It's not jumping the shark if you never come back down
Really, my life no longer has a point. I'm free. This and I stand to inherit twenty thousand acres of central Nebraska.
Tender Branson, Survivor
Get up. Twenty minutes of stress relief yoga. I can't get my dog anywhere near that downward-facing. I can't fold myself in half and nothing about me is "supple." Eventually I melt into the carpet and I remember why I keep doing this.
Feed the mammals. Check up on the amphibians. Maybe some yogurt, or granola, or soy-free, gluten-free hypoallergenic cereal. I have a soy allergy. It's a bummer because it's cheap and holds together all your processed non-dairy future foods and meat byproducts. What's good for your heart makes me itchy and paranoid, covered in hives and having panic attacks. So yeah, I don't eat soy. Tea is strawberry pomegranate, coconut mango, white peach. It's probably healthy but I just know that it tastes good. Watch the news. Search for a job. Send out resumes and hope for the best. Take a deep breath. Go for a walk, maybe punch the punching bag. Get back to work.
That's the gist of what my life looks like right now.
I refuse to be in a holding pattern.
It's just been me and the Flesh Trap manuscript. What started off at 65,000 words has been cut down by 6,000 or so. I'm nowhere near finished. Yeah, I know, I'm not supposed to be editing. Manuscripts are supposed to age like fine wine. Whatever. I hid from the first half I had typed up when I broke for a month to rewrite the back-end in longhand. I'm entitled to make a few cosmetic alterations for continuity's sake. I've been putting up excerpts of cleaned-up chapters up here and there, Facebook and Twitter and the usual suspects, getting comments and feedback. I've also gotten a lot of passive-aggressive inquiries about the status of the novel. I'm going to take as a sign of interest. I can't think of any other reason for it, no matter how ironic. I'm going to take it as a compliment.
I'm sketching up possible illustrations. I'm outlining the next book. I'm researching my settings and dog-earring the Greatest Hits of Greek Mythology for reference. I'm pondering my mission statement for this year's Summer Sessions. I'm trying to get stories in some larger publications. I'm trying to keep moving, keeping evolving, keep producing.
My life is going on.
