Failing at Vice

Since the recent push for my series means I may have new people here who've just discovered me (I got a Facebook message from someone who got the 99 cent book and has already devoured the entire series!), I thought I'd say hello. This is where you'll read about my discourses on writing and the publishing business, my own travails in trying to pound out more books (writing is hard), my efforts to instill some musical knowledge in a group of insane kindergarteners, my personal phobia about singing in public, my never-ending effort to maybe get a bit organized, books I've read, TV shows I'm obsessed with, my fondness for bad TV movies, and my overall attempts to get something resembling a life.

Speaking of which, I'm apparently so bad at vice that I may have to pick up a vice or two in order to properly observe Lent. At church, they passed out some prayer and self-denial calendars, with the idea that instead of giving up one thing for the entire period, you would give up a particular thing each day, and if you fail that day, you donate a dollar to charity (they even passed out the little banks for your fines). I guess whoever made up the calendar and I have very different lifestyles because for the most part, it won't even be a struggle for me. It's things like "don't go shopping except for food," "no personal texting" or "don't go out for coffee." I don't do much shopping, I try to avoid texting, and I don't drink coffee. I do run into a fine line on the days where it's personal computer use, since there's such a blurry line between personal and professional for me. While social networking is a way I keep up with friends, it's also an important part of marketing my work. Instead of splitting hairs, I'll put a dollar in the bank for that day. Then there's the day for no secular reading. That's another dollar day because reading is an important part of my work and I'm currently trying to read my way through the Nebula nominees so I can properly vote. I might have been able to get by if it had been a weekday for that item, but it's a Sunday, and that's the day I catch up on my reading because I try to avoid doing any other work on Sundays. My biggest vice is probably watching TV, but I didn't actually watch TV on the day marked for that.

So maybe I need to go out for coffee (tea, in my case) or take up gaming so I can give it up for a day. I'm fortunate that my work and the things I do for fun are so entwined that I can't give up the things I do for fun without hurting my work. But I probably could stand to have more fun -- not necessarily "vice" fun, but a little self-indulgence wouldn't be bad for me.

But now I must go obtain tea, some spices and some lemons from the Indian market. Most of that is medicinal so I can sing properly on Sunday morning. I'm still getting that adrenaline surge every time I think of it, so maybe I'll be used to it by then. I just need to be able to control my breathing better when I'm nervous.