Saturday, May 15, 2010

after the vacations, a sign of maturity

So Costa Rica, my sister's graduation, and Las Vegas are all done. Thank God. I think its a sign of growing up that I still have some money in the bank after all that. Not a lot of money, mind you, and my plan to pay off the last of my credit cards has been set back by at least a month or two, but a few years ago I would have come back from a series of trips like that completely broke.

So yay for growing up. After working this weekend, I'll have the last part of the Vegas paid off, and its just smooth sailing of paying down CC debt from there.

You see, I gave myself three goals (you could call them resolutions--but I decided on them in March, not January 1st) for this year. 1. Finish writing the first draft of my book The Constable of Bridge 2. PAY OFF CREDIT CARDS 3. Run a marathon.

So far, each of these goals is actually proceeding along fairly smoothly. My writing has been fairly consistent and fun this past month or so, I've been prepping for my marathon training, which starts in June, and I've made some good strides forward to pay down debt.

Growing up is weird. Sometimes I'm half convinced that the key to being a successful grownup is to fool yourself into thinking that you enjoy hard work. Other times, I have this sneaking suspicion that everyone is faking it, no really has any idea what the hell they're doing, and adulthood has been this fabled myth that few actually achieve before they're 80.

I think I myself may have grown up a leetle bit these past few years. Certainly I don't blow all my money at bars the way I used to. I have more patience at work, more self-control at meetings. I have a much better ability to say no to my friends when they want to go out. I can focus on the task at hand a little better. Five years ago, when I did the Chicago marathon, that was all I had time for. I trained for that and worked at GBF and that was it. I couldn't find the energy or wherewithal to write. Now, I'm managing to juggle two jobs, writing, and marathon training. So yeah, hence my theory that growing up = fooling yourself into liking hard work.

Speaking of which, at the moment the blog entry is rapidly devolving an excuse not to work on my book, so I must end this entry before the demons of procrastination take too firm a hold...

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

"The Nature of My Game" story available

So I was informed last week by A. W. Gifford, editor of Ghostlight Magazine, the fiction magazine put out by Great Lakes Association of Horror Writers, that my short story "The Nature of My Game" was published this past fall in the premiere issue, Volume 1 Issue 1.

You can order a PDF version of the entire magazine ($4) or perfect-bound soft-cover print edition ($8.95 plus shipping) of the issue, which, along with my 1,000-word story, contains some great fiction and poetry. Here's the link. And here's a link to the page of other publications put out by GLAHW.

I'll also be adding the links to my publishing list on the right side of the blog. "The Nature of My Game" is quite a short story, one which I really enjoyed writing and now have a sort of amusing view on. Check it out, when you get a chance.