This little nugget is courtesy of author Michael Haskins. Enjoy!
A writer died, and due to a bureaucratic snafu in the hereafter, he was allowed to choose his own fate: heaven or hell for all eternity. Being very shrewd for a dead person, he asked St. Peter for a tour of both.
The first stop was hell, where he saw rows and rows of writers sitting chained to desks, in a room as hot as a thousand suns. Fire licked the writers’ fingers as they tried to work; demons whipped their backs with chains. Your typical hell scene.
"Wow, this is awful," said the writer, appalled. "Let’s see some heaven."
In a moment, they were whisked to heaven and the writer saw rows and rows of writers chained to desks, in a room as hot as a thousand suns. Fire licked the writers’ fingers as they tried to work; demons whipped their backs with chains. It looked and smelled even worse than hell.
"What gives, Pete?" the writer asked. "This is worse than hell!"
"Yes," St. Peter replied, "but here your work gets published."
I love it! Thanks Michael (and Michelle!) for giving us a Sunday funny!
Well…that’d explain the marks on my back.
Friends and relatives keep telling me how lucky I am to just sit at home and write. I’ve tried telling them that it hurts to write a book. That it’s a painful process in which much time is spent curled up in a fetal position – crying – as the joy is sucked out of my life.
They helpfully point out that the costs of promotion, touring, and attending conferences is tax deductible. I try to explain that only works if you have income.
They don’t call us “struggling authors” for nothing.