2022 has been a year. While this wasn’t the most difficult year of my life, it certainly hasn’t been easy. And this December the hits have just kept coming, with furnace problems, well-pump problems, and power problems. (We’ve lost power for significant amounts of time the last three days. It’s early today—no guarantees that we’ll […]
Essay – Reflections Forward and Back Read More »
TLDR version: I will have cataract surgery sometime in the next three months, to replace the lenses in my eyes. Plus, avoided an accident this morning. Longer Version: Last April, 2022, I was diagnosed with cataracts. I’d asked before about them, as my brother had them and my grandmother as well, but no doctor ever
All About the Eyes and This Morning’s Near Miss Read More »
I’ve come to realize that one of my traditions over the holiday season is to cook and bake. It’s partly nesting, digging in, and making food while it’s nasty outside. Before the plague, it would also be social: I’d go to cookie-making parties, holiday potluck parties, or to my brother’s house and would cook for
Essay – Holiday Baking Read More »
I made my word count goal for the year, which was 500,000. YAY! GO ME! Seriously. I’m very pleased with actually making my goal for the year. When I count words, I count everything that I consider intended for public consumption. So in addition to the fiction, I count blog posts, Patreon essays, newsletters, etc.
Year End 2022 and Looking Forward 2023 Read More »
Essay – Low Stakes Ever since the start of the pandemic, I haven’t been interested in reading a lot of heart-stopping, high-tension, high-stakes books. I also haven’t been writing those sorts of books either, at least, not at first. I needed lighter stories with lower stakes. I remember the first time I realized the need
Essay – Low Stakes Read More »
We live at the end of a cul-de-sac. We don’t actually live on the cul-de-sac. Instead, you drive to the end of the cul-de-sac then go up a gravel driveway a quarter-mile to our house. For the first few years when we lived here, none of the neighbors knew we were here. They didn’t know
I am writing this a little bit before my 61st birthday. I have been racking my brain trying to find some words of wisdom that I might share from this grand pinnacle. (My birthday was on December 1st) I got nothing. Earlier this year, was when I kind of had might come to Jesus moment.
Essay – On Turning Sixty One Read More »
I’ve written before about being anti-stogy, about trying new things all the time. I don’t want to say that I’ve been stuck in my writing. I’ve been trying new things, learning about and then experimenting with new genres, and so on. I try to stay both fresh as well as relevant. Looking back, though, those
Essay – Trying Something New Read More »
I’ve been working on the current novel for about a month, now. I just checked the date. It feels as though I’ve been working on it a lot longer than that. This is mainly because I’ve been so frustrated with this thing, kind of from the start. I knew what the first chapter was supposed
I came down with COVID on November 1. I am mostly recovered at this time. I am still building back my stamina. I can do things, but then I need to rest. Like for example this afternoon, I will do the hydroponics. After that I will take a nap. (ETA: I actually didn’t have to!)
General Updatedness – November 2022 Read More »