--NOBODY SAID IT WAS EASY

…Tomorrow I will be older.  I guess I’m older today, but tomorrow it will be official.

…For the second time in two weeks I got paid for a story.  For the second time in two weeks that payment was $10.  It’s basically nothing, but on the other hand, it’s still something

Somebody even said some nice things about my writing:.

Writing is all about pattern, establishing it, breaking it, and this is something that Mr. Kuntz does very well. He lulls us into complacency and delivers us into evil, or he takes us down a rabbit hole only to end up having tea with the Keystone Cops. That he is able to continue to surprise us this far into the cycle says a great deal about his skill.  We’re left this month with a hint of retribution hanging in that smoke-filled air. Whether next month makes us laugh or wince, I feel confident it will be worth my investment in time and money.

Yet another impressive story in the 2014 project. As a reader I remain hungry; as a writer I am in awe.

It’s a beautiful day where I am.  I wish the sun is shining for you, too.

Here are some things to like on a Wednesday:

"It's practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry.” Joe Moore

“Said the river: imagine everything you can imagine, then keep on going.” Mary Oliver

"It's the friends you can call up at four a.m. that matter." Marlene Dietrich

"I am certain of nothing but of the holiness of the heart's affections and the truth of imagination." Keats

"You must have the devil in you to succeed in the arts." Voltaire

"Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve." W. Clement Stone

"I'm totally in control of this tiny, tiny world right there at the typewriter." Joan Didion

“The night kept coming on in and there was nothing I could do.” Charles Bukowski

"I want to put a ding in the universe." Steve Jobs

"It's humbling, to become the very thing you once mocked." Gillian Flynn, "Gone Girl"

"We sit indoors and talk of the cold outside.
And every gust that gathers strength and heaves
Is a threat to the house. But the house has long been tried."
---Robert Frost "There Are Roughly Zones"