Now I'm crying over Manny being Manny

Ugh, I'm bummed. Last night my Carolina Hurricanes won game 3 of the series with Boston, and my LA Dodgers set the modern-day record with a 13-0 record at home to start the season.

And today I found out Manny is gone for 50 games.

F-I-F-T-Y.

Five-Zero.

Look, we have a great team, and we may still win the NL West, if for no other reason than we're playing the equivalent of three AAA clubs and a rookie-ball team. But still, it has to have an effect on the players to lose the guy for 50 freakin' games.

And he isn't even going to appeal, which says a lot.

He was tested and found to have elevated levels of testosterone, which led via paper trail back to a medicine called hCG, which is essentially a fertility drug. Thing is, it is also often used to reactivate the male testosterone-producers after a round of HGH (an illegal steroid that tests can't detect).

Maybe he really needed it for he and his wife, and we're all jumping to the wrong conclusion. Truth is, with Barroid still out there and no one able to indict him and his huge San Francisco melonhead, I don't think it much matters. My team is still going to go a loooooong time without Manny, and I'm now disappointed in a guy I really liked to cheer for. Maybe I'll be a hypocrite when he comes back and still hate Barry but love my guy again. I dunno. But I'm still bummed for the moment.

What does this have to do with writing, you ask? Hell, not much.

Except that somewhere Jeff Shelby, SD madres fan extraordinaire, is bound to be smiling.

Dammit.

A Hurried, but New, Beginning

I find myself in an interesting position. Due to the snows, today was the last day of exams for the first semester. Tomorrow is the first day of the second semester. I'm also in the editing-the-first-and-fleshing-out-the-premise-for-the-second manuscript stage. Big goings-on, I tell ya. So yeah, we teachers are all a little freaked out because we have no break at all between the two, and I'm even more freaked out with my manuscripts, even though I have no real deadline for them. I just never wanted to be the "I spent five years writing this!" guy.

I imagine that freaked-out feeling must be what it's like when you have book deadlines, on top of editing deadlines, along with putting together a premise for the next book (series or no). Sounds pretty harrowing.

I'd still take it in a heartbeat, but that's not what has me concerned.

How will I handle it when I have those deadlines AND school?

See, here's the thing: most writers I know of, who are the primary family breadwinners, still have their day job. It's widely known that only a precious few have the sales to live on their writing alone. That said, you've got to burn a hell of a lot of midnight oil to essentially work two full-time careers like that.

I worry about whether or not I'll be able to cope, because it's not a matter of choosing what to sacrifice at night when you have stuff to grade. My writing can go at my own pace NOW, because I'm writing to land that first agent/editor/book deal. But once those wheels get rolling, I will still have papers to grade. I am completely in awe of authors who make that work, because I have no idea how I'll do it.

Don't get me wrong, I AM going to find out. I'm just wondering/worrying what it'll be like when I do.

So my question is this:
To published authors - Man, how do you guys and gals do it? (honest answers or pithy comments welcome...Shelby, Getze, I'm looking at you two here...)

To pre-published writers - Am I alone in this, or does anyone else worry about the same thing?