18NOV17 update

So, have to be registered next semester to retake the test. Had a long talk with my advisor who was very sympathetic to my situation. Turns out I only have to take one class and its designed to allow me the time needed to study for, and pass, the test.

Things are mostly back on track. I'm still working the dwarf story and its progressing. Funny, you feel like it's going nowhere and want to quit it. But I find by just powering through you get to the light, so it's slowly getting there. Patience is the key. I am more of that than I used to be.

I read a little story of mine yesterday I'd for gotten I wrote. I was surprised to find it pretty good. I usually cringe when reading the old ones, seeing only the huge mistakes. But this one seemed as good, or better than more recent works. Maybe I'm too hard on myself. All these years and I still question the quality of the stories I put out. But I am proud to have written anything. I used to read and think that an impossible goal.

Waiting 11Nov17

Updates.

In the interest, as always, of keeping things real here, have to talk about school.

First off, I failed the comprehensive exam.

 I know, surprised me too. I was brilliant, dazzled with my responses put my own flair on everything. Bad move. Apparently I should've been thinking more like a professor than a writer. "Too casual" was the major complaint along with numerous grammatical errors. 

Grammar,the bane of my exsistence! 

I'm not sure what this means for my masters. I have to take it again,probably next semester.

On the upside. I successfully defended my thesis. The little story came through! I am going to be a published writer! Yeah, yeah, it's a university press. Fuck that, I did it.

This whole week has been a seesaw of anger and elation. I want to jump for joy and kill. I am one failed overall exam from finishing. How the fuck do you pass all the classes but cannot graduate. Even the assholes who decide on this pass/fail fiasco should realize the flaw in this process.

Done venting. Now it's on to the next story.

"Hang the Hunter" 05NOV17

I've been working this grieving Dwarf story for a few years now. He's gone from short story to novelette and back. Right now he's existing in a series of shorts. I've studied so much of the form that i think it serves the character better, that and i don't have the patience for long form works.

That's not the issue so maybe I shouldn't have brought it up, but this is going somewhere,

The real issue is time itself. Hang, was one of the ultimate challenges for me. I wanted to do a fantasy story that was my take on things. He would live in a world i created, without all the things i find boring or common. Its a nice enough little story but I'm hitting the wall this week.

My taste in reading and writing has changed some since he came about. I haven't read a fantasy piece in years and I'm not sure i can get to that place again. The words used to flow. I could see his little ass stompin around shootin stuff, just owning his world ya know? Now I'm questioning and micromanaging everything he and the others do. Normally that's the fun part. Now it feels like work, like i should shelve it. There are other projects i could give attention to. Joba my retired space medic and his less than honorable friend Chaos. There's pieces closer to reality like the man who's touch shifts a person's luck towards good or bad, but Hang and his cohorts are next. I am tasked with him and i must finish. I guess i just needed to vent a little.

His first story is complete, the bones anyway. I just need to put flesh to them. Make you care about their collective fates. I'll get it there.