Blog Every Day In April sounds like something I'd enjoy, but April is a third over and I didn't notice people were doing that until today, so, uh, oh well. But maybe I'll try to blog a little more, how about that?

This has been a week of disappointment -- well, a disappointment. I got invited to one of my favorite go-somewhere-pretty-with-a-bunch-of-other-writers workshops, but I can't go. Usually I can't go because the dates of such things invariably conflict with the production schedule at A Certain Magazine, but this year the dates are actually fantastic. The problem is money. We're stone broke, mostly because of a horrible perfect storm of taxes and hospital bills (lord, the hospital bills -- having a kid with glaucoma ain't cheap), on top of our usual credit card debt.

We're pretty much going to remain stone broke until I sell a novel or some other windfall lands on us. So I can't justify spending ~$800 or ~$1,000 on a workshop to critique a story I might subsequently sell for a few hundred bucks. It just doesn't make sense. But I'm disappointed. I'd love to go.

(We are still going to Wiscon, because the plane tickets are already bought and non-refundable, and at least it's a business expense for this year's taxes.)

Alas, even if the money fairy (or short story sale fairy, more likely) dropped a grand on me, I'd have to be responsible and pay down debt instead of zipping off to a delicious workshop. Being responsible sucks. But, alas, I didn't sell any novels last year (I'd really thought I would), so we've got to live within our means. I canceled my gym membership and we're giving up our cable TV and lots of other discretionary income type things to save cash. Avoiding restaurants. (My one great weakness.) Using the library a lot. Selling the castle in Bavaria, stuff like that.

I mean, we're still making rent. Hell, we're still keeping our Netflix subscription (much cheaper than cable TV). Not going to restaurants means I'm cooking more, and life on gumbo and slow-cooked chicken curry and turkey & white bean soup and chicken marsala isn't so bad. As long as our jobs remain steady, we should be okay, even if we don't have any disposable income left. And if I sell a novel or two (I have two books and two proposals out now!) and can squish some big debts in one fell swoop, things will ease up. So, you know, keep hoping.

I'll probably put up a post offering to sell some of my signed author copies in the next day or two, both because we need the money and because tottering piles of books make babyproofing difficult... So if that sounds like something you might be into, stay tuned. And if you want to buy some chapbooks or purchase back issues of Flytrap, don't hesitate!