BE PROUD

I've been instructed by my monthly horoscope not to get down on myself for not having acheived enough. I tell you, that horoscope knows me better than I do myself and by jove, or jebus, or beezus, I am going to heed it!

This means not: comparing my writing to others; (cough *I'll never be as good as Lorrie Moore* cough); not measuring my success by that of others; not being hard on myself for my abominable lack of networking, my paltry submissions and my resistance to revising a single short story written during my two years of graduate school.

This means: feeling proud that I'm writing a book under contract about writing and staying confident that I can do the work to get Night Oracles published. This means some writing for pleasure time in my schedule and patting myself on the back for every achievement, even if it's just the act of writing this tiny post.

Self: you are the bees knees. Good on ya!

JPR