H'lo everyone! It's a bright and early Tuesday morning -- too early, 'cause Chicago's system is still down (they shut it down regularly from 5-9 a.m. every few days for system maintenance). So I can't check my e-mail -- it's funny how addicted I am to my e-mail fix...when I was in Sri Lanka for three weeks last July I was definitely aching for it...:-)
Yesterday was a good day -- did a bunch of stuff that I'd been putting off (like buying plane tickets for upcoming trip to Chicago and move to CA; stopped in at office to pick up last pay check (and incidentally set up boss's web page for her (I promised I would) -- it's here, if you're at all interested in endocrine stuff), etc.) Also finally heard from Ellison (prospective roommate) -- I got a space in their house! Hooray -- I had other options lined up, but this was the one I really liked. It has a garden, and a piano, and lots of bookshelves, and two roommates who seem pretty cool, and it's pretty close to Mills (biking distance). :-) Also did my newsbytes yesterday (late!) and a bunch of admin stuff for the erotica writers' list. So all's going pretty well.
Today should be exciting. I'm up this early (it's 7:30 now) 'cause at 9 a.m. someone's coming by to discuss the possibility of my writing for erotica films (Red Shoe Diaries-type-stuff). I'm not sure exactly what his connection is with the field, but there's at least a chance that this could be profitable. :-) (And it would be a fun project to work on). Also today, I really must get the guidelines together for Turning Bodies. That's my goal. If I don't tell you I did it tomorrow, feel free to yell at me.
Y'know, I get all sorts of neat mail from people who read these pages -- postcards from soldiers in Desert Storm or Bosnia, letters from 16-yr-olds (who cheerfully ignored my warnings :-), notes from grandmothers -- a really wide range. I'm going to excerpt a bit from a neat letter I got this morning -- attributions stripped, to protect the sender. Hope he doesn't mind...I may do this more in the future, 'cause I think it's interesting, so if you really don't want me to, let me know in the mail you send.
"'...what am I doing, he thought as he pressed the keys on his keyboard, I can't be doing this on my work computer. I can't be using this to respond to the erotica I find on the net. I could lose my job for this. I can't help myself. I sit here reading this woman's words, feeling my pants grow tighter, my breathing faster, my head pounding, and I begin to sweat with the fear that I will get caught by a co-worker....' So it goes for the fifty-five year old, plumping, aged, graying engineer. He has spent his life performing the responsibilities of employee, father of two, and husband to a wife who no longer is an attraction for him. A victim of the system in which he lives. Now he is a victim of a technology that provides at the touch of his fingers, thrills equal to those of the teenage boy with his first dirty book."
He goes on to say that he isn't a writer, but rather a reader, and that the character described above isn't him, though he has similar feelings. Fascinating, as Spock would say. Btw, if you're reading this (person who wrote the above), you're already a better writer than many who do claim that title. Don't sell yourself short. And thanks for the mail...