Warning. Spoilers ahead. If you haven’t read The Neon Heart, yet (and why not? It’s great) you may want to hold off on this one. Though, maybe it will entice you to buy the book and give it a read, so what do I know?
As September approaches and my focus shifts to the next book in The Synthetic Albatross Novella Series, I’ve been thinking more and more about my previous novellas. Then, I realized that I hadn’t done a behind the writing for Neon Heart (or I did and I forgot). So, I figured, now would be a good time for one. A long time ago, I didn’t really like reading that much. I would enjoy certain books and when I found one that tickled my fancy, I would devour it, but getting me to read wasn’t easy. Then one day, when I was watching Blade Runner for probably the fifth or sixth time, I noticed at the end of the credits that it was based off of a book. (I’m getting somewhere, just stick with me). I had read some Star Wars books, but other than my love for sci-fi movies and television, I didn’t really know much about the genre. (The literary genre at least). The book at the end of the movie was called, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and trying to get a copy of that thing when the only bookstore I knew of was the Coles at the mall was not easy. I had to endure countless bad jokes and confused faces. Continue reading “Behind the Writing: The Neon Heart (Part One of Three)”
Remember when everything even remotely related to the internet had to have a lowercase ‘e’ in front of it? Then Apple made the ‘i’ a thing and we’re still feeling the backlash from that. It’s all a moot point, though. I just wrote the title and it struck me that we’ll be stuck with eBook for the foreseeable future. 
It’s August, and you know what that means. Nothing in particular. Oh, it also means that I have a month left to keep working on the Invasion Novel before I 
As you know, I’ve been trying to suss out some of the reasons as to why my writing productivity plummets in the summer. I think I was on the right track with the chaos that the Day Job brings this time of year and with the usual uptick in events (that hasn’t happened this year). There’s also the serious issue that the people who I go write with become unavailable (kids and stuff) so it becomes much easier to just put off writing or even cut my sessions short (where I’m about finished but the other person is still going so I managed a little more). There’s this other thing, though, and I don’t think it has anything to do with the season. 
You’re going to have to stay with me here, because this one is personal and may not make sense to some folks. Sundays tend to be a day for me to get things done. I’ll have stuff piling up all week and not enough time or energy to do the little things. Things need cleaning, desks need organizing, clothing needs to be folded. Sometimes I work on Sundays and that’s that. It gets skipped or whatever. Sometimes I work Saturday nights until three in the morning and I sleep most of my Sunday away. I’ve made it clear that I love my breakfasts. Sundays aren’t always a good time for a solo guy to venture out into the wild to find some eggs and bacon (or sausage if I’m lucky). The later in the day I start my search, the more the obvious options fill up. Plus, I have things to do back at home. When that happens, I get creative in what I consider breakfast. That leads me to a breakfast burger.
(and not just because of the name). It’s essentially Eggs Benedict on a burger and that counts as breakfast for me. They’ll even serve you a cup of pretty good coffee.
The place is generally clean, though, and the servers and bartenders are friendly. The kitchen is open to the rest of the restaurant too (just behind the bar and in the corner) so you can watch your food being made (a bonus for an overly concerned eater like myself). As I said a bunch already, everything I’ve had to eat there has been either good or great and the portions are generous. It’s not the cheapest place to go, but it’s definitely worth the cost. The Benny Burger (sans hollandaise sauce for me) requires two hands to hold. The large patty is topped with a mound of ham and a fried egg. Napkins are a must. Pair it with a tatter tot poutine (that’s kind of like hash-browns, right?) and that’s a breakfast (or lunch, or brunch) to write home about. Just be ready to have to work to get your bill. For some strange reason, it takes a long time to get it, no matter who’s working.
It look longer to get her this year than it has so far, but I’m at the point where I’m writing a big piece and not much else is going on. You already know I’m writing the Invasion Novel right now. It’s going okay. Obviously, I’m not giving it as much time and/or effort as I should (I never do). With the day job being what it is (been over 
At the start of summer (but really in the middle of spring (at the end of April?)) I had two major goals. They both involved writing and had to do with the Invasion Novel. Since I always have a drop in productivity in the summer, I wanted to finally figure out why it happens and work through it. Also, now that I’m working on a novel again, I wanted to speed up the first draft process, get it done not only faster, but also on a schedule (that coincidentally would also increase my summer productivity). So far, I can call it a succes-ailure. I believe I’ve discovered that the main source of my summer drop off comes from the change in schedule (and hours) at the day job, and from the fact that 