NEWS: Here today is the

NEWS: Here today is the launch of the new design. It’s easier on the eyes and easier to navigate. Enjoy!

I’ve been thinking about unfinished business. There are so many tasks left undone in one’s life. So much to do really and never enough time. I think the important tasks are, or should be, the ones that get completed. Some talk on and on about the novel they’re going to write, the mountain they’re going to climb, the graduate degree they’re going to go back and get, — whatever. Talk is very, very cheap.

The life of things is in the doing — & completing. I’d rather hear someone say they’d applied to 23 graduate schools & been denied by all than to hear vacuous talk about wanting to go back to school with no action behind the words. To someone who can complete that first novel I say, “Hooray!” I say never give up on your dreams — but you have to work at them. “Chance favors the prepared mind.” Somethings may fall on your lap — and the more luck you have the better — but being a writer or being anything doesn’t consist in talking about it. Do that which you desire — and perhaps do that which you fear.

Living a good life takes courage and discipline. The ability to work is also important, as lazy people don’t amount to much. Some books take a lifetime to write (Whitman) and others take a fortnight (Kerouac) but it is those people who worked at it that have achieved something. Some people say, “Oh, I could never get an article published in Salon.” — And they’re probably right. Their attitude creates their reality.

So what I’m saying is WORK! I love people who know what they want in life and are ready to stick their necks out for it. Today is the day. Saying you’ll start working on it next month, or after the baby, or after I get my promotion, is like I said cheap talk. Sit down and draw up a schedule of the week & mark those times that you can work on your dreams. It’s all up to you.