Is This Guy Only Going to Write One Blog Per Year? Are you serious?

It's been a long time coming. I haven't been very active in my blog. And I will tell you why. I've been hustling. I've been busy busy busy. I finally finished and graduated with my MFA! That kept me quite busy; especially the last two semesters. I think the most challenging class for me in that program was Researching and Writing About Literature. All the classes were challenging, but in a good way. If there is no challenge, there is no point. I will try to blog more.

What else have I been busy with. Trying to get published after grad school. It's like sales to me, it's a numbers game. A million cold call attempts and tons of rejection. But I've just got to smile and dial so they say in the telemarketing world. I just got to keep submitting with no quitting. I have a collection of short stories that I'm rather proud of, they're entitled Flipside. I'm working on a memoir and a novel.

I've secured myself two book signing author talk events, one in my hometown Midland Michigan, and another in Royal Oak Michigan. The one in Midland will happen at the Grace A. Dow Memorial Library, and the one in Royal Oak will take place at the Royal Oak Public Library.

I've been as of recent, drawn into getting more involved with theatre again. But the more involved I am in theatre the more other areas of my life suffer. I was cast in plays this past summer that I had to drop out of due to reasons of mental health, and I recently dropped out of assistant directing a play. Not so much mental health but the gas money and the time consumed that comes with no monetary benefit. I've realized that if I am to become a better writer I need to spend my time writing. Not being nostalgically involved with my former self the professional theatre artist. It's time for a new chapter a new Jacob. Not so much the actor, but the author.

I've decided to start reading more than usual. In my MFA program we had to in addition to class work read a list of 40-50 books of our choosing. Which was great for us. My Uncle Jim, who's also a writer told me when I first got into this was that one thing writers do when they aren't writing, is that they read. I have a tendency to read too many books on craft and not enough narrative in the form of novels and novellas. So I'm going to change that and try to read an equal amount of narrative as I do craft.

To Oak Park and Beyond...