up for air

it's blowing sideways here. i hang laundry in front of our one heater, rescue damp mail from the letterbox, and think "winter."

in the time since i last blogged here, i've been chugging along over at the Live Earth Space, entertained my parents and godparents for a two-week trek around Oz, and got rejected.

yep. crossword puzzle number three did not make the cut at the Times. i was told, "it was a close call." i suppose i should find this encouraging, but i don't.

i also paid $20 to submit my ethiopia article to the Solas Awards for travel writing, largely because i couldn't find any periodicals worth a plug nickel that would be interested in publishing it. and i think it's quite good. i feel sort of like a heel for paying someone to read my stuff, but since the other option was leaving it in a drawer...

the editor wrote back, said

I enjoyed this. Feel free to send us more stories.

so i did. emailed him this piece i'd written years ago about laos since they're publishing a Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia title. yet another chunk of my work languishing in a drawer.

it's winter. i'm getting paid well to write for MSN, but the stuff i write for myself looks up at me with pet shop puppy eyes pleading, "won't anyone love me?"

i hate winter.

next week it will be summer. i'll be in new york, then san francisco.