Cobweboscopy...

I got a piece of mail the other day which drove away a good percentage of my depression spiders. It was my first professional rejection letter! Now those of you who know me may think I have ample experience with rejection already, but this was entirely different. It marked a transition, a really important milestone in my glorious destiny. No longer am I just a neophyte writer with delusional dreams of achieving adequacy. Now I join the ranks of the Rejected, and nothing feels the same. Now its just a matter of hand-cramping labor, chutzpah, and ridiculous amounts of postage before the next step into the Published (and maybe Paid) category.

My submitted story was the Mighty Wingman story.
Here is the rejection letter.

In terms of the rest of life, I restarted classes on Saturday. My dire financial picture only allowed me to take three classes this semester, but so far they look like really good ones. I'm pretty excited about Photography, even if it has nothing to do with my future plans, and my advanced programming classes are starting at a nice brisk pace that will hopefully keep my interest. I got a job slinging insurance that starts on the 16th that pays decently, so my money woes may go the way of the dodo soon.

All in all, things are looking peachy(ish). Isn't this when the rain of fire is supposed to hit me?

Jason

P.S. Stages of writing (in my mind at least): Unwriting --> Writing --> Rejected --> Published/Paid --> Career --> Famous --> Household Name --> Puissant --> God-like.
See, just a logical progression! }:)

Funkalactical...

Remember all of that mess I typed about getting back to work? Well, you can scrap that idea! I've been doing everything in my power to actually avoid doing any kind of work on my writing. Been feeling pretty down in the dumps, and it just makes me want to do things of a mind-numbing nature. I'm almost all caught up on my downloaded TV shows, I've actually spent some time playing video games, I went on a few job interviews, etc. etc...
I was even ignoring ideas for stories when they came! But I'm afraid my brain decided to crack the whip on me. I had a veritable mindquake in the shower today. Several ideas all forced their way into my mind, hacking and slashing each other in the quest to gain my attention. Totally different concepts started to bleed and blend into each other, a vortex of imagination thundering against the walls of my skull. The result was an unrecognizable mishmash, a mutant abomination containing dozens of components in a dysergistic babble.

It took me quite a while (along with prudent mental use of a crowbar, blowtorch, and jack hammer combo) to clean it all up. I won't make the mistake of forgetting who's in charge here again. Hopefully.

Jason

P.S. I had this idea for a video game series a few weeks back, only to find out that someone is coming out with it in a few months. Cursed mindreaders!!! }:)

Hyperthinking...

In all the hubbub and depth of our lives, it's important to not take ourselves too seriously. It's too easy to assign our goals 'Golden Fleece' level importance. We're not Argonauts, we're just sifting through our scribblings for nuggets. Not necessarily gold or silver, but we're definitely looking for something other than slag or stone. Sometimes, the dream can be all-consuming and fill our thoughts with the fires of creation. But a holy quest?
This is a central point for me to keep in my head. Too often, I categorize, schedule, analyze, prioritize, evaluate, and otherwise hold my thoughts down on the ground and pummel them into submission. Where is the room in all that for the purity of the thought? In my travels around the web I see literature, which of course runs the gamut from the divine to the dreadful. Then I see analysis of literature, which has a similar range, if tilted a lot farther towards the circular file end of the spectrum. But the other day, I saw an analysis of previous analyses of a piece of literature! What ever happened to reading for enjoyment? I mean, immortal fame concerns aside, isn't entertaining what we want our work to be? And by entertaining I mean any of the hundred types of entertainment. Fun, shocking, hilarious, sad, disgusting, horrible, amusing, disturbing, tearjerking, exciting, provoking, thrilling, scaring... Any of these or their brethren, or any combination thereof will work for me.

Jason

P.S. "Let the Force flow..." SDG. (Some Dead Guy)