T minus... 546

Series: T minus...
Rating: PG-13
Character: Jaejoong
Summary: Jaejoong keeps a diary during his enlistment...

546

So, okay, I lost the bet.

To be honest, I didn't think I would ever win this one, super high stakes or not. There was a small chance that I might get posted to the asscrack of doom without the chance to communicate with anyone outside of the barracks unless I was on leave. I might have had a chance to win it then.

In any other scenario it was always a long shot. An extremely long one. So long that my noonas fell over laughing when I told them. And I couldn't rightly argue.

Five weeks without a phone during boot camp was purgatory, even though we didn't have a minute to ourselves all day and were dead tired the rest of the time. So even though that time was included in the bet, I never really felt it counted.

So… if I discount boot camp, that's seven weeks without posting a selfie.

That's not too shabby, right? Even if I did lose the bet.

All previous entries.

My tweets

• Thu, 12:36: So true. Going for a walk helps. Or writing something else for a while. #amwriting https://t.co/pnJcZ06CK6
• Thu, 18:39: One for my collection of phone boxes. This one's a VR. Now I just need to come up with a character… https://t.co/rrC3ire29b

And so the waiting starts again?

Jack 2.0 - that's Ghost for anyone listen to me rabbit on on Twitter etc. - has left the building and is winging his way across the pond to Florida. Last time I did that I was a nervous wreck for the rest of the day. I actually had a friend sit on top of me to make sure I went through with it. This time around I was all by myself and nothing evil happened if you discount ten minutes of me frantically checking the email I had just sent for missed spelling errors, before running off to get yet more coffee and some lunch before settling down to the day job.

And wonder of wonders, I'm getting work done. And I managed to fit in a Japanese lesson and some chores as well.

It's not that I'm blase about the whole, far from it. But Ghosts is a story I had initially intended to give away for free. That's before it took on a life of it's own and swelled to novella-size proportions. If DSP turns it down, I can still give it away. Or I can self-pub it ahead of House Hunt. I could even keep it back for inclusion in the short story collection that's tickling the back of my mind.

There's so much that I've learned about books and publishing in the last year, that I'm no longer wide-eyed frightened. Excited, definitely. Chuffed that I pressed the button - you bet. Grateful to all the friends who've encouraged me - totally. But also relieved that I'm proving to myself that I can do this.

So now, the waiting starts again. But I'm sure it will feel differently this time. Less frazzled and more hopeful. After all, I have two novels sitting at 80k that need finishing. I can't hang around haunting my inbox now, can I?