Don't Tell Her Where I Live!

The Koala is not going to be pleased with me!  I haven't written any fiction this month at all.  I haven't even read any, unless you count job descriptions.

I Have Not Forsaken Thee, Blog

I've just been busy reinventing my life, which was the whole point after all.

Physical Sensations When Writing?

(No, I'm not talking about the feeling you should get when writing love scenes.)

I've noticed the weirdest thing.  A few years ago I went to Japan for the first time.  I was told that all food is served basically bite-size and that you are supposed to eat pieces whole rather than nibbling them from between your chopsticks.

No one explained the exceptions.

So there I was, staring at the 1"x2"x2" block of glutinous rice I had randomly speared from a pot.  I'd never had it before and thought it was tofu.  Whatever it was, there was no turning back.  I popped in my mouth.

It filled up my entire mouth.

I tried to chew it.  It seemed to grow bigger. 

I tried to chew off swallowable bits, but it just wouldn't break down.  I started to gag at a little.  I wanted desperately to spit it out, but I was at a fancy restaurant with gracious hosts and didn't dare.  So I just kept chewing.

It took - no exaggeration - five minutes to chew and swallow that thing.  Five of the longest, most uncomfortable minutes of my life.

So here's what's weird: whenever I'm having trouble with wordiness, I get that sensation in my mouth.  It's as if even imagining reading the words out loud fills my mouth with them until I'm afraid I'll gag.

Anything like this ever happen to you?

The Hardest Thing I've Had to Write

My resume. 

Regardless of my immediate 'career' plans, the first thing I have to do is update my resume while my memory is still fresh and I still have access to any supporting documentation I might (ever) need.

But OMG this is so hard!  Condensing 16 years down to two pages, positioning myself as this and/or that, branding myself...  well this has to be more difficult than writing a novel synopsis for submission.  And I know I know I know - everyone has to do it now and then.  That doesn't make it any easier.  I don't like to define myself in life, and I like defining myself on paper even lesss.

Possibly Big News

In my very first blog post, I mentioned that I have a great job, and jokingly lamented that it was keeping me from writing.  Well, my job as I know it today is going the way of the dodo.  All things come to an end, and corporate reorganizations are inevitably only a question of "when".  My team is breaking up, and with it all the things I love about the work.

The safe and rational path would be to find another job in the same company or elsewhere, but I just can't get excited about being a corporate cog anymore.  My heart has moved on.

So, unless some amazing cog job befalls me, I've decided to take half a year and have a go at being something else.  I wish I could tell you that "something else" is novelist, but more likely it'll be entrepreneur.

No matter what happens, it's going to be exciting -- and stressful.  I'll keep you posted.