Where will Joe go?

Just a quick and dirty update before bed, because hey it’s been forever since I’ve posted to this thing.

Holy crap, this last week was CRAZY for my family!  Youngest sister got married, middle sister had a baby, and oldest sister…well, I’m not at liberty to discuss that yet.  But congratulations to all of you!

It was fun to get out and see everyone, but now that I’m back, man I’m looking forward to the next month.  Wrote 2.5k words today in ITND, only two more chapters and an epilogue to go.

And strangely enough, I don’t feel like the project totally sucks.  Usually by this point, my fingertips are bleeding it hurts so much to write.  But no, even though this is a rough draft and it needs some major story level edits, I don’t feel that it totally sucks (knock on wood).

Now, whether that’s a sign that I’m maturing as a writer, or simply self-delusion …your guess is as good as mine.  Probably better, actually.

One thing I’m really wondering about, though, are my post-summer plans.  Originally, I was thinking of taking a year to teach English someplace where I could earn enough money to live off of until I break in with my novels.  Now…well, I’m not so sure.  I’d love to go back to the Middle East, or maybe someplace like Georgia on the TLG program, but Korea…I dunno.

As some of you know, I’m in a local Provo band.  Right now, we’re just writing music, but it’s coming along quite well, and we’re hoping to start putting on shows in August.  Except…that’s when I’d be leaving, if I were going to Korea.  For a year.

Also, I’d miss out on some prime opportunities to build my writing career, like Worldcon, and that seems rather foolish if what I really want to do is be a writer.

The TLG program looks interesting because 1) it’s closer to the Middle East, geographically and culturally, 2) it’s much shorter, and 3) the program isn’t quite as rigorous.  In short, it seems like a great way to test out whether I can juggle a TEFL career with my writing, whether I’m suited to TEFL, and whether dropping everything to travel for a while is really a good idea.

Trouble is, the program doesn’t pay much, so I wouldn’t be any better off financially once I get back to the states.  Also, if I sign up now, I’d still be there through much of the fall, cutting me out of band stuff.

But if I do decide to stay in Utah for the medium term, I feel like I should at least get something out of it–like, say, a master’s degree.  In something.  Not sure what yet, but I’ll start looking into that ASAP.

Man, I can just imagine my parents cringing as they read this…

But I still haven’t nixed Korea as an option.  The applications are still going through, and I plan on completing the online TEFL course this month.  Perhaps finishing the course will help me find out if this is what I want to do.  I don’t know.

But what I really want to do (besides go back to the Middle East) is write.  And I’m not going to lose sight of that, no matter what happens.