New Places, New Ideas

Now Playing: TOLD YOU SO by Drowning Pool
Just Read: VORTEX by Robert Charles Wilson--Very entertaining read, but different from the other two books in the series. Spin was the best, Axis the worst, Vortex perhaps the most fun.
Reading Now: THE CUCKOO'S CALLING by Robert Galbraith

Grad school is coming to a head--six months left until graduation! In many ways this is awesome, but the workload only increases until the final day. I've got a large final project and paper, a summer of studying before boards, and classes with their own tests along the way until then.

I'm trying to find time to write, but the chances are few and far between. I had a talk with my cousin, who's a musician, about this kind of thing, and he encouraged me to not put too much pressure on myself. He said these kinds of life-centered road blocks happen, and that it's okay because they won't be around forever. He learned, in his case, to play a few chords here and there to stay in love with the craft, then to get back to it whenever life calmed down.

This week I flew out to Arizona for a nurse anesthesia conference, and while here I decided I wanted to get the next book by Beth Cato. She was a member of Write1Sub1 back in the day, and since then she's published a few novels, and I'm a big fan, and not just because we were both in the same online community of writers, which gives me hope that I could publish too, before long. She's really good!

I got to a local bookstore called The Poisoned Pen, and it turns out they were having a book signing by a science fiction writer named Tom Sweterlitsch. So I stayed, listened, talked with him, loved the premise of his book "The Gone World," and bought it. Of course I got it signed. He was great to listen to, and I'm looking forward to reading his book.

Then I got home and opened Beth Cato's book and found out that IT was signed as well! Woohoo!

Being in a strange place around new science fiction writers is inspiring to me. It energizes me and makes me want to think about new stories, and to write them. I have one in mind now that mixes space travel, villainy, and virtual reality. We'll see if I can get it on paper and edited before the March WotF deadline. That's the hope! Here's to trying.