A Mid-Summer's Beasting

A few months ago, I noticed a new woman in the neighborhood. It's possible she's not new and that she only started appearing out in the street within the last several months. 

Regardless, I live on a dead end street and I started seeing her on a daily basis. She plods down the middle of the road carrying this child like a giant, limp starfish. Based on the size of the child, I'm guessing they're anywhere from 8 to 10 years old, which seems a little older than should be carried by most parents. 

Plus I've seen her out there in 100+ degree heat, stalking up and down the hot blacktop with the dead weight of this child strapped to her chest. She walks to the end of my street and then takes a right, heading down the longest street bisecting my neighborhood. Her walk is not a short one and it occurs multiple times a day. 

The child is rarely ever moving much, if at all. My writing partner believes there is some kind of neglect at play, having seen the child in little other than socks and shorts when he's witnessed the pair. Personally, I believe there is a medical or emotional situation (possibly both) that's at the root of the behavior, and the walking is some kind of emotional or mental salve to ease whatever ails the child. 

Whatever the actual reasons at play, it is a stark image that never loses my curiosity. It also stands as a great metaphor for the year as it has played out so far. Not only for myself, but for many others who are also feeling emotionally dragged down by the need to plod on despite all that's going on around us. 

*

On Monday, June 23rd, I gave my two week notice at my job. After almost 7 years there, certain aspects of it were starting to negatively affect my health and I decided to step away from the job market entirely for a bit so I could reassess some things. Some of the health stuff began at the start of the year, but had since snowballed into something I could no longer avoid or ignore. 

I had never worked for an agency before, and I very quickly found out that what little actual marketing experience I did have was...inadequate. But after a couple years, I settled in to the flow and got to understand more about the industry and new ways of thinking and operating. I also got to work with some absolutely brilliant and collaborative people. The vibe amongst my department coworkers (and those from other departments we worked closely alongside) was exquisite. It will be a impossible to replace, much less duplicate anywhere else. 

For the moment, I'm spending the majority of my time working on the next two books. I'll also start seriously looking for an agent, as well as any potential publishing houses looking for new work from undiscovered authors like myself. I don't suffer from the delusion that I will put out these books and that will somehow change my life; that hasn't happened before and it's unlikely to happen any time soon. But it will provide more literary leverage for agents to consider. 

I spend the first several hours of my day in my basement, writing. I'm keeping daily tallies of word counts on different pieces and projects and averaging about 3,000-4,000 words a day. I am constantly thinking about narratives and am able to jump into almost any story immediately because I've spent so much time outside of it, considering all its potential angles. This has been difficult to do while working full time as I found myself mentally drained at the end of most days. 

Progress on both of the next two story collections has been significant and exciting. I would love to have one of them done by the end of the year. 

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