Wal-mart pisses me off. Over a week before Christmas, I ordered a water cooler from them online that was promised that it would be to me before Christmas (the offer was that anything ordered before December 20th would make it before Christmas; I was way ahead of that date). So, I ordered it to be delivered.

December 23, they contact me and state that there's some kind of inventory problem, so it is not going to make it to me before Christmas and they're really sorry about the inconvenience and all that (actually, I don't think they even said they were sorry, just that it wasn't going to happen in time).

The letter they sent gave information on how to cancel my order. So, I went back online and canceled my order.

Next day, they send me an email stating that they're not sure they can cancel the order because the order might be processed (their web site indicates the order is in processing).

A few days later, they send me an email stating they can't fulfill the order (same type of email they sent me the first time).

So, I write them and tell them to send me my money back. The response I get the next day states someting along the lines of "we just wanted to check to make sure you got your order sent to you as desired." No, I didn't get it sent to me, AND I CANCELLED IT.

So, we're moving into December 30th now, and they haven't even gotten back to me other than form letters that indicate that they're grateful for my suggestions about the way their online web site works.

God, I'm really, really starting to hate Walmart right now.

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The Internet on campus is starting to act really bad again. Tomorrow, they are supposed to be taking down the Internet for two days, but in the early day today, my Internet stopped working. And, of course, their technical support (that answers calls 24 hours a day) never responded. So, even after they're done with this mysterious Internet "update", I still don't know if I'm going to have access. If it's like every other semester, a sign on screen will come up when the system comes up, asking me for my money, and then after they charge my account for $80, it will stop working again.

Something bizarre happened today also. As I couldn't use the cable modem to connect, I decided to use my laptop to connect with a regular modem (my desktop doesn't have a modem...something I never figured I would need; what was I thinking?). As I opened the laptop, I realized the letter "o" was missing. Gone. Jumped ship. Sleeping with the fishes.

After several hours of searching my house, I found it, hidden under one of my desktop speakers (probably waiting until I wasn't looking so it could make a break for the window). Now, the letter "o" kind of doesn't really fit properly (keeps coming out crooked). Kind of strange, actually.

I sent off 10 query letters today for my novels. I also received a response earlier in the morning from Publish America stating they received my novel and everything needed (author's bio and that kind of stuff), and they would get back to me in two or three weeks. So, hopefully that will work out.

Took a trip to Best Buy and walked around the store, imagining buying a lot of great things that I don't really need. Didn't buy anything.

Then went to Barnes & Noble and like I always do, I bought a few books. Purchased:

How to Write Killer Fiction by Carolyn Wheat
The Pocket Muse by Monica Wood
20 Master Plots and how to build them by Ronald B. Tobias
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami (my favorite author)

That store can be deadly on my checking account sometimes.

I'm not sure I'll be able to connect to the Internet over the next few days (even with my laptop's modem connection), so if not, I'll probably have to update after school starts up again.

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The Writing
One of the more difficult things to do involving a writing career is not necessarily the writing itself. It's the business of writing. This weekend, I've been working on sending out query letters for a number of my novels. I also sent out my novel, Thompson's Bounty, to Publish America in hopes of publication. It's really hard to get a science fiction novel published, so this is my first serious attempt.

I had agents twice in my career, but they didn't work out for me. My first one was Ricia Mainhardt, who happens to be a very accomplished agent. She was trying to sell my science fiction novel, Destiny. She never succeeded and then kind of dumped me in a way that women used to dump me (stop calling, stop taking phone calls, then thinks we should just see other agents and writers). My second agent was kind of a used car salesman type, and I didn't realize it until he started charging me for bizarre incidentals. So I ended my relationship with him when I realized he never even reported that he sent any of my work out.

So, I'm trying to get an agent again. That's the purpose of the query letters right now.

After I finish with this little project, I need to focus on the hundred or so short stories that I have, sending them to markets for publication. I recently wrote a really, really good short story that is written backwards in time, so I want to get it out for its first try.

I came to the realization recently (partly from self-reflection and through some conversations with Melanie) that I'm a writer, and that's what I need to focus on these days. I'll continue my forward-moving process with political science, but my priority these days is getting published. I've neglected my writing career way too long.

The relationship
This stems back to a relationship I had before I came out here to Kalamazoo. I was in a very intense relationship with a woman who was probably the smartest woman I ever met (well, aside from a few I have met over the last few years here at WMU). But at the time, I'd not met anyone with such brilliance. She could talk on practically any subject and at length, while I could just sit there and think that it would be really nice to know a little more about that particular subject.

Well, she was very interested in my slowly emerging writing career (this was about 9 years ago, I guess). I was getting short stories published here and there. A few poems as well. My plays were starting to gain notoriety as well (I was writing in a partnership under the name Nigel Cross). My first novel, To Touch the Unicorn, was accepted for publication from a small publisher (which went defunct and then no longer was able to finish the publishing of it). So, she asked to see the book, and she read what was my favorite book at the time.

She didn't like it. She said it did nothing for her.

So I stopped writing. For years. That one moment defined for me that my writing career was a mistake.

Fastforward a few years, and we break up. Even after that, I refuse to write. I go back to school, and I pick up my BA, and then I enter WMU. Then on a crazy whim, I get Innocent Until Proven Guilty published by a crappy press, but published nonetheless.

Slowly, I have continued to try to get my career back on track again. It's been amazing how hard it has been to do so. But slowly I'm moving it back in shape again.

I often wonder if anyone actually reads these things....

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Been working on a new novel lately. Not much else going on these days. It's really, really cold, and I hate snow, so I have avoided going out if at all physically possible.

I bought a water cooler for my apartment, so I now get bottled water delivered directly to the apartment. Not that that's any big deal, but it is something.

I sent off one of my science fiction novels, Thompson's Bounty to a publisher earlier today. I haven't been putting forth the effort on my writing career that I really should.

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