Sean

I [no longer] work as an auto insurance adjuster ("can you describe the damage to your vehicle?" 'it looks like it was dragged over 150 ft of rock'. "I'm advising you that your vehicle is a total loss." 'No shit.'). I write [more, now that my novel is over half-done] in my spare time ("The sensation of being punched full-force in the jaw is at once both sobering and intoxicating. That sense of surrealism is gone; pain shoots through my face as my cigarette flies out of my mouth, exploding in a shower of embers against the wall behind me, and I stagger backwards, stopping as I feel the subtle outline of bricks through the back of my leather jacket."). I play poker [professionally, now] in what used to be my spare time ("raise." 'all-in.' "Call." 'Ten high [straight, which is implied].' "Uh, dude - 5 7 8 9 10. You literally have ten high. Good hand.").