It’s Inevitable, like Death and…

Taxes. ::insert big sigh::

Blech. How much do I hate doing this? How much do I hate rediscovering every year how hateful self-employment tax is, how much I owe the government in Social Security — Social Security, I might add, that I’m never EVER GOING TO SEE AGAIN! I was never so good at math, but it seems counterintuitive that 15.3% of practically nothing is such a hell of a lot, doesn’t it?

I also get to total up the cost of being an unpublished writer. Ugh…. good thing I’m not entering so many contests next year. New Year’s Resolution — to spend more on submission postage than on contest entries.

And that only took a few hours this morning. I was delightfull UN-Diverted for the rest of the day. I might even make my revision goals fo the night, since I’m back on the Big Schedule (hereafter BS) starting today. I’m driving a hard bargain, but I must, must MUST improve last year’s rate of one book per year. In 2003, I wrote one and a half books and a novella. this year, I revised one book and wrote another, and I didn’t even have a full-time job for most of the time.

As I remember from college, the busier you are, the more you accomplish, so perhaps I shall be able to write three books this year if I have a full time job. That’s the goal, anyway. I decided AGAINST making any sort of “get a contract” goal. I only made goals on things I can control. I can control how much I write. I can control how much I submit. I can control, to some degree, how much I make, by taking as many jobs as I need to make up for any salary deficit. I cannot control the caprice of editors. Unfortunately.

Anyway, back to work. 25 pages to go before I sleep.