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This blog keeps me in touch with WDC. Jamesdillingham.com keeps me in touch elsewhere. |
| I like to stay in touch with WDC, even when I'm not contributing on a daily basis. My main blog is at jamesdillingham.blogspot.com |
| Here is a tip of the hat to all of you mothers out there. Being a good mom is easily the most important job that has ever existed. Kids depend on you and so do dads. Without you, we are adrift without a compass. Thanks for steering us safely through the sometimes shallow waters of life. Cheers, Jim |
| It's nearly time to go home. It is day 11 of my 11 day business trip. I am in Albany, New York this morning and will be flying home later tonight. I should be at my house be 2am Friday. I have had some time to write but have been finding it difficult as I simply get too tired and just sit staring at a TV. I have to travel again next week and then I am off for 2 weeks. I will probably go to Budapest to see my wife. J |
| Today is day 7 of my 11 day road trip. I am still in Memphis but I leave for New York on Tuesday. Home to California on Thursday night. I am tired but seem to be getting my second wind now that I can see the end is in site. I am reworking my book. For anyone that has read it, I am doing the following: 1. The military will have a smaller role, not quite so omnipotent. 2. There will be headlines at the start of each chapter showing the decay of the world order. 3. The artifact will be smaller 4. The artifact base will not be underground 5. Jack and the Sheriff will be taken away for an interview and returned later that night. 6. The burn team will be minimized while Lise and Alice are bigger There are several plot lines in this story. Each chapter will cover 2 or 3 plot lines. JD11 will have a progressively bigger role as the story moves along. I do not intend to rewrite the entire story thus far but I am going to rework each Chapter. My intent is to get this thing back on track. I am going to sign up for the San Francisco Writers Conference next February and I want this to be done by then. J |
| Today is the first day of an 11-day business trip. 8 days in Memphis and 3 in New York. I try to never travel on weekends but this is the only way I can fit everything into my schedule. Some of the road-days are simply because I don't want to go home only to fly back the next day, so I spend 2 days in a hotel. The good news is that I can finally get some writing done. I also need to do some running. I am thinking about running in the San Diego half marathon this August. I use to run it every year but I skipped last year having declared 50 to be too old. So now I run from aging. Maybe if I go fast enough, I will regain my youth. I have had better plans in the past but this is all I have for now. There are a couple of new writers in the Flash Fiction contests lately. They are really good. I should finish Chapter 10 tomorrow. Jim |
| Today marks my first anniversary with WDC. It has been a lot of fun and easily the best money I have ever invested in myself. I have a pair of pants that cost me more than my annual membership. I wear those pants from time to time but I now write almost daily. Some stats. I finished the year with 11 merit badges 6 ribbons 15 bonus recognitions 247 items including short stories (55, 300 and 2000 words long, dialogue only etc), a poem or two, a novel about 30% completed. I have entered the Daily Flash Fiction the most often (148 times) and this remains my favorite contest. My writings have been viewed 10,671 times and rated, 1,110 times Thank you to WDC and all of those out there that have become part of my writing family. Cheers, Jim |
| Too much to do and not enough time to do it. For some reason, when I get busy, writing starts to take a back seat. This is absolutely the wrong thing to do. I need the stress relief I get from writing. After I finished the 14-7-1 contest I didn't write for about a week. Not burnt out on writing; just busy with work. My wife comes to town next week with my stepson. They will be here for a week before returning to Hungary. That will be nice. After that, I have to travel 4 out of the next 5 weeks. I am on my third consecutive week of travel right now! In the airline world, 100,000 miles flown in a year as a passenger is a lot. Right now, I have flown 51,000 in 2009. I am on a pace for about 175,000 miles this year. I am beginning to feel a little burned out. My WDC first birthday is this Friday. I have already signed up for my next year. This is the best investment I have ever made! I hope to find some time to do some reviewing. I am falling behind on that as well. Jim |
| I am often wary of discussing politics because it seems a lot like discussing religion; No one changes their mind. But I have to say, from where I stand, Obama is doing a great job in Europe. I just watched his press conference with the French president and was extremely impressed with both men. It seems as if the world has finally come out of this "Bush inspired" leadership-by-ego strategy and is finally working towards some common good. I am a patriot but also a citizen of the world. Sure, we have an economy that needs attention; this is taking place. We also have to face up to other parts of the world where dictators inspire fear and people are suffering simply because we are choosing to look in another direction. I have my first WDC birthday on April 10th. What a great find this site has been. I am in Memphis this week, heading back to the bay area in California this afternoon. I am back in Memphis next week and may make a quick trip up to New York. Very busy. I do a lot of writing on planes but once I am on the ground, I get busy working on my job. It would be nice if I could make a living writing but reality says that very few have the skills to do that. I would like to thank Octobersun for her contest 14 Days, 7 Prompts, 1 Story. It was a lot of fun for all of us that participated. It was also a lot of work for her. There were about 20 of us that completed the contest and my guess is that the average story had about 7,000 words. Running a contest like that has to be a lot of work. I also want to thank Arkakun for her daily efforts on the Daily Flash Fiction Challenge. This was the first contest I entered on WDC and have done some nearly 150 times in the last year. This is my favorite contest. J |
| I just got reminded to update my blog ... so I update. Off to Memphis next week. Work is keeping me busy. I think I have 2 weeks in California (home) in the next 3 months. My wife is coming to town in two weeks. I am already looking forward to that. I have the write the final chapter in the 14-7-1 contest. That has been a good contest. I needed to stretch my legs a bit and work on something longer than Flash Fiction (although I still love that contest) j |
| I am scheduled to stay in New York until Friday, however, it looks like I may head home tomorrow (Friday). That is a good thing. I would love to have 3 days at home. I have to come back next week which should be the final week of this project. Next week I have a full Monday, Tuesday and Friday. That leaves Wednesday and Thursday to sit and write. I am in Octobersun's 14 days, 7 prompts, 1 story contest. It is a lot of fun. The story I am writing is better than some of the quick Flash Fiction I crank out. This doesn't mean that I don't work hard on my Flash Fiction. It's just that I have a lot more words to work with and each chapter contributes to the hole story so I cannot afford to write a bad chapter because I don't have time to write. If this story turns out well, I may submit it for publication in some SF magazine. Travel ... what does this year hold for me ... that I can see? April and May ... 5 trips to Memphis June and July ... 5 trips to Toronto August ... San Diego and Budapest October .... Budapest December ... budapest |
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