TRAPPED!

I'm trapped, trapped like a rat in a burning ship, sitting on a keg of gunpowder and watching flames creep closer with each passing second.

Alright, so I'm being melodramatic. Money's tight, so I'm working a 10-hour shift today to try and make up for yesterday, when I was in bed sicker than a dog who ate green meat. Rent's due next week, power bill (I lost my long-standing fight with LG&E) is due the week after, and my wife goes on bedrest Monday morning. This is not a good month to be a Tabler, considering the little lady has gotten in the habit of buying random things from EBay when I'm not home.

The trapped part? They're mopping the floor around my desk, and I can't go outside to smoke until it dries.

Still looking for work. Read that another writer has lost his job and been thrust in the same boat. Sympathies to the man, honestly. I know it sucks. I'm lucky to hold down a piecemeal job working for my father, and if I can't find some real work in the next couple weeks we'll be severely in the hole. I'm looking, but the market is far from cooperating with me at this time.

Had a couple ideas for stories today, one inspired by my former-Professor, now e-mail correspondence chum, Paul F. Griner. A deckhand who is thinking about letting his arm get severed on the job for the sole purpose of collecting the Dismemberment Pay so he can get his son a birthday gift. Also, the dystopia of an American Future is creeping in again with a scene that has a deranged Senator controlling the Army and giving the President a choice between a bullet in the head or legalizing his coup in another piece.

On top of that I took a commission a month back to write a short story and comic script, to be turned into a 10 page B&W comic and bound by a journal maker I know. It features giant walking animal people and spaceships. I'm still working on that sucker.

This is shaping up to be a busy month. Keep your fingers crossed that I A) sell something B)finished this commission in time, C) Find a job, and D) Get that $1500.00 check before we are royally screwed financially.

Now that the floor is dry, time to go smoke.

EDIT: 15:17 EST

Well, to anyone who had their fingers crossed, thank you! Less than ten minutes after making this post I was contacted for an interview. Sure, it's a job with an insurance company, but it's a job reviewing contracts and arranging payments, and it pays a middling salary that'd let us rent a house, pay our bills, and eat for the next couple years while I work on a higher degree.

Now, cross your toes that the interview goes well, eh?

Peace,
J.C. Tabler