Man, Being a Slackass Just Doesn't Pay What it Used To

This week I let my hair down.

Knowing that this week I was not to peek prematurely at my novel for its impending edits, I've been slacking off.  Well, not really, but for me, who's used to 16-hour days pounding out stories and promotion, yeah, it's been slacking.

I did sell a story on Monday to a local magazine with national distribution.  I'll post a link to it here when it's finally ready.  The story is called Freaks and Geeks, and was penned a few years ago when I visited my family in West Virginia, and my nieces begged me to attend the opening night of our county fair.  I pulled it out Sunday night, did a good deal of what's called punch-up, or making it funnier, and sent it off on a whim at 12:30 a.m.  She bought it at 8:05 a.m. the next morning, as soon as she got into the office.  Sometimes, it feels good to not have a whim lead off into left-field somewhere.

I've spent a good deal of time this week catching up on my television, although with the summer in re-runs, there's not much I enjoy except for CBS's Friday evening Flashpoint.

I went to my costume-fitting last night for my upcoming gig of playing a spook in the HauntedNashville.com 's haunted house.  It's a paying gig, so I'm thankful for that.

I sent out my first query letter to PenguinUK on Monday evening for Gaslight.  They sent me an automated response saying they couldn't be bothered with a true response, unless their editors thought my manuscript worthy of "entering in to e-mail communications."  Otherwise, I won't hear anything, period.  But I've heard that's completely normal, so no worries.

So with all this new-found freedom, to last another whole two days before I can't stand it any longer and get back to writing full-time, I'm going inSANE.  I thought I would appreciate not having the self-imposed deadline.  But instead, I'm hating it with everything in me.  I've learned something very valuable through this experience:  I don't feel like myself unless I'm writing.  I need the daily grind of getting those passengers out of my head and onto the paper where they can behave themselves the way I tell them to.  I need to feel as if I'm creating something special, that will touch others in the way my story, A Sleep To Startle Us has touched so many others who have read it.  And since we're on that subject, what is YOUR excuse that you haven't read it yet??

In other news, my cat box needs cleaning.  And I'm putting it off till tomorrow.

So anyway, that's been my week.  Productive, in a different sort of way.

And now if you will excuse me, it's time for my show.