December 2, 2005
Ah, I'm being sort of, well, lazy at the moment, I guess. I do have two short articles due on Monday, and I hope to get another interview in today for each, but I'm waiting for callbacks on them. Otherwise, I just need to write them. I've picked up a new client of sorts, as a sort of trial run for both of us--I don't know what they're thinking, but I'm thinking, "They want how much work for this kind of money?" But we'll see. I'm not killing myself for $75, and I'm not going to jeopardize my highest paying client for them, either. There may be some long-range potential and the initial project may be a bit strange, but I'm willing to give it a go, very much with the notion that if this initial project takes up too much time for the money they'll need to find somebody cheaper to work with or cough up more money.

So far today I e-mailed my layout people with some information they needed for the Journal I edit regarding indexing and the website content. I ordered and sent off small holiday gifts of appreciation for my agents and my new editor. Tried to track down the person who left me a garbled message on my answering machine last night--no luck so far. Couldn't catch the name, the phone number or the company except for the word "energy," which narrows it down to about 6 places I called yesterday. But "[garble] at [garble] Energy [garble] will be available after 9:00 today, more or less, at 202-586-[garble]." Well, that's good to know. And the prefixes don't seem to match up with anybody I called.

I'm going to hit the gym, go out to lunch, drop by Borders and pick up a book I want to review and some X-mas gifts for my sons, possibly hit a card store for the obligatory Holiday cards for people I worked with this year, and possibly some more microcasettes if I don't feel I'm taking up too much time, then back to the house where I'll walk the hound and work until I'm done, probably 5:00, although with any luck I can knock off a little earlier.

I'm also eager to continue on the novel-in-progress. I left my two main characters in deep doo-doo last night and I'm curious to see where they're going next. Frankly, I never expected them to be in the predicament they're in now, so the story's definitely got my curiosity piqued. They were well on their way to Washington, D.C., when they were forced down by "black helicopters" and what appear to be military jets, and now they're running through the West Virginia mountains with armed killers after them. It's one hell of a detour, let me tell you.

So I hope everybody has a good and productive weekend.

Best,
Mark Terry