Once again I've been quite busy, so the weekend journal update never eventuated. As usual I've been looking at jobs and have chatted a bit with a recruiter who expressed an interest in my resume. I'm still waiting to hear back from the guy, but I'm not holding my breath. I've also been reading up on copywriting stuff, although I won't really get stuck into it until the course materials arrive from AWAI, along with a bunch of books I ordered from Amazon on the subject. The other day I received the "Starting a Small Business" handbook from the Illinois Dept. of Commerce & Economic Opportunity (DCEO), and that provides some good basic information I'll be able to use if I decide to start up a freelance writing/copywriting business. It's still too early to make a decision on that, though.

For some reason (winter boredom, perhaps?) we've gotten back into playing The Sims over the past week, and damn, it's addictive! It helps that the game actually runs at a decent speed on this new computer - on our old laptop it'd often get bogged down in some of the busier areas. This is one of those games that's been around for years (since early 2000, I think) and still sells bundles. Its longevity probably has something to do with the nearly endless series of expansion packs Maxis puts out. Speaking of which, we've already got 5 of those loaded and I broke down and ordered the remaining two (Superstar and Makin' Magic) the other day. Gotta fuel the addiction, you know :) As if being a Sims-junkie wasn't bad enough, the sequel comes out next month! Argggh!!!

With all this, it's a wonder I've had any time for writing! I've been in a writing slump since late November and yesterday I decided to do something about it (not that I haven't tried before). I'm planning on writing at least 1000 words of fiction per day, collating each day's output into a single file. This approach seemed to work well when I tried it back in 2002, but I hope it lasts a bit longer than it did then. As long as it gets me writing regularly, I'll be happy!

I finally made a start on the Zeppelin story yesterday, based on some ideas I had over the weekend. It's about time, too - the last couple of ideas seemed okay to begin with, but collapsed after a few days research. This new idea looked promising enough to start working on, so I hope it carries through to completion. I've updated the word count and so forth, below:

2004 Word count:	1106
Stories written:	0
Total submissions:	1
Total acceptances:	0
Total rejections:	1
Waiting for response:	2
Books read:	1
Fiction Mags/Chapbooks read:	4

Today I finished reading Galaxy Magazine : The Dark and the Light Years, by David L. Rosheim. I found out about this book while building my SF magazine collection, and I'm glad I did! The book, published in 1986 by Advent:Publishers, Inc., covers the history of Galaxy from its founding in 1950 by H. L. Gold, all the way through to its eventual demise in 1980. Rosheim discusses highlights of each issue, providing brief summaries of stories and discussions of their writers, along with pertinent excerpts and commentary from an extensive list of sources (other SF histories, biographies, etc). This makes for fascinating reading, especially if you're into the history of SF and have seen the old mags for yourself. I should point out that this book predates the 90s resurrection and subsequent fall of Galaxy, so avid historians will have to do some research online to find out more about this.

Over the weekend I received the new Michael Marshall Smith collection, More Tomorrow and Other Stories from Clarke's World Books. This collection is a limited-edition (only 1000 copies) signed and numbered hardcover containing 30 short stories by MM Smith, some previously unpublished. I was rather disappointed when his other collection, What You Make It, didn't come out in the US, but this collection more than makes up for it with all the content of that one plus a whole lot more. As far as I know this collection will not see wider release, so be sure to grab a copy while you can. I highly recommend you check out Clarke's World Books too, since they have this and other books at discounted prices. If you've never read any of Michael Marshall Smith's stuff, I highly recommend you start with his Philip K. Dick Award-winning novel, Only Forward (which is one of the most inventive and hilarious books I've ever read), and then pick up a copy of this collection. Now I can't wait to read it!

What I'm Reading:
Talebones, Issue# 27 (Winter 2003)
Argosy, Issue# 1 (January/February 2004)
More Tomorrow and Other Stories by Michael Marshall Smith