Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Let's Go A-Mangoing!

Had a sparkling idea the other day. In the past, I've mostly taken my vacation time in one to four hour increments so I could cut out of a boring day at work. This year, I needed to take a week off to move and that very move fouled up my plans for MuchoMangoMayo 2014, which were already contingent plans. The other day I thought, "Why not take another week off?"

I asked around at work, certain it would screw something up for somebody. Fortunately, I'm delightfully unnecessary! So I'm taking the first full week of May off and I can get the fibrous bulk of MMM 2014 done then. Hooray! The only thing that could—wait, not the only thing. One of the things that could screw everything up is if I get chosen for jury duty next week and get stuck in a trial that lasts for weeks.

MuchoMangoJunio.

Hmmmm . . .

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Poster Syndrome

Sorry I haven't been here in a couple of months. I moved across town and it was hairy working that around my day job. I did take a week off, but then all sorts of awesome people I usually don't see were in town and available, so they took precedence.

I went to ICFA a couple of weeks ago, hung out with old friends, made new ones, spent too much money on books, had the most magnificent steak of my life, soaked in Ellen Klages' tales of Clarion down under, and got brain freeze with Ian McDonald. It was awesome.

Because of these things and my short story writing frenzy the first two months of this year, I am, as usual, way the hell behind on Mangoes. My boss, who's a fan of the show, says I was even farther behind last year. I still have to record all four April shows (yes, there will be an April 30th show this year), and of the thirty-one shows I need for MuchoMangoMayo, I've only finished writing the first one yesterday! I hope to have the second done today.

I inadvertently shot off story 148 of The One-Thousand the other day. It was a twitter story and I submitted it before even realizing I'd taken another step toward my goal.

The Boy made supper for me today. Ravioli and garlic bread. A nice surprise for my exhausted ass. And for the rest of me as well.

Another Cerberus story is nearing completion! I always have to check the spelling on that. Being a comic book geek, I always want to write Cerebus. It's a fine line between a three-headed dog and a talking aardvark. Anyway, the current version of the story is deep and cloudy (that's good). My esteemed co-authors have begun to write some things that are just beyond my comprehension and I'm loving it.

I have other writer friends and acquaintances who talk about having imposter syndrome, which is crazy, because they're all great, published writers. I was explaining to one friend recently that I've always had the opposite problem. I'm convinced that I'm much better than I actually am, and why hasn't the world recognized my genius? Rather than living in fear of being caught, I live in disappointment for not being caught. How boring life would be if we were all satisfied. Embrace your issues. Hold them tightly. Love 'em up.