Whew! I’m done with draft one! I have hours a day free, and weeks before vacation consumes my time as a hippo consumes marbles. Whatever will I do with myself?

My natural response when I asked myself that question was: drug addiction. I’m unemployed, now would be a good time! That is what people do when they are unemployed, yes? Unfortunately I have no howling void within my soul that demands to be filled.

So.

• Learn how to play bluegrass guitar. I’ve got a family reunion in Iowa in July. Evidently my mother’s side of the family is full of skilled bluegrass musicians, and the reunion is one long jam session. I’ve got a beautiful guitar and a clamorous amplifier. I should put my mouth where my money is, so to speak. TANSTAAFL Pub in town has weekly bluegrass jam sessions. So. Time to practice.
• Read my friend Jason’s novel. I’ve been critiquing it since December. Bad, bad Jens. Finish tout de suite! Especially as we’re visiting him and his wife and kid this July. It would be most embarrassing to have not yet finished. It’s pretty good, and a pleasure to read! But critiques take time take time take time.
• Read. I’ve spent maybe five hundred bucks on books since our return. Time to put my eyeballs where my money is. It is a joy to read with no demands on your time, with no pressure of needing to do other things. Lordy, I better not ever have kids.
• Video games. How is it I am unemployed and still don’t have time to play all the video games I want? I’m hip-deep in The Saboteur, which is glorious though wounded, like a twelve-point buck with an arrow through its liver. Also, Bioshock 2, Mass Effect 2, et cetera ad nauseum.
• Go outside some. I went to a state park last weekend, did a trail run, swam, hiked. It was a blast. I am forcing myself to enjoy the outdoors and finding, to my delight, that I do not have to force myself. Tomorrow I am going mountain biking even though no one is making me.

And in terms of writing:

• This late summer I’ll be doing revisions of this Aetheria novel (still needs a name) and Khatima. Revisions are fun. No problem.
• Maybe a short story or two before I head out on vacation, and maybe a few more whilst vacationing.
• This fall I’ll be writing a cooperative… collaborative… novel with Talented Friend Alex Burns. We’ve been talking about this for, like, a year now. Can’t wait. We’ll be taking a few days later this month for intense brainstorming sessions. We’ll lock ourselves in a room and not come out until we have an outline. Bread and water will be passed in on trays.

And in the long, long term:

• I’ll be doing another collaborative novel with Niles Bliss, a friend from my time in Korea. He maintains a funny, insightful music blog. I read some of his short fiction, loved it. We like much of the same fiction and have complementary writing skills, I think, so I expect that to be an interesting and fruitful endeavor.
• My novel idea involving HH Holmes and Boston Corbett, following the years of Corbett’s life after he disappears from the Kansas insane asylum. I keep collecting books and ideas for this, and it keeps sounding better and more interesting. The soul of America is at stake!
• This first novel set in Aetheria is nothing if not a series-starter. More to come, definitely, especially considering the ending. Wow!
• Others.

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