100.

That’s what post number this is. Can you believe it??? I certainly can’t. My journey since I started writing regularly in December has been a truly wondrous one, and while it hasn’t all been glitter and tulips and tiaras, it has been overwhelmingly positive, when I consider growth and learning and challenging myself to be good things, despite the pains that inevitably accompany them.

Along with my success journal, which I will start tonight, I’ve got a few new bits of daily reading to do for a new commitment I am making to myself. I will make two quicky reads morning things, and will spend a bit more time with the more substantial text at night before bed. One of my favorite fantasy worlds, Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar, has at least one trilogy, if not more, in which “ground and center” is a skill the characters are taught as the foundation for controlling their magic. That’s sort of how I’m thinking of doing this reading – my magic is all willy-nilly right now because I am not grounded or centered, and it will help me get there.

In other writing-related news, the evening I wrote about my thoughts on the hiring process and wanting to extend an offer of resume and cover letter writing skills to the masses, I heard a piece on Maine Things Considered about unemployment rates among veterans, particularly those in the 18-24 age bracket. You guys, this is something I could ROCK. Not only did I grow up a Navy brat, but my brother is retired Army with two tours behind him, and I’ve been a partner to both an active servicemember who was in Iraq while we were together, and one who served three years prior to us meeting. I understand many of the ways military skills translate to the civilian workforce, and am familiar enough with the vernacular that these vets wouldn’t feel like they had to do all the work of educating the civilian writer chick. So, I’m going to do a little research and find out whether I should approach the organization whose spokesperson was featured on MPBN, or if I should contact the VA, VFW, or even MEPS and the recruiting offices. I was talking about this with a friend the other day and realized the disparity between types of businesses and their reaction to veteran applicants. I’d never really thought about it, but sure, I can see how the TSA may be more gung-ho about someone with military training than, say, SARSSM, when screening potential employees. At any rate, they deserve an opportunity to sit and brainstorm with someone who can tease out the ways their service would make them ideal employees, translate it into civilian terms, and put that on paper.

I’m pretty pumped about the idea, because it not only addresses a serious problem right here at home, but would serve a population I have always felt a strong connection to in one way or another. Plus, I gotta admit I do have a great appreciation for the uniform, not to mention those military manners. ;)