It’s taken all week, but I finally think I’m getting the hang of this new life. Last week was all about figuring out just how much other shit can eat into my day when I don’t have a day job. This week has been about actually getting shit done.

So far this week I’ve –

Finished and submitted a short story to a steampunk anthology

Finished the novella about the teenage assassin, Cindy Slaughter (now a nickname based on your preferences)

Gotten to within spitting distance of finishing the rough draft of Black Knight IV: Paint it Black. I’m well into Act III of the book at this point, and expect to be done with it before I fly to Vegas next Friday.

Written more words of fiction than I did in all of March. Not that my word count for April is impressive (about 22K so far), but March sucked out loud, what with travel and illness and all that jazz.

Finally gotten around to listing the Big Bad anthology with Duotrope. If you’re a writer and you’re submitting work to anthologies and magazines, Duotrope is the best resource in the world. And now that I’ve listed the anthology on there, I’ve gotten more submissions in 48 hours than I did in the first 12 weeks submissions were open.

Gotten back to reviewing submissions for Red Dirt Review. I’d gotten ahead, then gotten behind again. Now I’ll spend time this weekend catching up.

Registered for the NAB conference so that I can get this marketing business rolling.

Edited a revision of Genesis that I should have done before I put the book on sale. But I suck, so that didn’t happen.

Planned out bad guys for the next dozen or more Bubba stories, insuring that I have no BS writer’s block excuse to keep me from churning words with that character.

Started planting the seeds for a longer Bubba story, or at least a bigger arc that explains how he came to be a Monster Hunter, what makes him the way he is, and why he likes strippers so much. But really, there are pretty obvious reasons he likes strippers. They’re called boobs.

Next on the plate is dealing with COBRA, getting a crown on one tooth (yay!), dealing with cashing out my 401(k) (yes, I know the penalties, but I also know what I make and how long it will take for my income to catch up to my expenses, so cashing out the 401(k) is a big part of this career change plan, and getting on the artist’s calendar to get my phoenix tattoo finished up.

Then I go to Vegas next Friday. Lemme know if you’ll be there then, we should grab a drink.

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