Can I Have 28 hour days, please?

I woke this morning to two realizations.

One:  I haven’t posted anything on my blog in well over a month, and

Two: I have an unreasonable urge to write.

The remedy to number one is of course to post something, but number two is a little more complicated since for the first time in a very long time I’m finding it hard to “find the time” to write.

I’ve always believed that “I have no time” was a poor excuse for not writing. If you really want something you will make the time, end of line. I won’t use that excuse. Instead I will say, I’m finding it hard to make writing a priority in my busy schedule.

So what have I been doing for the last month? The biggest thing has been wedding planning. I’m getting married in June (10 weeks) and there are a lot of things to get done. Also, on top of my full time job, I’ve been working a part time job in the publishing industry (no I won’t tell you what or where). This part time job has been wonderful in opening my eyes to the “other side of the table” so to speak. But it’s also been vastly time consuming and I’m finding myself looking in the mirror more and more asking, “Do I want to continue down this ‘industry job’ path, or do I want to be a writer?”

I keep answering, I want to be both. Thus the one that pays is put higher on the priority list.

A little over a month ago, I started editing a short story of mine called ’43 Pieces’. I sent it out to some beta readers, got their feedback and then set it aside until I has time to finish it. A week or so later I started picking away at the short story I’ve been commissioned to write for the Chinese Whispering 2010 Anthology “the yin book”. It is taking far longer than anything I’ve ever written before, but it felt good to dive into something new. I also think it’s what cracked open the creative flood gates…

…because, I woke up with a scene in my head that has nothing to do with anything I’m writing.

A girl crawling into the stabilization ring of a space station. It has gravity, but not much else since the only people who go in there are maintenance. There is a guy, he works in the station, who is showing her the ‘bed’ and saying that he’d been thrown out an airlock if he brought someone like her into the station proper. After he leaves, she pulls out a faded picture… and a gun.

Why? Why do I have to have cool story ideas when I have no time to write them?

My plan was once these two stories where finished and sent off, I would start in on the revision stage of my novel “Ice Debt” – I HAVE to get it out of here soon before I loose the nerve. That’s still the plan, but I might have to squeeze a short story in there somewhere to get this girl out of my head.

On a side note, I encourage you all to take a look at Annie Evett’s post on Write Anything about “Why Science Fiction is Important.”

“ Of all forms of literature, science fiction is the only one that deals primarily with change, routinely painting its story against the colourful background of a different society – be it on Mars, post apocalyptic earth or other planet, or amongst the mythical worlds. Even though there are endless possibilities available to write about, they all have one thing in common; that being that the worlds they describe are like the here and now and that they are on the brink of change. ”

Also, if you’re a writer, you might be interested in reading this breakdown of the Google Book Settlement.

And finally, if you’d like to read something that will spark your imagination, you may want to ask yourself How close are we, really, to a true AI?

That’s all I’ve got right now. I’ll try to keep you better updated over the next little while.

PS: Almost forgot. Two of my writing friends, Jodi Cleghorn and Krista Ball, are doing a live interview on Saturday as part of a launch for an anthology they are in called “Thieves and Scoundrels”. If you have time, you should check it out.