Day in the Life

The lady across the street was outside. We liked her, even had an affectionate nickname we called her behind closed doors, dealing with the amount of tobacco she could ingest in one short sitting. Her dog is four years old, a terrifying looking beast that is sweeter than honey.

She - the dog - is best friends with our puppy. He used to be afraid of her, but now that they're the same size, he likes to run as hard as he can to make her chase him. She bites him on the ruff and leaves long tracks of drool. Great.

We don't say much to each other while our dogs visit. It's merely a companionable moment of time, filled with excited canines and banalities.

Her head turns to me, blonde hair dancing slightly in the breeze. "So," she asks, awkwardly. I feel a moment of alarm. This seems like the intro to a Big Question. No place for that in our banalities.

"What exactly do you do?"

I glance down to the pavement. I'm a little ashamed, to be honest. I'm not where I thought I'd be when I finished college 6 years ago - graduating a semester ahead of my incoming class. I spent three years in a foreign country, seeing the world and learning about myself. I grew up, but what do I do? It was a question that struck fear into my heart.

I cleared my throat, stalling. "I... deliver pizza." I said it, but it sounded hollow. She blinked at me, as if I were lying. Trust me, I thought, with a vocabulary like mine, I understand your confusion.

"Oh." Seriousness sloughed away. She was content with the answer. "Okay."

Tell her the truth, my conscious whispered. Tell her what you really do.

I shouldn't hide it. I should tell her. My conscious was correct - why was I afraid? Did I think she would judge me? What did I care? If I spent all that time across the ocean and couldn't even stand up for my beliefs, what had I really learned?

I cleared my throat again, meaningfully. My voice exploded from my mouth in ringing tones, surprising even myself.

"Wait," I boomed, her back was starting to show to me. I might lose my moment, the window where I could show I was not a coward. She looked back, a wary query in her eyes.

I squared my shoulders and took a deep breath. "Actually, I am an author."

Days of Freedom

It's been a little rough at work this week.  I worked 26 hours in the last 3 days and 6 of them were yesterday...

Needless to say, I slept in today.  The poor puppy woke me up with his whining because it was past his breakfast time :(  Sorry Ajax!

Today I'm mostly relaxing and getting my lazy on.  When my fiance and I ended up finally at home for the night, yesterday, I was so darn tired!  I begged to be let out of my writing for the day, promising three chapters today.  Well, I got a pass, and now I have to write three chapters!  Ha ha ha... oooh...

I've gotten the house cleaned up a little.  I really hope to be a full-time author one day, because our house will be so much cleaner then!  Though, if I had free time all the time, maybe I would be lazy and get less writing done?  In case my fiance reads this post... that last sentence was just a joke.  Ha, ha!!

In writing related news... no chapters yet.  However (here you should picture me triumphantly piercing the sky with a jabbing forefinger) I did make an outline of how to end my book.  I never make outlines, the story is always floating on waves of imagination through my brain.  But, I'm getting down to the last bits and I want to make sure everything is in its correct place - especially since this will be the first novel I've ever finished.

If all goes according to outline, this book will be finished in 8 (eight!) chapters.  I just had a small moment of foreboding there, so I had to spell out eight.  8 is too close to the sign for infinity, and I don't want infinity chapters until I'm done...

I think it will probably be closer to 9, but we shall see.

Also, for those interested, here is my current (as in, in progress) reading list:

(Hardcover) The Heretic's Daughter, Kathleen Kent
(Borrowed, hardcover) The Host, Stephanie Meyer (I have not, and will never, read Twilight, so don't ask)
(Hardcover) The Monster Book of Zombies, anthology
(Hardcover) A Whisper of Blood, anthology
(Kindle) The Hangman's Daughter, Oliver Potzsch (umlaut over the o in the last name, laaaazy)
(Kindle, free) Bright of the Sky, Kay Kenyon

I know there are more, but some of them are actual printed books and got lost in the shuffle in the house...

In my Kindle sample queue:

The Demon Queen and the Locksmith, Spencer Baum
Amber Magic, B.V. Larson
The Gift of Fury, Richard Jackson
Silver Thaw, Amy Rose Davis
The Black God's War, Moses Siregar III