Another nine hour shift today, so not terribly exciting. Except for one thing: I heard back from Cactus about Cafe Noir Poems (I) today—they want it! I’m getting published again!

I will probably be more excited later once I’ve had time to process on a day when I am not working a nine hour shift. About that: story was empty again, I was miserably cold. I ate too much food too fast on my fifteen minute break. They also gave me a plaque congratulating me for five years of work there. Looking at it, I feel both anger and disgust, and no happiness, so I took the thing and dumped it behind some other garbage in the back storage room of the house. I didn’t even take it out of its bubble wrap. Don’t want to look at it. Don’t want to think about it. Five years of my life, there. Good for me. It is what it is, that’s fine, but I don’t want a plaque for it.

Anyway, the chapbook. Cafe Noir Poems. It’s part one of what was supposed to be a longer work. But that first part stands alone just fine, and I also decided I wanted to keep the rest of it more private for a while longer. It’s complicated. I’ll probably publish it someday. Maybe I’ll take the best parts of it and publish it as a part II sooner rather than later.

(Yes, I know that’s a laugh from me when I’m also doing this here project. “Privacy.” Haha.)

I have to leave for work in about twenty minutes. It’s Sunday the 14th. Movie night is later on, and that’ll be fun. Tomorrow, I’ll be working on another short story in that collection, and that’ll be the second-to-last. It’s stil freezing cold.