A Variety

As you might have guessed, I decided against going to Carrie Vaughn's book signing today in Denver. After I found out about the credit card minimum payment increase, the possibility of that happening shrunk to zero. However, I have arranged to get an autographed copy of the book from that bookstore. I figure $8.50 to buy the book and have it shipped to me is far less expensive than making the trip. Of course, this way I won't meet the author, but I can't help that. Maybe another time.

Speaking of finances, I am figuring out ways to cut corners financially. I plan to get rid of long distance from my home phone, since I can use my cell phone for that. I will start planning meals for every two weeks instead of buying whatever catches my eye at the grocery store. I'm also giving some serious thought to downgrading my cable. I wish it were possible to choose one's channels. I'm paying an extra $20/month for two or three channels I like but only watch occasionally. I need to either downgrade or start watching them.

On another subject: NaNoWriMo. I met the 50,000-word goal, wrote another short story, and have turned my attention back to revising the first story. I'm wondering where to go from here. It's kind of funny. For a long time, I thought that writing for my day job made it feel too much like work to come home and write. I had stopped writing fiction long ago.

But I think I've got the writing bug again. I have continued to write since December began, although I fluctuate between thinking what I have written is brilliant or sucks. I go through that at work, but it's intensified significantly when I'm writing fiction.

As I said, I'm not sure what to do next. Just keep writing for a while and see what happens? Write as a hobby? Try for publication? That seems so pretentious when I've been writing fiction again for a little more than a month. I have sent the short story to two volunteer readers, and I am curious to hear their opinions. (If you volunteered and didn't get it, don't worry. Assuming I keep writing, you'll have a turn reading eventually.)

I've started a separate blog about my writing. I suspect its contents would be supremely uninteresting to anyone except me, but if I keep writing for a few more months, I'll eventually post a link to it here. (If you're dying of curiousity, post in the comments and I'll e-mail you the link. I don't want to be responsible for anyone's death. LOL!)

I'm doing pretty good with my book-buying moratorium. I've got a few gift certificates to use, so I'll be able to buy a book or two on occasion. But other than that, I'm putting books on hold at the library, reading other perfectly good books on my TBR shelves, and saving money for a book-buying spree at next year's RWA signing.