The Joys of Being a Writer: So it's one thirty in the morning and I can't sleep because I'm trying to finish a story for the Anthology From Hell, and I have Santa being held captive and one of his elves is trying to break him free and I'm stuck for ideas for how to do it.

I could have the reindeer rip the bars off the cell, but that's been done to death.

Could the elf pass for a demon? Beat up a guard? Abandon Santa and flee back to the North Pole, disappointed? Enlist the help of Merlin or Rasputin, who are in the same prison?

Ah, the things that keep writers up late.