From the Beginning of the Second Wave

Just a few snapshots. I was a little lazy and decided to stay indoors to take the pictures, but you can see what was left from the first wave of snow and what has been added on. Indiana hasn't been hit as bad as some of the other areas of the U.S., but we will see our fair share. Hot chocolate, anyone??

Still Alive

When I get down in the dumps about my career or about writing in general, I usually tell myself and those in the immediate vicinity "At least I'm still alive." That usually generates a few nods, maybe a chuckle. It's important to find a bright spot even when all the dark shadows are closing in on you. I've had that happen to me a few times in this past week.

Work isn't going so well. And because of the precarious position I am in, that's all I will say about that. A major side effect of this current storm is that I have lost a lot of time that I normally devote to fiction, poetry and my general articles for online publishing. Once I get back on track with my main source of income, theses will all fall back into place. I just have to be patient and positive.

Tonight I plan to work on the last three poems I have left to write for Personas. I'm expecting the book (at least my part of it) to be done by the spring. I may need to find a little more inspiration for these poems though -- they are at this point simply titles with an idea or two written underneath or in one instance, just a topic.

Tomorrow I should have an abundance of pictures to post with all of the snow expected to come in to Indiana over the next couple days. The first round I failed to get out there before the neighborhood kids trampled and whizzed over the yard on snowmobiles. Most of those will be digital, but I'm also in the honeymoon phase with my Diana Mini, so once I get that roll developed and scanned, we'll see how those turned out (if at all!).

Successes and Failures

This past week I decided to ramp up my production at work. It doesn't take too much time to add an extra $100 a week to my paycheck. I'm doing this for a very selfish reason -- I want to be able to take a vacation this summer!

With all of this on top of my other ambitions, I feel like there are a few things in my career that have become a sad failure. First, I am terrible at keeping up with a good idea until it works. Those who follow this blog are lucky to get weekly updates since I rarely remember to do it. That's why I am close to labeling my book review blog, Book Review Bin, a failure. The majority of the failure is for two reasons: first, I cannot read nearly as much as I would like to in order to regularly update the blog with new reviews. Second, I have tried to feature book reviews by other people, but I have not followed through with enough promotion to make this an option for regular content.

I am going to try and focus more of my energy into this blog and see if it can become what I envisioned it to be. If not, then I will probably take it down by summer.

Weighing my current successes and failures, I see how much work I still have to do, but it will be worth it to turn all of this projects into better examples of what I can do as a writer.

Thoughts on Salinger

I was sad to hear yesterday that J.D. Salinger had passed. He lived a very long life, but I was also even more interested about him as a person when I heard that he spent most of his life in seclusion -- I never knew that before.

I was unfortunately introduced to Salinger under very unfair circumstances. When I first became a Beatles fan, I learned that The Catcher in the Rye was John Lennon's killer's only excuse for his actions. For years I avoided the book, afraid that it would be a bad influence on me. By the time I got to high school, I was just too curious to continue avoiding it. I picked it up during a free reading time in English class. The book was so compelling that I had to go out and buy my own copy so I could finish it.

Since then I have read it twice and thought that the book captured the essence of teenage angst and confusion. This book and the sudden spotlight on Salinger's life and career will inevitably draw me to his other works, which I have yet to read.

Let's hope this great author will never be forgotten.

The Perfect Dog

A story I have been working on lately includes a main character that has a cat. I wish I knew more about cats, but I'm definitely a dog person. And even though I'm in complete control of my characters, there is no way that this character would ever give up her fluffy kitty for a drooling puppy.

For me, the perfect pet would be a dog. I really admire those that have the space and the patience for retired racing dogs. I met quite a few when I volunteered at an animal rescue shelter in 2003. But with all of their energy, the need for dog medicine and lots of attention, there's no way I could care for one right now. All I have room for is a chihuahua at the moment. And my dog allergies certainly don't help the campaign to get a puppy!

I'm almost tempted to leave this story alone for awhile so that I can learn a little more about cats. I'm a bit resistant, but there's no getting around this. I already have to research Las Vegas and some other interest topics for this story, so why not add cats on top of it? I guess I'll be pretty busy researching this weekend.