Annemarie has three dogs now? And she's still running. One thing you might not know about her and her husband is that they moved out of a much higher-priced sub-division so that she wouldn't have to work when their baby was born. I was very impressed with them when I found that out. It seems that too many Americans are willing to sacrifice everything that's really important to "store up their treasure on earth." (Somewhere in the Gospel of Matthew).

Just do it. Yes. Somebody, maybe Ben Franklin, said that "I'm a firm believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work the luckier I am."

I've got a lot of writing friends who've written novel after novel and have yet to be published. But I know they will because right now they're tapping away at another. Talent helps, but there are thousands of very talented writers out there who will never see their name on a book jacket. Woody Allen is right. Show up.

Actually, Annemarie may be down to one now (but more kids). She used to run with 3. Lately I've just seen the one.

I set a daily goal of 250 words, due to the overwhelming-ness of my work schedule, sometimes even that seems like an enormous hill, and my Sisyphusian rock is the novel I'm working on. But I show up. Every day. And though there are days when I only get one or two paragraphs, there are days when the Muse is really there, and I'll log 14 pages. It all evens out. It's the "keep on keepin' on" attitude that dictates the difference between the winners and the quitters.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, quitters never win and winners never quit, or something like that.

This hs got me thinking, Mark. I ran for years and I managed to push myself out the door and run when I didn't feel like it much more regularly then I manage to write when I don't feel up to it. Maybe I should try to tap into that psychology.

I try to write every day.

I don't succeed, but I try.