Tomorrow I start the new, in Athens (technically Bogart, but let's not pick hairs--even you ape/monkey readers, stop grooming yourselves and pay attention) job. I can say with all honesty I don't miss the old job (though in the past couple weeks after my new job training was pushed back I did mess money coming in weekly) and I figured out why. The obvious answer was "of course I'm not going to miss working with business forms--it was just a job to hold me over until grad school." But that was part of the problem. It was a job taken soley for the purpose of getting a paycheck. Worse, a dead-end job with no in-house promotional oppurtunities. Couple that with the fact that for the final couple of months I had a commute that started before 6am and ended with me getting home around 7pm, and you've got a pretty good "this sucks" recipe.
But the good news is I'm not in the situation I should've been in a year ago: working a decent Athens job (with actual promotional oppurtunities) plus free time to write. And with a fresh start like that, the writer's block excuse must go.
In a month (thanks to the good folks at Cafe Express) I should have a book of collected Red and Black columns (with updated commentary from yrs trly, and maybe a few new things.) While I remain somewhat stumped on the whole coming up with short story ideas front, I've decided the best way around that is twofold: read more short stories (Dave Eggers collection is next on the list, currently I'm reading from Murakami's The Elephant Vanishes) and since I have ideas for longer-form things, I'm going to stop beating myself up over a lack of short-story production, work on what's coming to me and with some luck perhaps some publishable vignettes will emerge.
Now, anyone got any good ideas/suggestions for a collection of humor columns?
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Random legal note: you do realize that the R&B technically owns all of those columns so before you actually get an ISBN number and sell your book, you'll have to get their permission, right? Shouldn't be an issue, but Harry'll have to sign something.
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