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"What's it going to be then, eh?" is how every part of Burgess' A Clockwork Orange starts.  It's how every day of our own lives start too.

Is this the day we step up, take the risk, get our shit together?  Is this the day we finally do everything we've been putting off?  Is this the day we're going to do something different, something special?  Or are we just going to muddle through it, work another shift at a job we're sick of and do the exact same thing as yesterday?  I'm not trying to be inspirational here, I'm just stating facts.  If we want to change our lives, we can.  In P. K. Dick's A Scanner Darkly Rob Arctor had a wife, a family, a job.  Then he hit his head unexpectedly on an open cupboard door and decided that it wasn't the life he wanted to live anymore.

I guess that's the closest analogy I have for how I became a writer.  It happened almost by accident.  And I'm still struggling to work it in around my full-time job, having a broken hand (which you might remember from my previous blog) and my family.  Honestly though, I'm still figuring out what to do with what I've written.  Before approaching agents with the first book in the series featuring Alex and the Madhouse Kids I'd like to self-publish a stand-alone novel online.  I've got a half-finished NaNoWriMo project, but there's a long way to go with that one.  So I guess if I want to go down that path I've got to write another book.  I've also recently submitted two flash fiction pieces which may get published if I'm incredibly lucky.  I also want to share some of my writing on my blog for you all too.  Maybe if my flash fiction pieces don't get published I might publish them here.  Another idea is I could share some horribly embarrassing songs I wrote when I was in university.  Any suggestions you may have would be welcome.  Let me know in the comments.

Back to "what's it going to be then, eh?" though, that's not a once-a-day type question.  That's asked of us every time a colleague tells a racist joke, or when you see sexism or bullying on your way to work, for example.  When you're in a position where you see any behaviour like that, you automatically ask yourself "shit, should I say something here?" or have a "what's it going to be then, eh?" moment.  And stepping up in that moment, stopping the bully, telling them that sexism or racism is not acceptable, actually changes you too.  You feel better about yourself, you feel like you're more capable, and you won't spend the rest of the day / week / year wishing you did something.  This is actually the topic of one of flash fiction pieces I recently submitted.  It is based on my own experiences, and when writing it I titled it Heroes but since there's a few references to the Bowie song of the same name, I changed the title at the last minute.  To avoid any possible legal issues, basically.  Anyway maybe in a couple of weeks I will publish it here. 

I probably shouldn't be writing at all right now, because of my broken hand, so I'm going to sign off here.

Stay well, and if you feel like it, tell me about your "what's it going to be then, eh?" moments!