Everybody knows that to become a respected writer, you must develop neurotic obsessions that cause you to procrastinate and blow deadlines. My book is due out next April, so I gave myself a good chunk of time to research and write. Nevertheless, I still have found (and find) ways to read novels & short stories instead of working on the book.

Here are the creative works I've been reading in lieu of writing my own creative work:

Drown by Junot Diaz.

The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen.

The Complete Short Stories of Flannery O'Connor.

Norwegian Wood by Huraki Murakami

Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz.

In addition to reading, I do promise that I've put your Kickstarter dollars to good use. For example, I've withdrawn all $1200 from an ATM in twenty dollar bills. Each night, I spend about 5 minutes forming stacks of $100 on my desk. Then, after making stacks of $100, I turn on a fan and blow around the bills. Then, I make stacks of $200. Then, I turn on a fan and blow around the bills. Then....

You get the picture. On occasion, my wife knocks at the door to the study and asks if there's a problem and why am I turning on and off the fan so much? To which I reply - "Just putting my backers' dollars to work and stack'in d'em billz."

But seriously, I've finished 8 chapters, have 2 left, and the artist Erik Ebeling has submitted some amazing sketches for the artwork. I'm starting to get excited and we're still 6 months away from sending out the backer rewards (and the book comes out in April for backers, in May for the rest of ye).