Writer’s Life: Friday Five

1. It has been just over a month since I quit my full-time day job to lower my blood pressure and have more time to write. To those who don’t know my story, no I didn’t win the lottery. Yes, my cardiologist recommended I make a change. I gave up a thirteen year position as a senior support analyst/windows administrator. I accepted a part-time position in the lawn and garden department of a Fortune 500 that has more employees than anyone in the USA. It is an 80% reduction in pay. It is extremely humbling and unbelievably physically demanding. I have not ached and hurt this much on a daily basis since I was a young second lieutenant in the US Army going through the Airborne Course (Class 37-76) at the US Army Infantry School.

2. On the home front it is challenging. I feel like I have enough money for this transition. My spouse is supportive as my blood pressure has been great since leaving the full-time day job. My spouse is a fiscal conservative. That is a good thing. I don’t have the miscellaneous “petty cash” I was use to. Starbucks is no longer a daily pleasure, but now an infrequent luxury. I hope to physically adjust to the new part-time day job soon, I am having a tough time on this front, plus my ego gets in the way. I don’t like being the new person. I prefer being treated with more esteem by coworkers and customers. I think “Don’t you know I have three college degrees?” My ego and pride get in the way. I must remember Kris  Kristofferson worked as a custodian. John Steinbeck worked odd jobs. William Faulkner struggled financially before winning the Nobel Prize in Literature. He wrote screenplays which he hated doing. So, I guess I am in good company. It motivates me to write, write, and submit.

3. What about my writing? After all that’s why I made the change. Yes, I write. Yes, I write regularly. To quote the author Sandra Brown, “What do you want? What are you willing to give up to get it?” She said this at the 2011 DFWCon sponsored by the DFW Writer’s Workshop. At thew same DFWCon she said, “You can only write by putting words on a paper one at a time” and “Be prepared to work hard to be a writer”. Here’s my submission record for the last month:

a) A short story “Grits for Breakfast” was submitted to “The Drabblecast”. The rejection email arrive in record time. They said no thank you in less than two days.

b) A poem “The Dry Creek Bed” was submitted to “Gulf Coast Magazine”. It is the literary journal of the University of Houston.  Awaiting acceptance is the current state of the query.

c) I sent a query to Cladlach Publishing  for a  book “Honor and Jealousy in Texas”.  I  am waiting for Cathy Lawton’s (the publisher) reply. The book has 70,000 words completed.

d) A short story “Grits for Breakfast” was submitted to”Stupefying Stories”. It was submitted two days after being rejected by another publisher. I received a reply that it was forwarded to the review committee. I should hear back by the end of March. This is a “pro-paying” market. Yes, I get a rejected story out a quickly as possible to another market.

4. Published

a) “The Day My Dad Told Me He Should Have Called First” was published in “The Dead Mule    School for Southern Literature”  (ISSN 1535-8488) March 2012 issue. It was submitted last October.

b) “Sugar Daddy” was published in “The Dead Mule School for Southern Literature”  (ISSN 1535-8488) March 2012 issue. It was submitted last October.

c) Kepler, Jimmie A.”Tiger Tank Manual: Panzerkampfwagen VI Tiger 1 Ausf.E (SdKfz 181) Model (Owner’s Workshop Manual)” by David Fletcher, David Wiley and Mike Hayden” In Kepler’s Military History Book Reviews. 29 February 2012.

5. Note: Two poems previously accepted by the United Kingdom publication “The Beatnik” titled – “Gone Electric” (about Bob Dylan)  and Dead on the Floor (about Janis Joplin) were slated for publication in February. The magazine in on hiatus (ceased publishing) and returned the first rights to me. I am looking for the right market before I resubmit. I have attending the Dallas Writing Practice Group each week.