Hello, blogosphere.  I know I've been neglecting you, at least as a contributor.  I have been visiting other blogs and reading.  But that's not the point, right?  This is supposed to be my blog, so I'm supposed to regularly post here.  Apologies.  Tomorrow will be a new chat log from our chat with Mike Resnick but today, here I am.

I've been doing a lot of different things lately.

First, I am still tweaking my novel manuscript as I wait for the publisher to read it over and approve the contract, so he can send it to me.  I have another small press insterested but I'm debating whether to go back to them because they are less on the same page with me than this one is and that's important.

Second, I am still trying to get the editing I've taken on rolling at a good pace.  I work some each day but the nonfiction job is complicated and history, so accuracy in facts is really causing me to spend a lot of time working slowly to be sure I don't edit out the wrong things.  But that just delays me getting to other projects.

Third, I am working on outlining novel 2 in the space opera series of which Book 1 is about to sell.  The first was a coming of age/adventure story, but the second is shaping up more into a chase thriller/murder mystery.  So I am working hard to outline it in a way which can help me capture the right pace and page turning effect needed.

Fourth, I am revising some short stories with the hopes that I might finally place on with a paying market.  Three are priority, the first being my prequel to the above mentioned space opera novel series.  What better way to promote the book than get the world and characters out there, right?

It frustrates me how much my crazy, out of control world is effecting my writing.  I used to be so much better disciplined.  I wrote through a major health crisis with my wife a year ago.  But right now, I am just really fighting depression and such loneliness, and so it's been difficult to keep myself on the same keel as I have previously known through hard times.  It's weird to "not have time to write" when you are unemployed and spend a lot of time sitting around the house all day.  But somehow I manage to do that.  I do get some reading done, some outling and editing, but not as much as I should be and am capable of.  I can only hope this will change.

In any case, still here, still pushing on, and I hope to have more exciting and useful blog entries soon.  In the meantime, if you're looking for an inexpensive book for Christmas, my "North Star Serial" is a great buy and appropriate for all ages.  Find it at www.bryanthomasschmidt.net and click the Pay Pal link.

Blessings, For what it's worth...