On Having a Job

I came to a hard realization that I still needed to squish in a blog or two when I went to extreme measures just to add my opinion to an entry on James Hudnall’s blog. My comment was really the sort of thing I would have written up as my own blog entry back when I felt I had the time to blog; but I took up just as much time writing it and then bugging Hudnall to put it into his comments section for me. Sigh.

I love my current writing gig, but it is hard at times, and it keeps me busy. It has also renewed my respect for working parents. I have to get up before anyone else in my household if I want to fit in a workout. Then after breakfast, I homeschool Neil and Kelly and take them out to various activities. Often I have errands or other responsibilities (like getting books for Tamara or putting together a Diamond order) to fill the rest of the afternoon; if I’m lucky, I have an hour or so of downtime in the afternoon. Peter has made sure to come home early so he can take care of dinner, and then I’m at my desk generally working from 7 to 10 pm and all day on weekends. And then I feel guilty about shortchanging my family and household. I could complain, but I know there are many other parents out there doing the same thing, and sometimes both parents have full-time jobs. So really, for the past few years, I’ve simply been spoiled.

My limited sleep time was also recently curtailed by Mike Carey’s novel, The Devil You Know. It was one of the free novels from last year’s San Diego Comic-Con, and I finally got around to reading it. Alas, it turned out to be too good, and I never wanted to put it down. It was like a Jim Butcher novel, except in this case the hero, Felix Castor, is a private-eye-like exorcist who specializes in ghost removal. And he’s very British, so I have to try to figure out the meaning of things like “Lucozade” from context, everyone drinks a lot harder, and practices strange British customs, like socially required reciprocal beering. As I found out, Mike Carey also writes the Hellblazer comic books, which are also very British. Mike Carey’s exorcist, however, is a lot more likable than the burn-his-own-friends Hellblazer hero.

So that book giveaway succeeded in its goal of making me a new fan of another author. I found out Mike Carey has another Felix Castor book out in print. But I need duller books which aren’t going to compell me to finish them in favor of sleep or work. So I’ll have to get to that book later.