Marc Rivers, Author

I had hoped to post another short story by now, but instead I’ve been pushing through a particularly bad episode of depression. I’m doing what I can to stay ahead of it with medication and therapy. And I’ve had talks with loved ones about it.

Would that it wasn’t the case, but mental health is a big, unavoidable part of daily life. I envy those with the privilege of not having to worry about it, but I suppose this is my trade-off for having better physical health than I deserve. As much as I’d love the option of simply not being depressed, I am, in spite of the many good things in my life.

So, as they like to say, “The horrors persist, but so do I!”

As of March 15, I’m close to finishing the second draft of Wretched Us, All In Rime and polishing it for publication to this site. I’m not even making major revisions; I’m just fighting through the aforementioned depression and trying to keep pets fed. And running a homebrew D&D campaign. And it’s the busiest season of the year at my job. Then there’s, you know, the news… So, really, it’s just a matter of making time to write (because finding it is a fool’s errand when life has an infinite variety of methods to get in the way).

The other things taking up my time and attention at the moment are an impending trip back to my ancestral homeland (Louisville) to celebrate my dad becoming an octogenarian, the upcoming NCAA basketball tournaments (go Cards!), and the fact that we’re trying to be stricter about our sleep hygiene so we’re not so damn tired all the time.

My wife and I are also watching our way through Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, we just binged our way through Schmigadoon! (would have loved to see more seasons of that show), and we rewatched Sinners in theaters. Holy crap, that’s an amazing movie. I haven’t seen some of the other Oscar contenders, but I have a VERY hard time imagining they were superior films to Sinners. As I write this, it’s in the process of not winning enough Oscars, for reasons we can only suspect are related to racism.

Anyway, I’m off to remember how to hope. Wish me luck!

-Marc