7 Jan
          I've been pretty lazy lately, and not just in the writing department, but in the physical fitness department. I've put on about ten pounds since my last platoon graduated. That's the problem with being a recruit instructor sans recruits. One day it's go go go, and then suddenly it's STOP, and you just sit around at work all day surfing the net and drinking diet pepsi. An extra ten pounds is no biggie--I'll lose that and more once my next platoon starts up at the end of January, but still, I feel like crap. 
          And lets face it, I'm not getting any younger. And Mother Nature has a wicked sense of humor. Time was all I had to do was think about doing push ups and I'd drop ten pounds. But as you get older your metabolism slows down, so you have to work harder to maintain weight, but it's harder to work harder, because you're older. I vote we change her name from Mother Nature to Wife Nature. Only a wife could be that nasty. Okay, maybe Ex-wife Nature.

8 Jan
          I hate having to work for a living. Well, at the moment, I hate having to show up for work for a living. It's not like I'm actually doing anything right now, which makes it double-sucky. There's so many things I could be doing--writing being the first that comes to mind. But I can't write at the office. Mostly because there's too many other people here with nothing to do and they keep interrupting me. At least I have Internet access, and at worst I can research stuff for my novels or stories. 
         But basically I waste eight hours a day. Eight hours out of my life that I'll never get back, that I could spend writing, or working out, or practicing the guitar, or the drums, or teaching martial arts, or....um...shopping. Well, maybe not shopping. What do you call it when you go out and look at all the stuff you can't afford? Oh yeah, casing the joint.
          I have friends I should be keeping in touch with, but I've been too Apathetic lately. (And no, that's not a spelling error; it's pathetic with a capital A.) It's funny, but when I go online my other writer friends never seem to want to discuss writing with me. We just chat, which is nice, but I feel like I'm being left out of the loop. Of course, it's not like they actually need advice from someone who can't get published. That would be like asking Celine Dion her advice on sumo wrestling.
          This just in. The winner is: Black Gate, for their rejection of Harbinger. Another one of those close-but-no-cigar rejections telling me how much they liked the story, (A very solid story, fast paced and with a great opening...) and inviting me to try again. Good thing I didn't pay the old Crone in advance.

10 Jan - 550 Words
          I finally got back into the gym today, and it wasn't too bad. I'm not up to my usual He-Man self (old age), but I wasn't exactly Girly-Man either. I ran the treadmill for a bit, but my right knee is bothering me (old age), so I worked the elliptical trainer instead. A few more weeks of this and I'll make sure that the Juan de Fuca Center has the best trained ellipses bar non. Non that I'll get complacent or anything. The last thing I need is to have some rouge ellipse drag me off stage by my head.
          The writing is coming along. I've written for two days in a row now. Of course I had to go back and re-read most of what I'd written earlier just to refresh my memory (old age), but I think I'm on a roll now. Well, okay, I'm on a drunken stumble. Hmm, maybe that's why my knee's been bothering me.

11 Jan - 700 Words

12 Jan - 800 Words
          Another hard workout at the gym today. What ever happened to the concept of muscle memory, because mine must of developed Alzheimer’s over the holidays. 
          And who’s the brainiac  that decided we should work five days and have only two off. After 2-3 hours at the gym, martial arts practice, time spent writing, researching, playing the drums, re-teaching myself to play the guitar, spending time with the wife, and what household chores I can’t weasel out of, who has time to go to work? I can see it now: “Hello, Warrant? Sorry, but I won’t be into work today. I can’t fit it into my schedule.” 

15 Jan - 720 Words
          I volunteered to assist the fitness staff while they gave the new recruits their "Threshold Test" today. I helped out with the shuttle run, ensuring the recruits actually made it across the line before the beep sounded. I never realized how strenuous it is watching other people exercise. I don't know how the fitness staff does it. One of the Master Seamen joked that my efforts would be noted on my Div Notes (which is kind of a brag sheet). I said, "All I did was watch them run," to which he replied, "Yeah, but they were running right at you!"
          Another rejection today, this one on my story Joy Ride. The assistant editor had said they'd get back to me in about 8 weeks, so I queried after 10. Two weeks later and with still no answer, I queried again today. The assistant editor replied, and said that unfortunately the editor hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. I had some hope for this one, because the assistant editor had liked it, and told me so. But: "Sorry for delays in replying. Thank you for the opportunity to read your story "Joy Ride." I will say no thank you for this one. I hope you will consider submitting other stories to Neo-Opsis.
          This seems to be a common occurrence with me. I make the first editorial cut only to be shot down by the editor later. Hmm...What I have to do is find a publisher that is manned solely by assistant editors. 

16 Jan
         I had this wicked headache last night, so Pen dredges up this roll-on stick thingy from her purse and starts rubbing it on my forehead, temples, and at the back of my neck. Not only does the stuff stink, but it burns too. So now  I have a headache, my head feels like it's on fire, and I smell like peppermint to boot. To make matters worse, even though she denies it I'm pretty sure she wrote LOSER on my forehead.

MCpl: "When I was in thr Philipines I was awakened every morning by a guy who sold hot baked bread fresh from the oven."
Me: "Yeah, cause that bread fresh from the dishwasher sucks."

17 Jan - 600 Words
          So I drove Pen to the airport this morning at 0500. Who the hell flies anywhere at 0500? Pen, that's who. Those Air Canada pilots should stop asking for more money, and start striking for better hours. Let's just say that if I had to fly a plane at O-Dark-Thirty in the morning, it better have autopilot.
          Anyway, Pen's gone until next Monday, so I'm hoping to get a lot of writing and gym time in. The only thing stopping me is procrastination--and I do mean pro. I gave up my amateur-crastination status ages ago.
          And have you seen the commercial for the new Schick Quatro? Four blades--give me a break. "The new Schick Quatro--because you'll buy anything." What's next? "The new Schick Centurian. One hundred blades for the closest shave you'll ever have."

18 Jan - 500 Words
          Some people write to outlines. They know exactly where their story is going from the get go. (Well, mostly where it's going. Okay, in the general direction. Vaguely.) I let my characters tell their story. That's right, I'm an idiot. Last night my character decided he needed a boat. A freak'n sloop to be exact. I don't know a damn thing about boats. The word sloop came to me out of the blue. I had to look it up just to be sure it actually was a boat. I mean, dang, I've been posted to a navy base for almost two years and I've just now figured out which side is port and which is starboard. (Email me privately if you want to know--just in case you're characters are as masochistic as mine.) I'll get even yet, though. Maybe I'll give him genital herpes or something. That'll learn 'em.

20 Jan
          So I went to see The Return of the King again with a couple of guys from work. There's nothing like watching big battle scenes with a bunch of military guys dissecting the tactics. For example, why the hell didn't the city use its ballista earlier? With their height advantage, they could have pulverized the orc army and siege engines way before the enemy could range their weapons. 
          And when they were defending the river, why did they wait until the orcs had landed before commencing the attack? Why not pepper them with arrows while they were still out in the water? And why on earth did they wait for several orc units to pass by them before attacking and making their presence known? Sure, it's a sound tactic if you outnumber the enemy a gazillion to one--which they didn't. All they did was manage to surround themselves. The orcs had to make their way ashore through narrow passages where they could only come through three or four at a time--the perfect place to set up a defence. Instead, the defenders waited until half of the enemy force was through the gates, thereby effectively surrounding themselves. With military strategy like that, it's no wonder they mourned the loss of Borimir. I could nit pick all day, but what's the point. It was still a wicked cool movie.
          Just one other thing, though. Remember the scene at the end where the hobbits bow, and Aragorn stops them and say, "My friends, you bow to no man," then everyone bows to the hobbits? You just know there's someone way at the back of the crowd going: 
"Hey, what's going on up there?"
"I don't know. Looks like everyone's bowing."
"Oh, well, we'd better get down, then."
          And somewhere there's an eagle-eyed officer going:
"Sargeant-Major, that man over there's not bowing. Take his name."
"Yes, Sir."

21 Jan - 350 Words
          I finished the first day of my Suicide Awareness course today, and so far I haven't had any thoughts of killing myself. I can't say the same for my classmates, however. I'm sure several of them have had thoughts of killing me. Actually, fantasies might be the more accurate term. More on this tomorrow, if I survive.

22 Jan - 240 Words
          I set the record for fastest successful suicide intervention today. The scenario--there was this guy up on a telephone pole, with a hangman's noose. It went something like this:

Me: "Hey, buddy, what're ya doing?"
Him: "I'm going to hang myself."
Me: "Why would you want to do that?"
Him: "Why not?"
Me: "It can't be that bad."
Him: Oh yeah? I hate my job here, and my career manager has told me there's no way I'm ever going to get posted back to the east coast, so my wife left me and moved there?"
Me: "Do you still love your wife."
Him: "Yes."
Me: "Does she still love you?"
Him: "Well, yes."
Me: "So why don't you quit the military and move back east with your wife?"
Him: "Because I like my job."
Me: "Well, if you hate your job here, and there's no way they'll post you back there, then I guess you hate your job, don't you?"
Him: "Umm...yeah, I guess so."
Me: "So you might as well quit and move back east with your wife."
Him: "Uh...okay. I guess I'll come down now."

Total elapsed time: 40 seconds.

24 Jan - 600 Words
          Another rejection for Harbinger today, this one from Strange Horizons: 

Dear Steve Perry,

          Thank you for submitting "Harbinger" to Strange Horizons, but we've decided not to accept it for publication.  It's imaginative, and it's nice to see a story rooted in a (more or less) East Asian mythos, and there are a couple of good twists and some good character stuff; but I'm afraid the martial arts sequences felt a little too flat to me, and the story overall felt long.
          But we appreciate your interest in our magazine.

Jed 

          Jed Hartman is telling me my martial arts sequences felt flat. Maybe I should go down there and kick his ass and we'll see how flat my martial arts sequences are. Of all the things said about that story, that was the least likely I thought ever to come up. Now that's depressing.

25 Jan - 700 Words
          Perhaps I judged Jed a little too harshly. I'm sure there are people out there who think James Earl Jone's voice is a little too tinny, Marcel Marceau too much of a chatterbox, and General Patton a big sissy. They think that Michael Jackson is just a tad odd, Charles Manson has a bit of an anger management problem, and Bill Gates is just well-off. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Sure, they're wrong, but they're still entitled.

26 Jan
          Woohoo! Pen's flying home tonight. I checked the status of her flight on the Internet, and even though it only left the terminal six minutes late, apparently it's going to be about 45 minutes behind schedule. They probably got stuck flying behind another aircraft that's just barely doing the speed limit, with another plane in the passing lane doing the exact same speed as the aircraft beside it. I hate when that happens.

27 Jan
          You know you're a writer when you see a sign for Mr. Coffee and it starts you thinking. Why Mr. Coffee? Why not Mrs. Coffee? Or for a more commanding cup of java, how about Master Coffee? No? Maybe something a little more risqué; Madame Coffee? A sweet fresh aromatic brew; Missy Coffee. Or something with a more oriental flavor...um...tea.
          Anyway, Pen got home safe and sound last night. I love her dearly, and of course I feel her presence in my life in myriad little ways. For instance, while she was I way I'd get off work and come home. Now, I get off work, drive downtown to buy her a caramel apple, stop off at the jewelry store where she works to pick up the grocery list and some cash (What, you don't think she trust me with money, do you?), pick up said groceries, stop at the liquor store and pick up wine, and come home. 
          So I know I'm in love, because I'm still thrilled she's home. Busy, but thrilled.

28 Jan - 750 Words
          Someone once told me a true writer writes every day. How about most every day. Okay, so maybe I'm a false writer. Yeah, that's it--I'm the Anti-writer. That would make sense, cause I've certainly been anti-published lately. Hmmm, I wonder: if you mixed a writer and an anti-writer,  could you create a warp drive? Okay, that's just silly. Possible, but silly.