Man, I'm beat. It's been a crazy couple of days. Yesterday I started my new job -- paper boy (or, as I like to call it, periodical route distributer). I was up yesterday (and today, and every day for who knows how long) at 3:15 a.m. Yes, you read that right. It was not a typo! I rode along with my manager as he showed me the route and delivered all 240 papers on the route covering the greater Wake Forest area (and less Wake Forest as well).

It's pretty cool, being up so early. The world is a different place -- quiet, peaceful, stars shining down. If it weren't for the sleep deprivation, it'd be perfect.

I also managed to really jam on the revisions to my story "Remainders," which started life as "Space Mercs" and became "Old Earth Remainders" and finally got its minimalistic title once I created a whole new planet for the story. It came together really nicely, and I sent it off to good ol' Asimov's for submission #21. Yahoo!

And finally yesterday, I taught the first class of my Beginning Fiction Writing. Things have been so crazy-busy the past 2 weeks that I hadn't spent a whole lot of time on my syllabus, so the first class sort of snuck up on me. So I spent all of Monday afternoon finetuning and turning it into a pretty darn good set of classes. All I need to do is add some more detailed writing exercises to the later classes -- my old syllabus was built for only 8 classes, and this one has 12! But the class was a lot of fun, even if I was a bit sleep-deprived, and I think it'll be a good challenge for me, and may get me back into teaching more again. We shall see...

This morning, after delivering papers with the speedy Esquart, I tried getting some revisions done to "Wantaviewer" for its upcoming Strange Horizons publication, starting next Monday and ending the following Monday -- my first serial! I did about 4 pages of edits before falling asleep at the computer (a common thing lately!). After a nap I was able to finish up the story. The editors there did a bang-up job with suggestions for the story, and Jed did an amazing copy-edit on it. Great, great people to work with.

I got the edits done just in time to read Scott's kick-ass story "The Forgotten War" before we met for lunch. We had a good time talking shop, then Lizzie dropped by after her CPR class, Scott took off to go back to work, and Lizzie and I read for a while. I drank way too much strong coffe, and then we had some Indian food, and I finally dragged my ass back home. I was so busy, I was starting to feel like Tim Pratt! ;)

Also, in other nifty news, if you're a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, you can now read my story "Natural Order" on their website, now that it's earned a Nebula recommendation! Wahoo!

As for tomorrow, like Greg is doing with his journal, I'll be keeping silent on the journal front. Instead of reading my journal, check out John M. Ford's poem/story, "110 Stories". Take care, love each other, and most of all, be happy and glad for all of the wonderful things in your life. Think peace.

Now Reading:
Polyphony, Wheatland Press

Now Playing:
"Murder," Johnny Cash

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