071907

45th Street

45th Street

45th Street

Astoria, Queens

Astoria, Queens

odds

Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards. - Soren Kierkegaard

Always outnumbered, always outgunned. The odds might be stacked, but that's never been a deterrent. The challenge is welcome.

Post-college in Buffalo, lucky if I had forty dollars in my wallet. Working the McJob for rent, bills, gas, and the next six pack and Chinese take-out order. But I had ideas, and sketched a plan, and off I went across the country to San Francisco to attend film school. Fifteen hundred dollars to my name. The student loan came through, and a job and a place to live followed. I spent over three years there. I succeeded, against the odds and the expectations of other people.

Off to New York City in mid-'97. This time with a few grand to get started. The apartment came quickly, and work a couple months later. Ten years and a couple jobs and a few emotional trials and tribulations later, a new transition. New circumstances, new possibilities. Oh, I remain rooted here in New York, for now. But the book. My book. It's coming. How will potential readers react to it? What about the reviews? How will it sell? Will the promotion plans and the PR firm help spread the word of Ache like a meme?

I've done it myself for so long. Now there's help. Support. It doesn't mean it's going to be easy. It means it lowers the odds.

Yeah, there's those odds again. Here I sit on a muggy Sunday afternoon and I smirk as I write this. Then I have to smile as the reality sinks in and takes hold. The challenge actually makes me happy.

Outnumbered. Outgunned. So what? I'm ready.

enkindle

The heat. The sweltering heat. It's a good thing I bought a pair of loose linen pants to wear in this oppressive weather.

Summer turns me upside down. And other than suffering in the throes of summer...

The rewrite and edits of Ache continue in preparation for its publication. Presently, we are aiming for a release date at the beginning of Autumn - hopefully September 25, 2007. So many small changes make such a large difference in the overall tone and scope of the story.

The Empty Spaces short story cycle (to initially appear on editred.com) is underway. The first, Office, is almost ready to be posted. I wasn't certain about my ability to write short stories at first. Many of my ideas are grand in scheme and usually could encompass the span of a novel. But I have found that writing short stories - or at least the attempt to do so - helps to hone the craft and purge a build-up of ideas. These ideas, of course, can be spun into longer works if they lend themselves to such.

Back into the fray of the workweek after a relaxing and... desultory... five days off.

And there's an amusing anecdote (well, I found it amusing) I must relate - a spam email today in my inbox with the subject line: "Get a new pair of clogs-they're super comfy." Tempting... but my Dutch heritage notwithstanding, I'll stick with my current footwear, thanks.

Oh, did I mention the heat?