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

Just Got Done Tonight

So I just hit the word limit for today. Finished up the third chapter, started on the fourth. Four chapters in, and I'm just now getting into the real meat of the story. Although I have a desire to keep writing tonight, I'm going to need a day to figure out how to get this chapter really up and running. My goal, now, will be to get a chapter done on each weekend day, maybe more, as well as hitting the 1,600 words I want to do every weekday. The sooner I get this done, revise it, and see if it has merit, the sooner I can get on to some of the other projects that have started niggling around in the back of my head.

Still no word from any of the other markets, although I learned something today. I learned my aunt has begun to read my journal. Personally, this freaks me out a little more than the whole preggers thing. See, I have no problem talking to the whole world when it may stumble across my doorstep like a drunken bum on a Saturday night, but family? That's a different matter. I never know what to say around my family.

Not to mention it means I can't relate any of the really funny stories about my genetic background.

My mother may also be reading this now. Expect the curses to virtually cease from this point on. No more potty mouth from me, oh no no no. I have to be a good boy now.

Well, that's that for the night. Work tomorrow, then home again to continue writing. I'll let you all know when I hear back from any of the story markets I've submitted to, if I hear back from them. And, of course, another post tomorrow about workign on the Long One, as I've named this project.

Peace,
J.C. Tabler

So I've been absent

It doesn't matter. Nobody really reads this anyhow.

Alright, so we're on the cusp of me getting the rejection from Intergalactic Medicine Show, which should be showing up any day now. In addition, I have a crap story submitted to McSweeney's in a fit of drunken pride, a story out for consideration with Aberrant Dreams, and a fourth just sent out to garner a rejection from Modern Drunkard. Duotrope is the scourge of editors where I am concerned.

The writing has taken a back seat in the last week, primarily because we've been dealing with the baby stuff. Among this was today's experience, where I found out that we're having twins. As I stated to the doctor, I'm screwed. Seriously, I'm an underpaid, oddjob working writer who hasn't sold anything since a low low low paying piece in December. I have no job after June. I need to find something with health insurance and a good pay, as well as finding a new place to live after the kiddos are born.

In other words, I'm back to freaking out. Seriously freaking out. I mean like crying in the corner freaking out.

Short stories are on the backburner right now. I've started a second piece in the "A Question of Freedom" universe that may stretch out to become a novel. I don't know yet. All I know is I'm around 6,000 words in, and it hasn't yet gotten to the main portion of the plot that will serve as the catalyst for the characters and the climax. We'll see what happens, but until I get 50 pages in (if it lasts that long) I don't want to start on any stories that may distract me too much. Starting in March I'm going to work on a few short story ideas that are bumping around, but now isn't the best time to start them. Too much going on for me to stay concentrating on several balls at once.

I'll post more tomorrow after I get a little writing done. I'd like to, if this does go novel length, do a journal on my daily writing struggles. Because of my family, school, and work obligations, my target word count per day is 1,000 to 2,000. Sometimes less, sometimes more. We'll see, right?

So that's the news from Louisville. Now, I'm heading off to bed.

Peace,
J.C. Tabler

HOLY SHIT!

HOLY SHIT, SHE'S PREGNANT!

We think. She'll be going in this week for the blood test. This bumps the wedding date up considerably, as you may guess.

I'm still in shock, so I'll say I sent "The Tribe of Harry" out to garner its lumps in the rejection field today, and then started work on another story set in the same America as "A Question of Freedom".

Now, to go freak out some more.

Peace,

J.C. Tabler