Oh, everybody else will do it.

This past year was good and bad. As you may recall, when the year began I was still just working part time as public relations director for the South Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce. It was a cushy job that wasn’t too bad, other than being part time for not a lot of pay. I was still boiling over being wrongly terminated from the same position at that university.

I tested for and received a license to teach journalism and English in Oklahoma secondary schools.

In April I went to work for the Oklahoma Department of Transportation as a public information officer. That lasted just over four months because the director of the department happens to by kinda psycho. That was a surprise, considering how good it was to work with her when I was a reporter. Over the summer I interviewed for numerous teaching jobs, but didn’t get any. While at ODOT I worked on projects for the 50th anniversary celebration of the interstate system and the annual NTPAW conference, held in OKC this year.

In September I reported my boss at ODOT for violating federal employment laws and resigned to pursue teaching. From then until the end of the year I worked mostly in Moore, with some days in OKC schools. Some days it was hard work, but I loved it. A couple of weeks ago I was hired to teach English at Western Heights High School. Hopefully this is my last career change … at least until I can become a full-time novelist.

Speaking of writing, 2006 saw the republication of both Darkscapes and Shara. Scrybe Press continued to disappoint in the way of payment, royalty statements and the release of Seven Days in Benevolence. Amazon Shorts published the short story “One Night in Benevolence,” which apparently has not even had 50 downloads yet, since I have yet to see any money for it. My short story “Scream of Humanity” was published in the FenCon III program book.

I finished writing the next Werewolf Saga novel, Ulrik, and turned it over to Scrybe, as required by my contract. I also wrote the novella Little Graveyard on the Prairie and it’s being looked over by a publisher now. Amara’s Prayer was taken for representation by Bob Diforio and sent to a major house for consideration, where it continues to languish, I guess. The Prometheus Syndrome is still looking for a home, too.

In family news, I guess the big news was that Amanda and Jacob had to go to daycare over the summer. Amanda escaped that when school started. Jacob, of course, began pre-kindergarten, his first year in school, and, I think, proved that he really is going to be the problem child. Kim worked the same job all year, and the company didn’t change hands this year, so she’ll only have one W-2 for taxes, as opposed to my … several, plus a few 1099s.

Here’s hoping we all have more (or continued) success and happiness in 2007!