I Haven't Posted Anything Significant In a While

Contents:
1. What I've Been Doing with my Writing
2. The Direction My Life is Taking Doesn't Seem to Appear on my Map
3. I Hate My Fucking Job

1. I've been indulging in an orgy of editing and submitting lately. I feel really good about the fact that I've gotten over that mental hurdle that had me too scared and too embarrassed by my own perceived lack of talent to submit anything. I totally credit the Nanos for kicking my butt and helping me find markets and the courage to send stuff to them. It's only a matter of time now before something I've submitted somewhere gets picked up, because it's good writing, goddamnit!

2. I am currently in a weird limbo. Frankly, I think I've got enough talent to be a commercially viable writer. The problem is that I lack the time and the understanding of my family. sees me struggling to make time for my novel, but let's face it - there's only one of me and one of him and a whole house and a garden and two kids and he's got stuff he needs to do as well. In the meantime, I have a boss who spends 12+ hours a day at work, and therefore isn't all that impressed by anyone who does anything less.

I'd love to be able to quit my job and just write, but that doesn't seem to be on the horizon anywhere. My extended family says "But you already finished your novel, right? When is it coming out?" They see people like J.K. Rowling (who took years to write her first novel and another full year to sell it to someone, and then another year for it to hit the market) and see a book a year for a few years and wonder why I can't do the same thing. They don't seem to see the rest of the picture where, by the time you've churned out a best-selling book, you're allowed to quit your job and write full time, and your publisher is willing to assign you editors who will help you through the most time-consuming part of the process - the editing.

But I'm not bitter.

3. The above translates into my looking at the work I get paid to do and think "Why? Why am I knocking myself out for this?" I like the people with whom I work, but I'm not going to feel very bad when I can quit. That probably makes me a horrible person, but there it is, then.