Regularly Scheduled Post

I think.  I'm not exactly sure when my update schedule is, anymore.  

It's finally summer in Arizona.  And it is hot outside.  So hot that I don't feel like doing anything, so hot that it's uncomfortable.  My mind is a pile of hot sludge, my body is more sweat than skin.  What do I do?  How do I write under these conditions?  

I've been looking for jobs, recently.  That's right, folks.  I, officially, have Stepped It Up A Notch.  Well, maybe unofficially.  I've been going to Craigslist, looking at writing jobs.  I spent hours reading awful Patterson books to learn how to 'Pattersonize' my own writing.  I looked up the legality of unpaid internships before responding to one...  I don't think I'm going to hear back from them.  I submitted a story to an actual magazine and am still waiting to hear back.  This is the first time I have ever submitted anything to anyone, besides a open call for my community college to publish in their literary magazine.  I got in the top ten, but I was not published.  I am Serious.

And that got me to thinking, what else can I be doing?  I'm blogging more, I'm writing more, I'm going to other blogs more, and I'm finally trying to get myself out there.  I'm looking into getting one or two short stories self published, just to have something out there that has my name on it.  In fact, I have a vague date planned for one of them, a strange little story, and that will be available on Smashwords (something I just found today) in a couple of days.  For free, if I didn't mention that.  Absolutely, 100% for free.  So, stay posted.  I'll be very vocal when that happens.  

I think I've mentioned that I've been trying to be a little more of a presence on other blogs.  Not much of one, really, when I say 'presence' I mean that I've gone to a blog or two and left a comment, and the biggest thing it's done for me is to remind me that I'm not a very good social networker.  So, you know what?  I'm going to stop having that as my goal.  I'm a writer.  First and foremost, I'm a writer.  I like blogging, and I've gotten to enjoy reading other posts and leaving comments that actually have to do with what was written, and just isn't some excuse to try and get people to get to my blog.  This doesn't have to be big.  I like it as something just a little private, a little personal.  This is me.  This isn't advice from someone who has blog posts scheduled for the next two weeks.  I write these things and 'publish' them without looking at them twice.  I don't have any wisdom to dispense, nothing to sell, no advice for anyone else that they haven't heard a million times before.  Oh well.  I'm okay with that.  I'm on my own path, and I'll get there in my own way.  

That's where jobs come in.  I'm looking into becoming a contributor for a writing blog (for free, with the tentative promise of future pay).  I'm sending emails to people looking for writers, I've done ridiculous things to try and get enough experience to do something that people wouldn't mind actually paying for.  So, I'm still trying.  I haven't given up hope.  I'm just not going to stress about it anymore.  One of these things that I'm doing is the right thing to do, I know it.  I just don't know which one yet.  

If you got this far, thanks for listening to me ramble.  I've been torn between writing the same kind of stuff that everyone else seems to be writing, and just being myself.  I'm just going to be myself.