Well damn it, I just about had a good long entry done, and then I clicked away and lost the whole thing. What happened to the AutoSave feature?

Must be a sign that the lost entry was too long. Agh. I hate rewriting stuff I've already written once.

Anyhoo -- I'm sort of coming out from under the clouds tonight. Fittingly, we had a nice thundery and lightning-filled downpour tonight while Elizabeth and I were enjoying a guilty-pleasure meal at Moe's (a fast-food Mexican joint where when you walk in, everyone yells "Welcome to MOOOOooes!").

Usually when I'm not in the greatest of moods I don't feel like writing in this journal -- I don't like sharing the misery. But as I said, I'm climbing out of this mini-funk, thanks to my wife. Even though she's still been a bit sick with the pregnausea, she could tell I was feeling grumpy, so she's making me get up early tomorrow and get some writing done. No excuses (I tell you, next to every successful writer is a supportive spouse or partner).

She knows how it works. When I'm not working on my writing, everything starts to suck for me -- the Day Job, working out (haven't been in almost two weeks), reading, even getting together with family and friends. So she's using her occupational-therapy skillz on me and setting some goals for me. Namely, getting my ass out of bed and doing some writing. I'm hoping to finish up work on "Painting Haiti" in the next couple of days, along with doing some more work on the SF play.

Another nice little tidbit that has me feeling good is that I got an unexpected royalty check from Fictionwise for my stories reprinted there. I was pleased to see that, of my four most recent stories available there, "Gunning for the Buddha" was almost twice as popular as the other new tales. So I plan on cashing that check tomorrow and spending every last penny of that $39.39 (probably on a book or two and dinner with Jason and Janet!).

And finally, another silver lining in my dispersing clouds -- congrats to fellow writers Tim (for selling his novel, the first of many, I'm sure, and one I got to read and comment on over a year ago!) and Sarah (for selling yet another story to the hard-to-crack Realms of Fantasy!). Hearing about the success of my writing pals motivates me to keep on working. Even if it means getting up at the crack of ass... Later!

(Sheesh -- that was STILL a long-ass entry, the second time through!)

Now Playing:
"Slow Motion Daydream," Everclear

Now Reading:
Iowa Baseball Confederacy, WP Kinsella