I will finish this novella tomorrow, I SWEAR.

I was going to finish it two weeks ago.  I really was.  But then, things were slow for a while as I adjusted to the new swing-shift job, and it wasn’t looking like I could do it, so I pushed the deadline back a week and went hiking instead.  No worries.

Then, the internet exploded and I got distracted.  So no book Saturday.  No worries, I told myself.  I’ll just finish it on Monday and go for another hike on Tuesday, my day off.

So.  Went grocery shopping on Monday, putzed around, wrote a bit, but didn’t really finish it.  I don’t know why.  Maybe I was still distracted.  Still, I figured I’d just call off the hike and finish it the next day.  Since it was supposed to be my day off, I could cook a nice batch of koshary too.

Tuesday, I cooked a nice batch of koshary, had some friends over, life was good, sat down to write … and got a call from my supervisor (who I’ve seen exactly once) that the regular employees have the 4th of July off, so could I please come in and work?

AAARGH!!!!

Did I mention that it’s been a hundred degrees here recently?  I’ve been sleeping practically naked and still sweating like crazy.  That’s probably more than you wanted to know, but I mention it only because I’ve been getting up progressively later.  Though the smart thing, of course, would be to wake up earlier when it’s still somewhat cool outside …

So anyways, Wednesday rolls around, and I get some good writing in.  I start the final chapter, with only two more scenes to go before it’s finished.  But it’s my sister’s birthday tomorrow, and I ought to stop by and say hi, which of course turns into a youtube party and playing with my nephew.  Also, my tomatoes are dying, so I really should pick up some fertilizer and see what I can do to revive them, but of course I don’t know hardly anything about fertilizer so it takes forever to find something that might actually do the trick.  Also, Institute is on Wednesdays, and I really should attend that more often (but I can’t, because of the job), so I go to that for a few hours.  Good times, meet some new people and chat up with friends, head back to my apartment but then the guy two doors down asks if I want to join him and a couple of girls for a game of cards, and since I really don’t have much of a social life (again, because of the job), I say yes and end up hanging out with them until midnight.

So tomorrow is the 4th of July.  There’s all sorts of stuff going on, including a family barbecue, the fair downtown, my sister’s birthday, my Mom coming into town, but #^$%@^#%^#@ I will finish this book!!!!1!!1!!!  Even if it means getting up at 7am, which it probably will.

And if I end up sleeping in again … no, that totally isn’t going to happen.  And it’s not going to happen because I’m going to bed RIGHT NOW.

By Joe Vasicek

Joe Vasicek is the author of more than twenty science fiction books, including the Star Wanderers and Sons of the Starfarers series. As a young man, he studied Arabic and traveled across the Middle East and the Caucasus. He claims Utah as his home.

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