I'm getting lots of emails enquiring about my status of late so here's how things are going in my life. As of this morning, I have finished all the prerequisites for admission to nursing school and I am now waiting to be accepted. Getting into a school is very competitive with an average of more than fifty qualified people competing for every one spot. Until recently it was done by lottery but they have now changed things a bit to favor already licensed healthcare providers, of which I am one, and those who did well academically on their science prerequisites (Anatomy and Physiology, Chemistry, Microbiology) and their general education prerequisites (Nutrition, Psychology, English1A, Human Development, and Speech1A). Despite working full time during the 3 years I have been taking these classes, I have managed to hold down a 3.8 in sciences and a 4.0 in everything else. Hopefully I'll start the two year program next semester. Meanwhile, I'm still working on taking a co-requisite class each semester to hold onto my catalogue rights.
So what this all adds up to is that I do not have much time for writing, that was the thing I had to cut out of my life during this process. During summer breaks and winter breaks I try to do a little bit of composition just to make sure I still can, but I have not been able to finish even a short story, let alone a novel length. The good news is that I CAN still write (I've got lots of first chapters of stories composed during such breaks or when the class I'm taking isn't that difficult), but nothing I can commit to posting because it is unlikely I will continue it anytime soon. The last thing I need is more emails about unfinished work (and to those people-you know who you are-who keep begging me to finish Intemperance, A Lost Generation, and Traveling Without Consequence, sorry, my real life takes priority over your free entertainment and I did not realize at the time I started those tales I would be unable to finish them). My plan is to eventually finish those works, I just cannot commit to that until my current goals are met. I'm forty-three years old and I need to get this done as soon as possible.
I thank everyone for their continued encouragement and I apologize that I have been remiss in answering so many of your emails. I am only able to check my account every month or so and I still read, with joy, every correspondence sent to me-even those who offer no appreciation of my work or constructive criticism of my writing style or plots, yet insist on pointing out my every spelling and grammatical error (I know they're there, guys, really, I do, and I'm not going to fix them right now).
So that is life in Al Steiner's world. Peace to all,
AS