I’m very tired…so here’s some fragmented recollections…

Drove to Kentucky over the weekend to see my teacher and one of my writing mentors, Nancy Perkins, get married. The drive was long and, at 3am, a very cute girl at the Super 8 Hotel desk complemented my fedora. Ah road crushes…so ethereal.

At the wedding I saw some fellow writing students and former teachers. Many people who never saw me in a suit before (I finally broke down this year, and got myself one). I decided to go all black…except for a red tie. Got lots of flattery. “Wow Josh, you look good!” “Doesn’t Josh look sharp?” “He looks like he drove a hearse.”

I took that last one as a complement.

Drove back home (6.5 hours). Picked up some things, and my serpentine companion, Lenore, and drove down to Eureka (3 hours). I slept a couple of hours at most and then had my first day of stage combat training. It was pretty grueling, running 8 to 5 (as it will for the next three weeks). I hurt in places I didn’t know I had.

We did a warm up (which was more of a work out). Practiced falls, unarmed combat, rapier techniques, and then quarterstaff. I think I enjoyed the rapier the most (I would have thought it’d have been the hardest). It felt very focused and right and it came to me easier than the other stuff. I like the foot work and the various stances.

And tomorrow begins another day so I’m going to drink some NyQuill and try and break my nocturnal ways…at least for the next few weeks. The other students think we should get some plastic light sabers and use some of our newfound skills in the evenings, after class, at the dorm house.

OK…time to sleep.

Oh…I advanced in the novel contest I entered. You can read about it HERE. I entered the contest, sending in a synopsis for a novel set in the company’s fictional world. Now I get fifty dollars and a chance to write the opening chapter. If I get passed that, I (and the other winners) get a thousand bucks and then write the entire novel. The best of that is chosen and given an advance on the royalties of the published book.

Wish me luck.

Now it’s time for sleep…