--SOMETIMES GOODBYE IS A SECOND CHANCE


…I ran ten miles this morning. It was a bit farther than I should have went. Plus the last three miles were up hill so now my butt is screaming sore. But I guess that’s a good thing. A few more mornings like that and I’ll be able to break walnuts on my buttocks.
Or not.

…I’m going to AWP tomorrow. I have some ideas, but I’m a little bit nervous, a tad anxious.
I have a feeling I’m going to be a yard dog without a leash. I’ll be cut-off crusts. I’ll be tip toeing on one of Saturn’s rings. Maybe not, but those are the pictures that keep showing up in my movie trailer.
There are a lot of people I’d like to meet. I wonder if I’ll be able to match their Facebook photo to their real face with its whiskers or eyeliner. I wonder how brave and extroverted I’ll be.
It’d be nice if we all had to wear a name tag on our foreheads—then there’d be no guesswork involved.

…I got the new issue of Rolling Stone. It’s a thin as an envelope. 74 pages. Last month was a record low 67 pages.
They have Paul McCartney on the cover. He’s a legend but he’s 70-something. Last issue was Bruce Springsteen. In this month’s, they have an article with the title: “Is the CD Finally Dead?” An expert gives it three years tops.
I give Rolling Stone two years tops. And it breaks my heart to say that.

…In a different magazine I read yesterday, I read that a blogger needs to have approximately 10,000 (ten THOUSAND) followers in order to capture the attention of a mainstream book-publishing house.
Yikes.
I have exactly 1% of that number. So I guess that means I Am The 1%. Maybe I should up signs and protest.

…I like these things on a blustery night:

"We get through life with hard work, a little luck, and the kindness of others." Robert Dugoni

"You have to be a bulldog in this business, kid. You got to be a bulldog." Jane Rotrosen

"A writer's life is not designed to reassure your mother." Rita Mae Brown

"Solitude carries with it a risk, and the risk is loneliness." "Answers in the Heart"

"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars." E.H. Chapin