There is Work and Working

 Friday:

I found out I will be trained for a new position at the warehouse. This should be may more pay, but also put an end to my three-day weekends. 

I got the phone working. The problem was I did not know how to open the back and did not want to break the thing. I called KH, and we talked until the thing cut us off. I was too tired to call him back. 

"Problem Solving" Received another rejection: 

Thank you for sending us "Problem Solving." Unfortunately, we do not have a place for it at this time. However, we appreciate the opportunity to read your writing and your interest in Peatsmoke.

We hope you find a good home for your work elsewhere, and wish you the best.

Cheers,

Wendy & Bess

-- 

Wendy Wallace and Bess Cooley

Editors, Peatsmoke: A Literary Journal

editors@peatsmokejournal.com

peatsmokejournal.com

Twitter: PSmokeJournal

I did no writing and only a bit of reading before I called it a night. 

Saturday:

I was up early, eating breakfast, and making a trip to McClure's for a bottle of Coca-Cola before the sun was up. The lungs feel better today.

I went through the email and a few articles online:  The Nazification of American Society and the Scourge of Violence, 5 Over 50: 2022 and An unholy alliance. I got three posts written this morning.

I listened to last night's Crap From the Past  and today's Backwoods.

"Problem Solving" was submitted to Invisible City and to The Plentitudes

I keep debating on when I will go out again into the wider world.

I did one post this afternoon. I will venture forth now. Fiction will wait until my return.  

Southern Indiana Review does not want "Problem Solving":

Thank you for your submission for an upcoming issue of the Southern Indiana Review. Unfortunately, we are unable to accept your work for publication at this time.

Sincerely,

SIR

The trip to the grocery was almost a disaster. I went to Payless after picking up my last check from By Hand and Fork. Almost everybody was glad to see me, but I got the distinct impression that the other dishwasher was not happy with me. Grocery shopping took too long, and I missed my return bus, which then put me on schedule to miss the Whitely bus. At Payless, I saw a young black woman wiping down not only the handle of the shopping but all the outer part, too. I got home by way of the Mall bus and a walk over from the strip mall north of the mall. I ate a little, tried working a little, but started yawning. My nap lasted not an hour but almost three. 

This was not planned, but part of my plan for these three-day weekends was to recuperate from overwork. 

During my absence, I had my story in mind. Now I went to work on it from about 8 pm to 1 am. I emailed KH when I finished, I said it was done, and he would not like it. I am going for a more drab, restrained style - which is odd since the story goes back to 2010 when I was not feeling restrained at all - to tell the story of a society indirectly. It will be taken to be the story of the titular character, rather than how the titular character is a tool of his society.

Along for the ride, I had T. Rex (Slider) and Lou Reed (Growing Up in Public and New York)

Sunday:

No alarm set, so I slept until around 8 am. A quick breakfast, a few more changes to my story, a quick rundown of my email. Read The First Climate Fiction Masterpiece: On John Wyndham’s 1953 Novel “The Kraken Wakes” by Matthew James Seidel from The Los Angeles Review of Books; and from The Guardian: Divided times: how literature teaches us to understand 'the other', and lluminations by Alan Moore review – a savaging of the superhero industry; and Redirection of South Shore Line Drops Indiana Riders Directly Into Lake Michigan from The Chicago Genius Herald.

I got one long post out of all that reading.

I called my niece, again. Furthermore, I let my sister know the phone was working and had to text a bit with her. 

Since about 9:30, I have been listening to this past Thursday's The Greaser's Lunchbox.

I need to get some new shoes today. I think I will take off around noon.

New shoes were purchased at Kohl's. I find it very hard to find sneakers that are wide enough. I am now ready for tomorrow's job interview.

Another long post on writing was completed and will be published on 10/30. I have one story left in the queue, but I would like to get to the pretrial detention journal. The paper piles need reduced!

I spoke briefly with DM. When the phone was out, I missed its clock. I need to get over my dislike of talking on the phone.

Tony Joe White (Lake Placid Blues) and The Cramps and The Doors (LA Woman), Betty Lavette (Let Me Down Easy) (and if you have not heard Betty Lavette, then you have been missing a great singer), Flogging Molly (Life is Good) got me through the late afternoon. I have come to really appreciate White; chalk that up to Philly radio.

I read Baptism à la Carte: Or Why the Orthodox Need to Discuss Human Identity Seriously, “Inherent Vice, Bleeding Edge, and Thomas Pynchon’s Hardboiled.", The Myth of the Private Eye: In Search of Hidden Truth, A Three Point Plan To Fix the Democrats and Their Coalition (which I find convincing), Story Structure: 7 Narrative Structures All Writers Should Know. I skimmed The Scottish Review.

I called GR and left my number on her voicemail. I do not expect a call back. So it goes.

Submissions of "Problem Solving" were made to:

• Bellingham Review
• Glassworks
• Copper Nickel.
• faultline 
• The Carolina Quarterly 
• Colorado Review 
• Salamander
• Sundog 

While doing all the submitting, I ran across Outcast by Saoirse McCann Callanan. I think it incredible and brilliant.

And now I am yawning my head off. Time to close out.

sch