Blog Post No. 521
It’s not officially winter, but it sure feels like it in my area. I know some places have already had some pretty heavy snowfall, but we just got our first light dusting last week. I was in the kitchen making something to eat and listening to music before heading off to the day job, occasionally looking out the window to watch the falling flurries and I had a strong sense of déjà vu. I thought back on a fond memory about the snow which led to others. Sometimes the snow and cold are a nuisance, but they don’t always have to be.
I’m going to try something new this week. The end of the year is just around the corner and I’d like to get my views and visits up a bit. More importantly, I’m a little low on things to write about so I decided to take three ideas that may not be enough for a whole post and see if putting them together is something. I could have stretched each one out into a full post, giving me three weeks worth of material, but would those three weeks be any good? We’ll never know since I decided to try this instead!
I didn’t intend to wait this long to write a 
A friend of mine shared a great concept with me regarding last week’s post about 
I’m not a scientist. I say that not because I think you’ll mistake me for one, but because I’m naturally not someone who takes notice of things around me. Maybe it has something to do with writing, but I’m often in my own head in day-to-day life and even when I’m out in the world supposed to be experiencing things. I know some folks who are really good at keeping track of things like how what they ate made them feel a certain way or how when they do a certain thing it makes their back hurt. Then, they act on that information by either changing their diet, not doing the back hurting thing, or taking that information to a doctor.
The brief but glorious season of Autumn is upon us and unlike the last few years, it arrived on time and has held on with cool, crisp air, a flourish of colour, and inevitable darkness. (It’s not all good, but two out of three ain’t bad). I’m determined to enjoy it for as long as it holds out, even though I’m not actually spending much time out in the cloudy skies and refreshing weather. I’m still a homebody at heart and, like a skittish forest creature, I’m wary of others. I’ve waxed about my love of the season 
I have a very minor dilemma that actually isn’t a dilemma. I want to do something and I know I shouldn’t and I’ve learned through years of inactivity that there is an obvious solution. Even thought I know that, I still have this want. I think the want is really an amalgamation of fatigue, stress, fear, and maybe a bit of boredom. It’s the worst kind of want to act upon and I know that and to be honest, I already know I’m not going to act on it, but it’s still there while I write this. 
My first story submission to an open call was rejected. I’m not surprised. I wrote it last minute, it was for a horror collection, and I struggled to make the story any scarier than intense. It would have been nice if it had made the cut, though. I was happy with the idea, if the execution was a bit lacking. Plus, even though it wasn’t a big payday or anything, the little bit of extra cash would have been a tiny boon to my current focus on financial goals.
I’m a little embarrassed at how long it took me to get back into the edits on the Invasion Novel, but I’ve finally started to go over 
I might be off work again soon and I don’t know for how long it will be. Hopefully the time off will help kick start me back on the Invasion Novel edits. I really need to get over the hump on that one. I’m so tired all the time from the state of things at work. And from being an adult in a world seemingly crumbling. That’s the thing about the world, though. If you get out of your own narrow perspective, you’ll see a lot of similar events have happened many times over. We’re not that special.
Ben Van Dongen 