Bring forth the ring, Frodo...

Been knocked around by this stinking sinus infection. But still on my feet. Crazy morning. Back and forth. Home, office, office home. Even so, managed to get some project work out of the way.

Gotta tweak "Man of Letters" and get it off to B&T. Tried this afternoon, but needed one last pass to see it through. Didn't happen. Too many distractions. Will ship it off tomorrow, hell or high water. Still feel good about the piece, but interested to know what anyone else thinks.

Cold again today. Not bitter, but enough to wear gloves. Expect I'll be repeating those words for the next few months. Would like to get out for a long walk. Haven't done that in a while. A hike in the mountains would be nice.

Started A.B. Guthrie's Big Sky this morning. Didn't get far, but liked what I read. Didn't realize he helped adapt the screenplay for Shane. Pretty cool, pretty cool.

Tired. Gonna hang it up for the evening. Dream about castles and wizards and things.

Where I am going, where I have been...

Well. Hardly got anywhere today. Made it into the office at a respectable hour, but kept getting pulled away from my work. Got some revisions in place, but not a whole lot more before having to leave and look after things at home. Lot of back and forth.

Wrote two critiques and read a new story this afternoon. Made a pot of minestrone soup while I worked. Something to be happy about, I guess.

Didn't make it to the gym today. Maybe its for the best, given the sinus infection. Don't want to make things worse. Especially after getting a start on the antibiotics. Tomorrow's supposed to be a hairpin road, from what I'm told. May as well enjoy the breather while I've got it. 

Gonna try and kick back tonight, get a little reading in. We'll see how that goes. Like to close in on these last 60 or so pages of The Searchers.

Found out late last night my short story "Riverbound" was named a finalist in the Sequestrum New Writer Awards. Nice to hear. Made for a good night's sleep.

Live for another day...

Yeah. Still here, banging.

Up early after a worthless night's sleep. Worked some quick revisions, looked after the new N stories, read a couple of chapters, then ran off to the doc's office. Sinus infection, confirmed. Antibiotics for the next couple of weeks.

Full afternoon of billing, letter writing, project work, trips to post office, Arc, etc. Hardly know where the time went. Maybe just as well.

Gotta jump all over tomorrow. This time of year, always working at a deficit. Falling behind no matter how much you get ahead.

Calling it quits.

A Sunday meditation...

A perfectly lovely morning. Lots of this and that. A bit of the other. All good.

Big week ahead. Gotta rest up for it. Try and rid myself of this--what? Sinus infection? Allergies? Cold?

Made turkey stock from the Thanksgiving bird. Making turkey soup tonight.

Tired, but in a good way. Peaceful way. Keeping this short.

Closing in on Sunday...

Short entry. Home late from the gym.

Full day--beautiful day for late November--writing, letter writing, cleaning and moving. Got some new mss. in from N as well.

Mean to call Mom. Too late now. Will do it tomorrow. Can't believe how quickly the past few days have come and gone. "Swift as a weaver's shuttle fleet our years..."

Glimpses of this and that...

Black Friday. Well, maybe not so black after all.

Nice, quiet Thanksgiving yesterday. Guests for dinner. Wonderful food, good wine, great conversation. Cooked my first rotisserie turkey, and it was everything I'd hoped for, a beautiful, bird. Will never go back to oven roasted again.

Had a dream last night where my dad came looking for me. He'd brought my old German shepherd, Buck (died April 15, 1995), with him. I called the dog and he ran to me and put his paws on my shoulders the way he used to do. I was overcome. I couldn't breath. I woke from a dead sleep and sat up in bed and tried to settle my mind, but here it is, early evening, and the dream is still with me. As strong as ever.

Cleaned K's gutters this afternoon, then went off to run errands. Bought a Christmas tree at the Good Earth just before closing. Beautiful Nordmann. Nine feet in height. Silver green needles. Got some writing in earlier--some reading, too. Came across a deceptively good fist-fight scene in Alan LeMay's The Searchers.

Hope to clean the garage tomorrow, box some books, make preliminary measurements for a new construction project. Need to keep looking ahead. Dreaming, no matter what.

Keyboardus Interruptus...

Jesus. Off the grid again. Three day (four day?) visit with Mom. Got a small amount of reading in, no writing, but little else. Had a nice time. We're all getting older, and it shows. Radio silence with the rest of the known world, but that should change before long. Weather should warm, too, over the next day or so.

Thanksgiving tomorrow. Hard to believe. William Trevor died this week. Need to read a story or two in commemoration. 

Kittie siege! Abandon keyboard!

A Saturday Evening Post...

Falling behind!

Got in some good edits this morning before jumping into chores around the house. May have put the final edits on "Man of Letters." Will have to let it go cold one more time before passing judgment. More good work on "Te Quiero Con Todo Mi Corazon" too. Best to let that one sit for a few days before going back. Move on to something else.

Nice note from N regarding a story I kicked up stairs. Didn't make the final cut, but got a lot of praise. Feels good to see solid work noticed. Hope the author finds a good home for the piece.

Hit a movie early afternoon. Arrival. It had some interesting moments, and beautiful effects but fell short, I think, in the end. Enjoyed it, but don't need to see it again.

Mom coming in tomorrow. Seems like she just left. Guess that speaks to how crazy life's been the past month. Miss the summer. Miss the fall. The good parts, anyway. Feels as if it's going to be a long winter.

One revelation. The gym is virtually empty at 5:00 on Saturday night.

Thoughts on a cold Thursday evening...

Out of the house at 5:30. Fourth night in a row I haven't slept. Went to the gym, worked out, came home and got ready for work.

Read, rewrote, revised, and critiqued. Then home again to look after little things. Quiet early afternoon. Studying TJ's Poetics again. Endless font of information. 

Winter announced its entrance late this afternoon. Flurries. Dropped temps. Had to come sooner or later, yes? Anyway, made due. Offered it up, as the nuns used to say. My god, but what our forebears endured! Trying to imagine what it would be like living in the cabin in Wyoming all winter--with food and without fear of losing your topknot to savages. My grandfather would have thought it a picnic!

Get tough. Grrrrrr. Read the closing chapter of No Country for Old Men last night. Remembered my dad. A tough man, feeling his way through this life like the rest of us. Not always right, but always dad. I can live with that. I miss him.

Is it only Wednesday?

Working through. 

Meetings, small things, everything but writing. One of those days, right? All you can do is chalk it up, move on, hope tomorrow's better.

Back in the game...

Out of it for a couple of days. Not sure where the time went. Many fetes, as Fitzgerald wrote.

Hammering away at N submissions. Got a couple of fun ones this time around, a couple of rim shots, too.

Read yesterday that Thom Jones died in October. Still bumming over that one.

Work, coming and going. Same with guests, visitors, family, etc. Trying to catch a breath. 

and then that happened...

Day gone.

RIP.

Saturday...

Restless night, strange dreams.

Woke up late, or then again, maybe not. Slow going. Or, maybe not. Did some time at the keyboard, dropped off paint, etc., at the toxic dump facility. then came home and took up yard work.

Too tired to write more.

Happy for small things.

Still a little numb...

Couldn't make myself get out of bed this morning. Was seven before I realized I'd lost the war and needed to surrender.

Day got better as it went along, though, and that's what counts. Took care of little things around the house, managed a successful trip to the dump (always exciting), then got some writing in at the office.

Was put on notice. New mss coming in from N. Quite a few from the sound of things. Look forward to digging in. Look forward to being buried, in fact. Need some time away from the media.

Good workout at the gym this evening. Cleansing, I'd say. Feeling strangely energized, and ready to steep myself in new work. Hope the feeling lasts. Fingers crossed.

The Day After...

Took a running start at the day, but fell behind almost from the get-go. Spent the morning looking after the small stuff. Got to the office around 2:00, and worked on some project details. Managed a few sentences on a new story, too. Still fighting off the hangover of an election that went way too long, got way too uncivil, and ended way too late. Would have loved to be inside Don DeLillo's head this morning. 

And even after everything that's happened, the sky was blue when I was driving into work, and the sun was shining. So it isn't like we have to guess who's really in charge. Gonna breathe deep, keep life out in front of me. Nothing else to be done.

Small changes, big adjustments...

Hit the gym early. Lots of new folks. Getting almost too crowded, mornings. As a rope-skipping, bag hitting, old-school chin up guy, I find I resent others who feel the need to spread heavy equipment around the workout area, then spend half their workout staring at themselves in the mirror. There. End of bitch.

Home early to new little responsibilities. The maiden voyage. Whole thing went smoother than expected, but there's no putting this one down. Not for a second. A hands-on operation all the way. Missed the Monday mornings I've been able to have through the summer, but who knows what the new routine will bring. Anyway, managed to read a few short stories while walking the floor.

Late to the office this afternoon. Made some project revisions, popped off a few emails, and wrote two critiques for N before heading out to the airport to pick up K. Crazy day all around. More tomorrow, it sounds like. 

Haverthorn came in the mail today. Contributor copy for "Beggar's Banquet enclosed. Others should follow. Nice to see something coming in for a change.

The best I can do...

Gotta stop making this late entries. Too tired to dig into anything substantive.

Up early. Or late, depending on how you look at it. A new Daylight Savings time to contend with. Don't care much for the early sunset, but definitely appreciate waking up to anything resembling light when heading off to the gym in the morning.

Spend a lot of time at the keyboard this morning looking for a new story to write. Didn't have a whole lot of luck. Then again, might have just been me. Been burned out on my own work for a while. Need to clear my head by getting into something new. Read J. Carol Oates's Omen today. Want to dig deeper into her work. Meanwhile, two new pieces in from N.

Cleaned the garage yesterday. Felt good getting things organized again. Looking ahead to making permanent changes. Makes a big difference knowing where things are, when you need them. Like having a well-organized library.

Talked to Mom earlier this evening. She sounded good for the most part. A few troubling bits of news, but that's always the case, isn't it?

Tomorrow, green woods and pastures new as Milton would say. 

Tomorrow Never knows...

Beat. 

Out of pocket the past two, three, four days. 

Projects coming in left and right. 

Woke this morning thinking it was Tuesday. Must be the Halloween hangover. Anyway, into the shop early, and hard at the keyboard. Projects in and out, letters written and sent, bills paid, invoices prepped. Hit the gym late afternoon, then home to dinner guests. Afterward, sent off N. reviews.

Not sure what tomorrow's going to bring.

Got a tombstone hand and a graveyard mind...

Blurred day. Up at a lazy hour, then off to the keyboard. Revised one manuscript, started in on another, then finished a critique for N. After, out to Starbuck's. 

Spend the afternoon and early evening attending to Halloween details. Graveyards look great so far. New skeleton worked out well. Zip tied a scythe to his hands. Have him lurking behind a tombstone, the new coffin and rotting corpse in the foreground. The dog is in the flowerbed, gnawing on a bloody rat. Lot of work to do yet, but a good start. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Gotta find more time to read. Gotta find more time, period.  

Oh, what a beautiful morning....

Another beautiful day. Early morning meeting with G. Good to catch up, as always. Good to see him in better spirits. 

Into the office earlier than expected for a session that never happened. But that's the way things go, isn't it? Got some revisions in, did some research on a new project, wrote mom a letter, then headed out to the gym.

Lot of work ahead. Need to find some reading/writing time in the midst of it.

Two kitties visiting. One conked out on the rug, the other in a trance, looking out the window. Nice to have them around. Good luck, I think.