Thursday, April 23, 2015

Opening Remarks

Well, here it is, the first entry in my own blog.  I'd say the odds are great that there are those authors who can rival Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Junior, Helen Keller, or any other respected historical figure when it comes to profound words to use in this medium, but I'm simply not in such a league as they are.  I'm just one of many data entry operators employed by the Oregon Department of Transportation who happens to have an imagination that shouts Squirrel! inside my head, then goes bounding through the forest of my brain like a Labrador Retriever with its tongue lolling out, getting slobber all over the crab grass and ferns.

I can't get too wordy tonight, because I have the type of job that:

A)  Requires attention to detail (and by that, I mean if one character of entered information isn't accurate, whoops, uh-oh, guess what, that's the wrong record, ace)
B)  Requires a login time of 8:00 am PST

Nevertheless, before I call it quits with my first blog, I have to express my anticipation and excitement about three major writing endeavors I've engaged myself in.  I've submitted my first novel, "Resolve And Retribution", to the Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards Contest, I've submitted a 5,000-word story entitled "Details, Details" to Amazon Kindle Publications for their consideration, and, less than a week ago, entered the 84th Annual Writer's Digest Writing Competition with my short story (1,900 words) entitled "Bob, the Beauty, and the Buick".  Four weeks ago today, AKP sent me an email confirming they had received "Details, Details" successfully, and it could take up to six weeks for them to send me their decision about whether or not they would accept my story to be sold on their site.  As for the Writer's Digest competitions, well, I'll find out how my entries fared in their respective categories sometime this coming October.

But, to be honest, I truly don't have time to fret or get antsy awaiting those decisions.  Not while working for a state agency in the middle of its busiest season, and not while writing Chapter 2 of the adult science fiction thriller novel I'm writing now called "Escalation".

I suppose I'll wrap this up for tonight.  Yes, tomorrow is Friday, but, the thing is, I'm part of the Customer Database Unit crew which will be working overtime on Saturday as well.  That kind of attention to details I mentioned earlier demands sufficient rest, and it's not as if I'm in my twenties anymore, when I would have scoffed at the concept of "sleep".

The following will be my routine sign-off:

Never give up.
Never back down.
Never lose faith.

(That's from Facing the Giants)

--Michael

4 comments:

  1. I have always enjoyed your writing Michael, and this is just one more outlet, thanks for sharing it with me.

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    1. Thank you for your kind words, Anita! All the best, my friend!

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  2. I wrote a reply, I hope I did it correctly, but I don't see it, so hopefully this posts. I really enjoyed reading the beginning of your blog and am awaiting to read more! Great job!

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    1. Thank you very much, Rene! From time to time I will be adding more to the blog regarding my stories :)

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