Got a note from Mark and just wanted to share it with everyone...
Happy Holidays! I’m sorry I’ve been a ghost lately. I’ve been pretty busy, and it’s all good, but it’s definitely taken me away from my writing.
About eight years ago I started working on my PhD, knowing that if I wanted to stay in higher education a terminal degree was a requirement. The first years were fine, but the past few have been grueling, as I’ve tackled that ultimate academic challenge: the dissertation. For an ADD child like me, that’s truly the ultimate nightmare, since starting big projects and then finishing them are two of the trademark difficulties with that disorder. And it’s even tougher since it’s a solitary project, so there’s no one there to work with other than busy committee chairs. But I finally got the damn thing done, and defended in August, so now I’m officially a “Dr.”
So while that’s really good news, all that academic writing has largely sucked the life out of my fictional muse. And it’s largely stifled my libido. It’s hard to write gay-themed stories, even if only slightly laced with erotica, when one has an academic writing mindset. I’m trying to work my way out of it, but the spark hasn’t relit itself yet.
Other than that, I’ve been doing relatively well for an aging white guy, and staying relatively healthy. I hope you guys are doing well too. I’ll try to be productive in the new year.