As of tomorrow (7-5) I will have been a resident in Ohio for 3 weeks. It's slow-going, writing-wise, or at least, it feels that way. My printer isn't up yet and I can't buy ink for it until sometime next month, which, lucky for my readers (not), means they'll have to wait a bit longer for Hell's Alliance.

In the meantime, I've been steadily working on my own novel: Sunnyside Meadows, the second book of my Koontah series. It feels like I'm crawling, really. I was hoping to have the second book done last year but HA! that's not how my life works. The good thing is that I'm half way through that novel-the first draft, I mean.

And when I have time to spare, I take it upon myself to advocate for other people to get their stories written. and get to hear it most while might get it from me once in a while (lucky you!)

I'll grant that has a sensible excuse: she has family to deal with-well, family plus a petting zoo. It's difficult to carve out any time or space for the muse when you're running after loose dogs, breaking up cat fights and policing children.

has a very small window of time to do her work. She gets about 2 months' vacation and then it's back to the grindstone for her. So I harass her only when she's goofing off. I say that because her muse prefers artwork to the art of writing. It's hard for her and I understand; writing is hard.

Seriously, it's hard, even for people like yours truly who's been writing stories since she was 13 years old. However, there are some days when I really wish I could get paid for all the work I do-I mean, I *do* get paid by other means, but it'd be nice to have money for it on occasion. I know there's magazines out there (I've tried that route) and newspapers, but because I am a storyteller, it's more difficult to get published than if I were a nonfiction writer. I also love writing fan fiction where I can control the story and the characters rather than adhere to someone else's rules. I think that's the biggest problem I have as far as publishing goes; I don't like to be told what to do-that's what a job is for.

Writing is freedom for me. I think I'd rather be free to write fan fiction, make my own rules and enjoy it rather than get paid to write by someone else's standards.

Well, even if that makes no sense to anyone else, I'll just keep plotting along and living in the freedom of my own artistic expression.

Illmatar, WORK FASTER!!!