In today’s Journal
* This is me, griping.
* Today
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
This is me, griping. You might want to skip it and goe straight to “Of Interest.”
Apparently, an al-Quaeda operative (or other bad guy) deep in a cave in Afganistan can talk clearly on demand by cell phone to a contact on the planet Jupiter. Yet if a gnat passes gas in Mississippi, my internet doesn’t work in Arizona.
For the past two days, the internet’s been down in the Hovel. It’s hard-wired with a cable that isn’t supposed to be affected by moisture or otherwise adverse weather. (The Hovel is about ten feet outside the effective range of WiFi from the house. Go figure. I refer you back to the story about al-Quaeda.)
We do still have WiFi at the house, if sporadically, depending on that gnat in Mississippi and what he ate recently. So this should be only a minor inconvenience. However, apparently I’m spoiled.
The thing is, I’ve gotten used to working in the Hovel in the early morning from around 3 to 5 a.m. and then through the rest of the day. In the early morning, I search the internet for items for “Of Interest.” I also and prep the Journal, during which ideas come to me for topics, etc. I even delve into Facebook a little when I remember to do so.
By then my first cup of coffee is gone. So I slog up to the house in the pre-dawn, refill my cup, and head back to the Hovel to start my day. Seriously, if I had a coffee maker and a cot out there, I’d never have to leave.
At that point I attend to one of the many notes scribbled on the white board that hangs near my desk. I can write, or I can work on one of the many licensing projects I have in the works. And I can do all of that knowing if I need to hop on the internet for a moment of spot research or to listen to another lecture or whatever, I can do so.
In other words, I’ve built a routine around the framework of the luxury of having the internet available in the Hovel.
Not having that luxury is annoying. And it really is a luxury. I know that intellectually. But sometime over the years, it’s also become a necessity.
But the only sure-fire fix I can think of would involve me switching sides philosophically and killing people for no reason. So I guess I’ll put up with the inconvenience, albeit begrudgingly. I just hope I don’t have a need to call Jupiter.
Today I’ll work on creating a new routine, one that I hope will be temporary. I’ll get today’s edition of the Journal out early (since I’m doing it from the house) and then return to the Hovel to write and/or work on some of the other projects I have going on.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “Reviews and the Art of Avoiding Them” at https://www.deanwesleysmith.com/reviews-and-the-art-of-avoiding-them/. Read and heed. This is a wise man.
See “Debunking Copyright Myths” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/debunking-copyright-myths/. I recommend registering the first work in a series (or not), but not everything you write. But to each his own.
See “Whose Story Is it?” at https://killzoneblog.com/2019/11/whose-story-is-it-first-page-critique-sunny-days-ahead.html. Some good stuff here.
See “6 Steps to Get Your Self-Published Book Into Libraries” at https://www.janefriedman.com/6-steps-to-get-into-libraries-self-pub/.
See “Writing Truthiness” at https://www.thebookdesigner.com/2019/11/writing-truthiness/. When your writing gets “stuck” you can try all the stuff in this article. Or you can just write the next sentence. Works every time.
See “Business Musings: Scheduling: A Process Blog” at https://kriswrites.com/2019/11/20/business-musings-scheduling-a-process-blog/.
The Numbers
Fiction words today…………………… 0
Nonfiction words today…………… 610 (Journal)
Total fiction words for the month……… 6481
Total fiction words for the year………… 391574
Total nonfiction words for the month… 14440
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 295520
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 687094
Calendar Year 2019 Novels to Date…………………… 7
Calendar Year 2019 Novellas to Date……………… 1
Calendar Year 2019 Short Stories to Date… 4
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 43
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 197
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
I learned all about the way good reviews screw with your head, and I did it the hard way. 😀 They’re the worst thing in the world for bringing out the perfectionist that hides in the back of my brain waiting to pounce. I second, third, and fourth the notion that good reviews are so much harder than bad to shunt to the side if you accidentally find yourself reading them. Don’t! Avoid at all costs.
Good luck getting the internet fixed. I live in a rural area myself and there are days when I just want to tear out my hair because my connection is so slow, or keeps cutting out on me.
Thanks, Lynn. In a closely related note, now if only I could convince writers that they’re the worst judges of their own work, when they think it’s bad as well as when they think it’s good. 🙂