I'm back, and as the old joke goes, 'Boy, are my arm's tired! Although it's only been 5 days. It feels more like 6, maybe even, 7 days. I missed my "peep's". Hey, don't look like that, I got some peeps, but, I did miss OS. This place is like home. and leaving, if only for a few days, is tough. I couldn't help but keep an eye on some people, and I read a few blogs, but didn't comment much, and really, I didn't have time. I had only 7 days to finish editing the next Great American Novel, or I would have to pay for the program I ran it through. Yep, I'm cheap.

I'll tell you how this program works. First, as everyone knows, I never attended college. Believe me, it's something I think of everyday, and I would of had a free ride. My dad was a veteran and died while serving, so I would have gotten paid to go. Yeah, I was a serious fuck-up, but you know this, right? Having never taken a creative writing class, or any English Lit courses since high school, and even then, I did not write anything, and over 30 years, you forget. Man, do you forget! There are a million rules, when writing the English language, that I did not know three years ago, when I first started this blog.

The first people on OS that read my writings , who are still around anyway, are probably falling off their chair's right now. They were, TERRIBLE! But, as I look back, and re-read it, even with the hundreds of mistakes, the imagination I'd had since I was a wee lad, was still there. I wrote stories in my head for over 50 years, I just needed to learn how to put it to paper. Matt did a great piece about this on Viewshound today. The internet, has opened up writing to the masses, and that, more than anything, is what I think the internet has done for society.

OK, OK, I'm getting to it. The Program? Grammarcy has a wonderful site, that has a program you can purchase, at various prices, of course, that you can run your stuff through. Everything that has ever been taught in the English language (and other languages) will pop up. It will not do it for you, unfortunately, but it explains what you did wrong, and I did not know how stupid I really was. Man...,

The deal is, you get a 7-Day Free Trial, and then they take the money for the program you bought, out of you bank account, or PayPal account. I was lucky enough to win a couple bucks writing some stuff on Viewshound, and figured, what the hell. But, I also figured, I had somewhere between 50 and 60 thousand words to edit. Surely a hard worker, such as myself, could do that in, 7 days. I did it in 5, but I swear, I was working 10 hours a day, and I loved it! Loved it.

Never has a dumb-ass such as myself, learned so much, in so little time. I started writing the book about a year ago, and I could see the progress I had made, from reading your posts on OS. I have devoured everything, every great writer on OS, has written since I've been here. This was where I learned to write, but Grammarcy taught me a thousand little things I did not know. I will always write, now. If only to amuse myself, which will probably be the case. But, to learn to write, and to be understood, is one of the gifts we are given. I won't waste it again.

I already have a novel. But, I do not care about the length, I want every paragraph to KILL. I want the reader, to not be able to put it down, like I have done so many times. That, my friends, is hard to do, and the people who do it are few and far between. I know my first effort will not accomplish this, but, I had forgotten some of what I had written a year ago, and I had a hard time editing and not jumping ahead.

So, that's what I have been doing, I hope to have it finished in about 6 months. Finished, finished, finished, because I don't think you can ever finish a novel. There are always things you want to change, and I probably will.Writing is hard work, but the thrill you get when you hit Publish, is better than any drug I have ever done. Thanks, Guys~