Current mood:	sleepy
Current music:	Smashing Pumpkins - "7 Shades of Black"

Sword of Distractions +5 (usable by: lazy writers only)

No writing has been done since my last post. I'm so out of practice that even writing this is taxing my brain, which is already close to melting point. 

Things have just been hectic recently. We're insanely busy at work, so I've been putting in nearly 50 hours a week, which leaves me feeling pretty exhausted and not very creative. The only free time I tend to get at the moment is in the evenings at about 10, but that is spent with Jelly exploring the exotic land of Elona in Guild Wars: Nightfall. I've also been wasting time messing around with Facebook, which is rather despressingly addictive. 

My better half said to me this week, "You know what your problem is? You have an obsessive personality." She didn't mean this in the sense that I am minorly obsessive compulsive (which I am) but in the sense that I'm either doing something all the time, or not at all. When I thought about this, I realised she was right - I'm either writing every day, or not at all. I'm either playing Guildwars every day for a couple of hours, or not all. There is no halfway point. I don't seem capable of writing some nights and playing Guildwars the rest of the time. I think this fits the way I look at things; I don't believe in half measures. I'm either right behind something or I'm not behind it all. Perhaps if I could multi-task it might mean I get more writing done, but I'm just too single-minded. 

I got an email back from Howard at Black Gate about 'A Song for the Dead' after I emailed him the final version a few weeks ago. He said that he remembers our correspondence from a few months back, but at the moment is unable to consider my story due to the backlog of submissions they have to get through. He recommended that I wait until the end of the year and submit it again. All well and good, but the thought of waiting 6 months, sending out the story and waiting another 3 months only to get another rejection (probably) seems a little too sadistic even for me. I think I'll have to try and find another place to send it. Maybe Interzone, they're always good for a quick rejection letter. No news yet on Ashes, still with Aberrant Dreams...but then again they have a 5 month *sigh* response time...so we're only 2/3 months in.

You can't go anywhere at the moment without seeing the new Harry Potter book. I used to hate Harry Potter with a passion, but these days I appreciate it for what it is - a damn fine idea. The whole notion of a boy at wizard school seems like such a simple idea, you almost feel like slapping yourself and thinking "Why didn't I think of that?!" It would be amazing to enjoy the popularity that J.K. Rowling has. 

The money would be nice too.