It's Already August

I have no idea where the time goes. Honestly. Remember when the lazy days of summer would be the best thing in the word? You'd wake up to bright sunlight and just know it was a beautiful day out. No school, you had to wait for the afternoon to get cartoons, but that was fine because you'd be able to go outside and play until then. Life was great.

Now look at us. We wake up because we have to work. We work because we want to eat and pay the bills on the stuff we bought because we wanted it, and it goes on and on. Vacations? Who can 1) afford to take a vacation, and 2) wants to take one when the only thing you have to look forward to when you get back is the pile of work you left behind- the pile of work that's somehow managed to grow in your absence.

All of that, and it's August already.

Actually, things are going a little rough right now. The family car has started giving us problems, and we're coming up with a solution to fix it. The solution should fix a few other problems, as well- at least until my plan finishes coming together. As soon as that's taken care of, everything else should fall into place neatly.

Anyway, I had a telephone conversation with an editor about a week ago. That went really well! I now have a better understanding of what he's looking for, and have sent in a couple of pitches accordingly. I had been sending pitches almost regularly to him, and they kept getting batted down, but now that I better understand what he's looking for, I have to tailor the stories and the pitches to conform to those. So I'm waiting to see what happens with those. If things go true to form like they have been, I'll be waiting for about a month, but if the pitch I really want gets accepted, it's a month worth waiting for. Then the REAL work will begin. I'm trying to get a small jump on the process now, thinking about a vague outline, but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. This book will be a LOT of work. It may feel like I'm writing it forever, but it'll be a good thing- it means that it's being published AND that I'm being paid for it.

I also started up a new column called Bolts & Nuts at Project Fanboy. See the sidebar for the link. It's basically about helping new comic writers and the comic creation process. It's a small site, but it has some members. The only thing it can do is grow. (Well, that's not the only thing, but I'm going to remain positive.) I want it to be more informative than Dirk Manning's Write or Wrong at Newsarama. Nothing against him, but I've read a few of his articles, and there's nothing really useful in there. I guess I should peek in again, but I'm not too hopeful about what I'll find.

Kittens! We're now down to two of them, which means we have four cats and the dog. Lenora's friend came and got one last week, and we just got back from dropping two off at the animal shelter. We're keeping two, and my stepdaughter says that she's taking the two adults with her when she moves out. She's supposed to be moving sometime in the middle of the month, but we'll see what happens.

Short story: my stepdaugher is 24. She wants to move into her own place. (Hell, she needs it!) Lenora went to San Diego with her best friend in order to pick up her best friend's car, and I had to work until 5am (a twelve-hour shift that I had no knowledge of when I went in that day, but I digress). When I came home, I found the girl sleeping on the couch in the living room. We had already gone a round about the living room not being a bedroom, and I won that discussion. (She and her 18 year old brother are also scared of spiders, apparently.) Anyway, the reason she was sleeping on the couch? She was home alone, and wanted to hear every sound as they happened. A big chicken, and she wants her own place. Yeah.

Okay, going to spend some time with Lenora, eat, watch some bad movies, and go to bed. Going to spend the day tomororw working on my column as well as seeing a friend. It's going to be great.

And that's me. Go watch the original Frankenstien. Boris will love you for it.

-Steven