So many things to negotiate. So much you need to know. So much you need to remember. Sometimes, I’m not sure how I manage to cope from day to day.

I’ll tell you one of the things I find hardest to deal with. Passwords.

There was a time when passwords were kind of cool. Passwords could get you into secret clubs. In stories, characters would use passwords to join gangs, or gain access to hidden treasure. But these days, passwords are everywhere, and you don’t use them to gain access to anything cool and secret. You need them to pretty much do everything.

At work, you can’t do anything without a password. You need a password to access your files. You need a password to access your mail. You need a password for admin stuff, like putting in leave. Sometimes, you even need a password just to access the internet.

And outside work, it’s just as bad. All those social networks each need a password. One for Facebook and one for Twitter. One for Goodreads and one for Google. Not to mention the ones that anyone foolhardy enough to be a writer has to have, like Amazon and Smashwords.

Then there are the essentials. Banking. Home networks. Hey, I even have a password so I can pay for public transport.

It’s driving me bonkers and I can’t take it anymore.

Part of me wants to be done with the lot of them, and just use one password for everything. But then people tell me that’s a really bad idea. Something to do with security, apparently. I suppose I can see their point.

So I guess I don’t have a choice. All that brain power I’d really love to use for creative stuff, for making things up and solving problems, is just going to have to be roped off for the absolutely uncreative but utterly necessary task of remembering my passwords.

Modern life really is hard work. 

No, I’m not some sort of ice-skater. Hey, I live in Australia, where ice is actually in short supply. We have a couple of skating rinks, but believe me there’s no risk of falling through into freezing water below.

I’m talking more about the general business of life. I always feel that as I go about my day-to-day business, I’m that close to stuffing up big time and making a big mess out of everything.

It feels like that in all aspects of life. My work. My relationships. My writing. I often feel like I don’t have any competence in any of them. I’m just living a complete sham, constantly covering up and trying to hide the fact that I have no idea what I’m doing.

And I always feel like I’m about to be found out. The next thing I do at work, or the next thing I say to a family member or friend, or the next thing I write, will finally reveal my secret and I’ll be well and truly revealed to all the world.

For some strange reason, it hasn’t happened yet. Occasionally, there’ll be near misses. I’ll say or do something that will make people give me funny looks. Or something I do will create some sort of ruckus. Sometimes I’ll quickly take responsibility and fix things up before they get out of hand. More often, I’ll cover up, or just get myself out of there before I can be blamed.

But I know my luck can’t last forever. Eventually, I know all will be revealed. Then the ice will crack and I’ll fall down into the freezing water (metaphorically of course).

Hope I’m wearing something warm.

Have a great week –  and please don’t tell anybody.

I’m not sure I always manage to live up to that ideal. Sometimes, I even think I might be going backwards. But wherever I go and whatever I do, there is one thing that constantly hits me.

Gosh we humans are good at complicating things.

It happens all the time. You start off with the best of intentions. You have a clear goal and a simple plan. And then what happens? Things get complicated.

Sometimes it isn’t just you. The more you involve other people, the more you know things are going to start getting tangled up. But other times, you can’t actually blame other people. It just seems to happen that way. Everything seems clear and simple, until suddenly it isn’t.

Of all the lessons I’ve taken from life, I think this would have to be one of the biggest ones. It’s had a massive impact on the way I try to live my life from day to day. I’m constantly telling myself, “Keep it simple. Don’t try to complicate anything.” Because I know that no matter how simple I try to make it, it won’t stay that way for long. But at least if I try to make it simple at the beginning, I can limit the extent of the complexity that will eventually overtake it. 

I think this is one of the big factors with my writing as well. I try to keep my stories as simple as I can. That’s partly because I know that somewhere down the line they’re going to get much more complicated, and I’ll need to figure out how I can manage that. But also because they help to accentuate that message back to me. I think one of the main goals of most of my stories is to try to show the simplicity that lies beneath all of the complexity we create, for example using insects to demonstrate the absurdity of modern political processes in my novella Flidderbugs.

Anyway, I think I better quit this before it starts to get way more complex than I can handle. Hope you have a great (and not too complicated) week.

Happy Halloween

The hosts of our party have some mean bad guys hiding among their pages. Today, some of our authors open their books and let their monsters take a peek outside. Click on over to the Awesome Indies, read the descriptions and vote for the monster you think is the creepiest.