May 26, 2006
No particular focus, but here are some thoughts for today:

1. I love writing novels and getting them published is pretty cool, but it often feels anticlimactic. I've run into a couple of writers who say, "I'll be satisfied just to have a book published." That can be its own kind of reward, I suppose, but I've found it to be so-so on the satisfaction scale. It's possible I'm looking for more money, more readers, or something else entirely... like for other people to be more excited about it than me. Or, I'm just screwed up in the head.

2. How many soldiers have died in Afghanistan? We're getting pretty regular body counts in Iraq, but how are we doing in Afghanistan?

3. How will we know when the War on Terror is over? Will somebody send up a white flag? Negotiate a truce?

4. Got an e-mail from my agent in response to some publicity stuff going on with Midnight Ink. She's optimistic and notes that they have money, having recently given some author a 6-figure advance. Maybe a 6-figure advance would make #1 different. Or I'd start doing the math and get the heebie-jeebies. And paying that tax bill, oy veh!

5. Just got a phone call on my office number from somebody looking for the Salvation Army. Hmmm...

6. There's a bird singing somewhere outside my window. Sort of: tweet, tweet, tweet-tweet. Different than the bird call I sometimes hear when I'm walking the dog that I try to answer. Some twitters out there, too. Yes, Mark, you're a bird brain.

7. They're digging up a barn out in Milford trying to find Jimmy Hoffa's body. I keep wondering if the FBI is planning on reimbursing the owner for that. Hey, that would come tax dollars, wouldn't it? You mean I'm going to be part owner of a horse farm? Honestly, I'll be impressed if they find his body. They were building the Renaissance Center and M-696 when he was gone, and it would have been fairly easy to put the body into cement foundations anywhere in the area. There was an FBI agent who worked the case on TV recently who said he was convinced the body wasn't around any more either, because the auto industry did a lot of chrome-plating at that time and these small companies had huge vats of acid on site. I'm also amused to see photographs of Macchus Red Fox, the restaurant where he was last seen. At the time, in the 1970s, it was a rural area. I used to drive by there all the time to and from work when I-75 was under construction, and it's a 6 or 8-lane dividied highway with traffic lights every half mile and strip malls, high-priced homes and office buildings pretty much wall to wall now.

8. I have approximately 53 books on my shelves that I'm supposed to choose from to review. And another 8 that I've bought that I want to read for pleasure. I'm in way over my head.

Have a good holiday.

Best,
Mark Terry