The chime rang throughout the room as he flipped the coin again. His last dollar. It landed on heads and he grinned: “Heh, Lady Luck don’t fail me now.” Giving the coin a kiss, he set it down on his mouse pad, in front of the last cup of coffee he could scrape from the bottom of the jar and the smile fell from his face as his fingers began to tap away.

“How did you do it?” He looked up and blinked then gave an awkward grin. “I honestly don’t know. I mean I just wrote and wrote, I think I wrote for about 12 hours straight, and it all just came together, poured out of me. I emailed my editor -the editor who’d given up on me years ago – and suddenly I was being given a 1,000 bucks advance and told to come down to the office in the morning.” He gave a slight laugh at the pat on the shoulder. “Well, that must’ve been some muse that smiled down on your last night. Anyway, you’re up. Go get ’em!” He grinned, stood and walked in. He was sure he’d wake up any minute now but he’d enjoy this thing while it lasted.