Catching up …

Just a few notes to play catch-up.

The work continues. My new Novel, The New Maps of Hell (working title, no one freak out, although I rather like it. Yes, I know it’s borrowed from one of the early works of science fiction criticism, but it works for the situation. And I should end these parentheses before the entire post is all parentheses and no content.) now has a word count posted at the bottom of the page. That’s why I changed themes, to be able to use widgets, although I really liked the black and white Hemingway. I may get into the html and change it around later if I get the time.

And I can do that now. My tech classes are over for the semester and I’m ready to take the certification exam in January. This will, hopefully, lead to gainful employment in the field I love, and my teaching career can become a distant, unpleasant memory.

And I’m undergoing a little bit of a spiritual renaissance, thanks to podcasts from Jay Bakker’s Revolution Church in NYC. I won’t get into this a lot, but I was raised in a really strict religious tradition, became Catholic as an adult, and still love Catholic forms of worship even if I’m kind of parting ways with some of that dogma, specifically the church’s belief in it’s own infallibility, their stand against Gay Marriage, and the apocalyptic way the priest pederasty was handled. It’s nice to feel like this can be a part of my life again in some way, though I am, if still a christian to any degree, one of those liberal, out there christians, and that’s just fine with me.

Just don’t call me religious, those are fighting words.

And in the middle of several household crises this week, I received a rejection notice. It was one I expected, because it would have been just an amazing thing to have won WOTF the first time I entered, and now I can shop the story around some more. And, hey, they sent me a cool bookmark, so … win?

So as the year winds down, things are looking up, at least a little. I feel like my time in the wilderness may be ending, or at least transitioning into something else, a place where I might be able to start doing real  people some actual good. It’s been a hard journey, and I don’t want to get into specifics too much, but I’ve battled something for years and finally been diagnosed and properly treated. It feels good to be in control of how I’m feeling.

Screw it. I wouldn’t want anyone else in my position to feel ashamed, so I’m not going to either. I’ve battled bipolar disorder without knowing what it was, exactly, for about eight years. Now I know. Now I’m me again. I’m not the me I was before because that person hadn’t gone through what I’ve gone through. And, you know, to steal the old quote, “I wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now.”

I’d better wind this up because, as I was writing, I think my kids put the cat in the bathtub. Tiberius = not happy.