Delays, Delays, Delays

I will finish the Grinder story, damn it. I swear it. I just have to find two seconds to do it in. Yesterday I took the day off intending to sit down and get it out, start on revising, and start on a comedic Mythos piece that popped in my head the other day. What happened, as I was staring at the T.V. in the A.M. hours, was my friend and his wife called to tell me their car had died downtown in a parking garage after a job interview. Since Desi and I are the only friends they have that don't live in the suburbs, it was up to us. So I packed up my pregnant wife and five year old, thinking it would be a quick jump and then we could have a family lunch somewhere before I went home to work on that story.

Eight hours later, we finally had his battery replaced. Seems my buddy had dozed off listening to the radio while his wife was in her interview. It was drained flat, not even enough juice to hook tiny jumper cables up to a mouse's nipples and coax out intimate secrets. So we have to get the battery off...but it was under a stress bar and in an awkward place, and assuming it would be a jump I hadn't brought my toolbox. Back home go I, to return and find out the terminal posts are stripped, so I had to wander downtown in search of channel lock pliers. Finding and purchasing them was easy, but then the batery had to be charged by a local auto parts store, then replaced. Eight hours after setting out to give them a jump, we finally got home. I was tired, and after giving Sophie a bath went straight to bed.

So tonight, while the wife and kiddo are out at my sister's wedding shower, I'll be finishing up the Grinder story and starting revisions on it...or finishing it, setting it aside to get revised over the weekend, and leaping into the first draft of my Mythos story, as I have another story being outlined right now, and the Truck Stop Story is waiting to be written still. I can't slow down now, I'm already a week behind schedule.

Oh, yeah, as a sidenote, I got a job with Humana Insurance in their Medicare Customer Service department. I can't talk about the pay, but I can say it's enough that "We ain't po' no mo'."

Now, to devour my McDonald's.

Peace,
J.C. Tabler

Productive Day

Went to the doctor yesterday to make sure my wife isn't going to fall apart. She's healthy, babies are healthy, however I stepped on the scale and was amazed at how much those little numbers kept going up. I'm going to act like an overly-dramatic southern belle instead of the stubble-strewn, bourbon drinking man that I am and refuse to say my exact weight. What it is suffice to say, though, is that I am closer to 300 lbs than 200 lbs, and am now in shock that I let myself go to that extent. Gym membership here I come, and I might even actually use it.

As for other things, I still haven't heard back about the Contract Load job. I have another phone interview (man I hate those things) today for a "Customer Service" slot that I don't especially think will have me jumping for joy, but it'd be a job. I sat down after getting home yesterday and started typing on a niggle of an idea on what that previously posted picture could be. I'm now roughly 5,000 words into the rough draft, and am still working towards a conclusion. Sure, it'll get trimmed in revision, but c'mon, 5,000 words in one day with only an hour's break to watch Jerry Springer in between? That ain't too bad.

Still waiting to hear from Voices on whether my triumph ends on the short list. Like I said, I'm happy just to be nominated.

Back to work,

J.C. Tabler

Run for the Roses

So it's almost Derby here in Louisville, Kentucky, and while the horses dance in their stalls the jackasses wander the streets clad in garish suits of expensive cut, fueled by bourbon and boorish manners. My reaction has been to write, again, though I'm not making much headway.

Still waiting on rejections. In the meantime, I pounded out a short rough of another story that needs some expanding, but not too much. I'll most likely work on that for the next couple days, fleshing it a little more and smoothing out some rough spots. There's no excuse for me rushing through the first draft, other than I was on a roll when I started writing it, and wanted to get at least the major plot points down while the idea was fresh. A few extra paragraphs, some trimming of the fat and some rewording, and that'll be all she wrote on it. We'll see if it turns out as well as I think it will.

Job interview on the phone went well yesterday. They're passing my resume on up the ladder to see if they want to call me in for a face-to-face interview concerning the job. AFL-CIO accepted me for their second round of interview/training in June if I want to go. However, none of it is happening fast enough. Last week's illness has caused a major hit to the pocketbook, and rent is due tomorrow, so we're scraping and crying as that $1500.00 may be a few more days (or weeks. I hate office politics) in getting to my bank account. So we've got to come up with the rent, then another $200.00 to keep the power on. We'll live, we have so far. It's just tight around the house while I'm looking for work. But I'm not complaining. I've got neighbors, friends, and family willing to lend us a little cash if we need to, but I hate taking money even if I need it. I've placed a moratorium on Ebay, to the point that it is no longer accessible on our computer. I'm trying...just trying...to keep my head afloat for another week or two here.

Alright, complaints done. I'll be writing tonight, then starting in on a little bit of planning for anohter short story, another horror piece, that sorta leaped into my mind the other day. Needs some serious developing, but I know there's a story behind that image. Peace, J.C. Tabler

Edit 13:19 05/01/08

Going through a website or two of abandoned hotel photos, I found this picture. I don't know why, but there's something inherently creepy about this image. Especially that chair. Hence the reason that it has kicked the horror portion of my mind open again, and started sprinkling story dust. Yes, although I mainly enjoy listening to music while writing, today I think a story idea has started with this one picture.


Steal it, and I swear I'll kill you. It's just too bad this sucker is too late for Voices.

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