A Cat in The Lap

There are times when I struggle to accomplish things during the week

There are times when I struggle to accomplish things by years end.

And there are times when I recognize that I may never accomplish, or repair, what has been done in life.

This week is the first time in four months in a new position that I have had some semblance of a Saturday to myself. Not before time too. I completed (almost) all of my work by noon, cleaned, did chores, and this evening, started to write. No sooner had I started writing did my companion - Jacob the Cat, come and began critiquing my work. He would usually perch himself on the printer and look down on my work space. The printer is broken so he plopped in my lap.

A Cat in the Lap seems like almost a good title for an enjoyable read.

Much better than trying to rewrite history.

I Bought A Car

I bought a car.

Not for my wife.
Not because I have a child.
Not because I have a family.
Not because I'm getting a divorce.
Not because I'm crippled by child support.
Not because I'm immigrating.
Not because I'm remarrying.
Not because my daughters need transport.
Not because another car died.
Not because I'm out of paying child support.

I bought a car.

This time, it was for me.

Why I Write

I write not to release the demons within me,

But rather to resolve the conflict the demons have brought.

September 11

Sixteen years ago today, the world stopped.

 I know exactly where I was when I first heard of September 11. I know who I was talking to. I know what I did.

I know know what the effect of that day was upon me.

This morning, I set about my day heading for surgery when the names of the heroes of United Flight 93 were being run across the screen.  People who had a glimpse of what had happened elsewhere, powerless to help them, but did their own thing.

For All Mankind.

And it struck me. My forefathers before me had their own pivotal moments in time. World War 1. Sir Robert Menzies "and as a result, Australia is also at war." Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The wars of my forefathers, are now my wars. Children who are in school have no knowledge of how much September 11 changed everyone's way of life.

May they never have to tell their children of their own war.

How Far Will You Go To Write?

How far will you go to write?

Will you...

• give up your country?
• take a chance on an untested ability? 
• maintain a day job that can, on occasion, take your writing time away?

Since movng to the United States, I have never worked as hard as I have recently. It's not about just making a wage, it's not about saving for a rainy day, it's about volume.

The volume of work - do more with less for the same amount.  How far can an employer go?

I have recently lost a lot of my writing time, not though neglect. not through disinterest...but through work. Forty days and night have been lost. I went forty days without writing.

Oh, the humanity.

How far will you to go write?

Techincal Difficulties

There are a number of organizations for whom I write for.

There are a number of organizations for whom I entrust my writing to.

And there are two organizations where I am currently witting as a development point. For the past few months, I have been crafting science fiction, developing a first person story telling trait which has been, historically, a harsher genre to write in.

Now I am perplexed by a technical issue that has prevented me from uploading the story for the past three weeks, despite the story gaining viewer traction.

A Gateway error is preventing me from accessing the server in which the story resides.

The story is still being written, it's not in the public forum.

I need to write a resolution to a technical difficulty.

What I Do, What I Write

Next week, I travel interstate for a conference which pertains to my "day job". While it is no secret about what I do - a quick search of Google will show that - there is very little writing about my work.

Conversely, twenty years ago, I was in an environment which now has numerous appearances in a variety of genres - self help, family, motivation and science fiction. How is that I was able to turn a career into profitable works?

I wrote about work.

The New York Times in 2014 wrote that "just being a novelist is a lot harder than it looks". Never has this been more apparent when people inevitable ask me what I do to support my writing. Again, it's no secret, but what I actually do - well, that needs to stay on the 'down low'.

This week I started working on a piece of speculative fiction and several thousand words in, I recognized that had I been sitting at a Starbucks writing, (as most writers seem to be identified as commencing there) any Tom, Dick or terrorist in the area would have been able to see "what I actually do".

Delete.

Our Nations Security, is far more important, than anything that I might write in the imaginative world of the Saturn Sector.