Matt Betts tries to explain himself

Hey, I've been really busy and haven't posted for a bit. I'll catch you up...

I've had Calvin all to myself for a couple of days. My wife was at a conference for three days, so we were on our own. It's was a little rough taking care of a 4 1/2 month old and the dog, as well as working the nine to five job. We survived, and I'm sure people do it all the time, so I can't pat myself on the back too much!

So, my wife's conference... She's the director of communications for the Library Council. I've heard how hard it is to get ready for it, how much work it is... I've always assumed these conferences were dull little affairs with speeches about the Dewey Decimal system and new book repair techniques. Not so.

Do you know what goes on at library conferences? Publishers set up tables. Publishers! And do you know what these publishers do? (Lean in close so I can whisper this to you...)

They give away books. Hee Hee!

I got a tote bag (also free!) full of cool releases and other goodies! I love those librarians! Calvin and I visited his mom (the conference isnt too far off) on the opening night. It was great. Large publishers, small press, specialty presses, educational publishers. People everywhere looking at, and talking about, books! Sigh.

Writing update:

Got notified that my zombie story has cleared the first read at the magazine I submitted it to. Mighty kind of them to let me know, not all publications do that.

Slightly closer to finishing the short story I've been working on. I really like this idea and hope I can write it the way it should be written.

Polished some poetry that is now ready to submit. I already know where its going, so that's nearly complete.

Still debating on working on the first book again or moving on to the second. I'm stumped.

Ugh. So busy. I haven't had much time to post, let alone write. It's mostly little family stuff here and there, but it manages to take up plenty of hours. Work's been a bigger hassle than usual too. People out, busy season.

The rest of the time is pretty much exhaustion, too tired to do much other than sleep and hang out with my son.

We are in an interesting situation because of my him. We've heard the people that tell you not to expose your baby to too much television - it's bad for them, contributes to A.D.D. and a whole host of other terrible things. We are of course impressionable parents of a not yet 4 month old, so we listen to everyone and weigh how much we believe them.

On one hand, there could be another study tomorrow that says babies should watch the tv because it gives them the necessary skills to fly the spaceships when the alien overlords attack. Who knows?

But, we have seen Little Calvin's reaction to television. He's transfixed. Sure, its probably the lights and sounds that intrigue him, but he's got it bad. If you stand between him and the set, he'll try to look around you. He hasn't thrown a fit or anything, but he is definately aware of it and hooked. At 3 3/4 months.

So, we've been leaving the tv off a good deal of the time. We've been talking more with each other and playing more with our son.

It's creepy. (shudders)

Just kidding, it's been cool and Cal gets my full attention without my eyes wandering to see what's on The Discovery Channel while I'm playing with him.

But... Occasionally, when he's asleep or my wife is in the other room with him, I turn it on to get my fix. And you know what? There's a lot of crap on television. I know it's not a revelation, but seriously.

There's nothing on I want to waste my time with. Yeah, I'm not really surfing at prime time or anything, but its worse than I remember. I'm so desperate to watch something, anything, that I'm playing the 'what sucks less' game.

Let's see, on this channel we seem to have a furry woodland creature racing a toddler on a tricycle for some reason or on this channel a large man with mutton chops is attempting to prove if he's smarter than an osprey. Hmmm. Or I could just watch Happy Gilmore again on this channel.

I, uh...

Although this week is a bad example, our new situation has freed up extra writing time! I've been taking advantage of it as much as possible and have been pretty productive. A couple members of my writing group have commented that they thought I would write less once the baby arrived rather than more.

They don't realize how much I used to watch tv.

We've considered getting rid of cable altogether, but that sounds so final.

So Drastic.

One of my old college roommates, Brian, stopped in yesterday to meet my son for the first time. It was fun, we all went out to lunch and caught up. We only get the chance to see each other a couple times a year, but we talk from time to time.

Brian was kind enough to bring me a new computer! Well, new to me, he built it himself out of extra parts from the last computer he built. It's a very nice machine. Fast! I surf with much speed and have mondo storage for my music and Calvin pictures! Brians been building computers forever and sets them up much better than the ones I've had from retail places. His set up is much more intuitive and doesn't include all that extra gunk. I'm rather pleased.

Going out to write in the afternoon with a writer from my group. Luck Brothers Coffee here we come!

I've been away from lj for a bit. My son got his very first cold. Which he then promptly shared with his mother and I. Wheee!
The three of us were pretty much down for the count all of the holiday weekend and the better part of this week.

I did manage to get some decent writing in here and there. That's a good thing, I think.

We had a little work done on the house and the workers neglected to mention we wouldn't be able to walk on any of the tile they were putting in for about 24 hours.

This was a problem because the tile leads to our laundry room, my office and out to the garage. So, we had to go out our back door and around the outside of the house to get to our cars, couldn't do laundry for a couple of days and I couldn't get to my computer to post or work on anything I had in progress.

I had to Gasp! HAND WRITE ideas and new stories. What is this, the Victorian Era?

Kidding, I actually do quite a bit of my writing with the pen an paper. I find when I transfer it to computer later, I edit and polish a little, which really helps.

We also left on Friday to take Calvin to visit his Great Grandparents in Pennsylania for the first time, long trip but it was fun.


The day before we left, I got contributers copies in the mail! Woo hoo! My first actual, in-print, hold it in my hands, slap my neighbor with it, wave it in the air, show it off to everybody, beat up a secret agent (a la Jason Bourne) with it, journal with one of my stories in it. Ya Hoo! It's the first issue of A Thousand Faces, the quarterly journal of superhuman fiction. It's all written superhero stories, rather than the graphic format.

Hee!

It has a flash piece of mine in it called 'Officer White Takes a Sick Day'. I love the story muchly and I'm glad it found a nice home!