What made me happy today?

Yesterday the activity committee at work gave out some cups of watermelon cubes as a "hey, middle of summer it's August have a good day" thing. One of my best friends is on that committee and when I stopped by to grab some watermelon, she said they bought too many so she offered me one of the extras. I got to take home a chonker of a watermelon for free and I'm so excited to cut into it!
 
Technically this was last night, but it was kinda late! On a lark, I googled my pen name to see what the results might be, and I discovered that a magazine reviewed an issue that I was published in last month. Fortunately the comments were positive, as they didn't only have good things to say about the stories in that issue.

Screenshot 2025-08-06 222949.png
 
I haven't made a book or tried to sell it (yet). I just did a whole lot of work around my flat: did the laundry and ironing, put fresh sheets on the bed, did the shopping, washed the car, and mopped and dried the floors. Not bad for half-a-day's work.

As a reward, I'm taking a brief holiday.
...
I'm back. It was lovely. ;)
 
The company planned a merger, promised not to affect jobs. The merger went through, we had a corporate all-hands town hall meeting, and once again we're assured no jobs will be affected other than those few in duplicated positions. The layoffs should be done by the end of the first quarter of '26.

There are so few layoffs in the offing it will only take eight months to get 'er done. Here for crucifixion? Line on the left. One cross each.

Which really makes me happy. As the good Dr. Johnson once said, "Depend on it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

I just love this sense of clarity.

On top of that, recent ideas I've had about outlining are working out great. Who cares about layoffs when writing is going so well?
 
Amontillado said:
The company planned a merger, promised not to affect jobs. The merger went through, we had a corporate all-hands town hall meeting, and once again we're assured no jobs will be affected other than those few in duplicated positions. The layoffs should be done by the end of the first quarter of '26.

There are so few layoffs in the offing it will only take eight months to get 'er done. Here for crucifixion? Line on the left. One cross each.

Which really makes me happy. As the good Dr. Johnson once said, "Depend on it, sir, when a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight, it concentrates his mind wonderfully."

I just love this sense of clarity.

On top of that, recent ideas I've had about outlining are working out great. Who cares about layoffs when writing is going so well?
Click to expand...

I hope you video- or audio-taped them saying that no jobs will be affected, Amontillado. And updated your CV.
==========
As for me? People in my department at work heard that I write books and asked to see, so I gave them a first-chapter "freebie" to read.

My boss enjoyed his little gift and commented that I put so many little nice details, he felt "transported" there, which was gratifying. It's always nice when your story touches other people. :)
 
I wrote a novel during Nanowrimo in 2010. Back then, if you claimed you finished Nanowrimo you could have a proof of your story printed for free by CreateSpace, an offer I took up. I've had my (absolutely terrible) "book" proof on my shelf since then as a small source of pride, but I lost the digital document in one of my many digital migrations from laptop to PC to laptop to cloud.

Last night I realised I could check CreateSpace to see if they had the document I uploaded way back when. That was a dead end, but while going through my old e-mails I found that I'd sent myself copies of the story regularly during Nanowrimo, so now I have it, in all its cheesy, terrible glory. I can finally find the scene where the goblins invaded Tesco's:

The goblins are everywhere, climbing on top of the self-checkout tills to reach us. The room is a chorus of many an authoritative voice saying, “Unexpected item in the bagging area. Please remove item before continuing.”
I grab a shopping basket from the tills and bash any goblins that come near me, then heave it towards the automatic doors, which won't open for us. It just bounces off. Aww fuck. What now?
 
Yes, but I have to wonder: where did the goblins come from? And why are they in Tesco's?

Maybe they just want a job in the stockroom ... 😊

Anyway, this made me very happy:


Their performance has so much infectious enthusiasm and chemistry. :) I'm not surprised that just 7 months after this, they got engaged. Congratulations to them both! :)
 
Congrats and welcome to the wonderful world of above-outlet operations! Get your lieutenants in order ASAP.
 
I am a couple weeks out from self-publishing my third novel, after failing to traditionally publish it, along with my second (I only submitted the first one before I got snapped back to reality - I was a novice, still learning). Buuut I started submitting the second to some independent publishers again over the past couple of months as there has been a bit of a horror resurgence going on.

This morning I received a full request from an indie publisher that I queried two months ago. It's my second full request ever, after more than 400 novel queries. They don't take on more than a couple new authors every year, so I know the odds for success are astronomical, but it's still cool to have an editor-in-chief read one of your chapters and ask to see the rest of the book. Hoping for the best, but I'm keeping a realistic frame of mind.
 
Congratulations, JT! :) Congratulations, Set2Stun! :) Wonderful news, and all the best to both of you! :)

Here, have a heartcake!

heart-shaped-cake-decorating-tutorial-vegan-raspberry-lemon-1.jpg
 
I found a Smith Corona Galaxie 12 Typewriter at a thrift store for $25. It works beautifully and I love it dearly. Also the replacement ribbons are only $10 and easy to install. It is blue and has the case! I already write 2 pages of story on it and it's strangely calming.
 
Luxuria said:
I found a Smith Corona Galaxie 12 Typewriter at a thrift store for $25. It works beautifully and I love it dearly. Also the replacement ribbons are only $10 and easy to install. It is blue and has the case! I already write 2 pages of story on it and it's strangely calming.
Click to expand...

I have an Olivetti Lettera. I did write a story on it. It made me really appreciate all the comforts and conveniences our word processors provide. It also made me realize that my writing process is highly dependent on erasing sentences a lot. It seems that often, I'll type and erase a sentence until it feels right. You can't easily erase on a typerwriter. Not on mine anyway.

One thing that's nice about them is their singular functionality. They don't have a browser window to distract you! It's just the keys, the page, and your story.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

big soft moose
  • Sticky
What made me unhappy today ?
57 58 59
Replies
1K
Views
24K
X Equestris
X Equestris
Naomasa298
Your word count today
2 3
Replies
48
Views
753
Homer Potvin
Homer Potvin
mel
New Kid on the Block
Replies
8
Views
325
mel
mel
Stuart Dren
Push Notifications
Replies
3
Views
79
Homer Potvin
Homer Potvin
big soft moose
  • Sticky
The Gratitude Thread
2 3
Replies
59
Views
2K
Trish
Trish
Back
Top