace, in between lots of learning about steampunk, reading Conan Doyle, reading submissions for Steampunk Fissure, laying out the mag, taking care of my granddaughter and working.  But this weekend the characters (including The Orchid Collector, who features in a short story of mine)  grabbed me, just like Jacob LaGuerre did in Shaman Circus and off we ran.  Besides putting in more than 13 hours on Steampunk Fissure, I've written over 5,000 words this weekend.  I'm up to 18,800 words, twelve chapters and the whole story is so alive, I can't sleep. 
I've even managed to read about a fifth of the way through Foucault's Pendulum and watch Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes again, for about the 25th time. Foucault's Pendulum is part of the reason why I'm writing so fast.  It's a fast-paced novel and goes all over the place, just the way I like them.  I owe a huge favor to  another pivotal writing buddy, Brian K. Ladd, not only for getting me into steampunk, but also because he couldn't stop praising Foucault's Pendulum.  It's a bit Fowlesian and a bit not.