Small Town Vibe

Blog Post No. 531

At the end of the 2000s, I spent some time in another city for school. The city in question is a bit larger than the one I’m from, but it’s also fairly close. It takes less than two hours to get there on the highway. Personally, I like to take the back roads, which makes the trip a little closer to three hours. I did that drive a good dozen times that year, driving past small towns with a couple of stop signs (or sometimes the highway went right through them). Since the drive was leisurely and my mind wanders, I liked to imagine what my life would be like if I moved to one of those towns.

Three Posts in One!

Blog post No. 520

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!

Section One: Digital vs. Physical
I ordered a new CD and a new Record this week. I picked up a couple of extra hours at the day job on Mondays (losing half-an-hour to an automatically deducted break). Since most of my holiday shopping is done, I thought I could get away with the purchase. I’ve been trying to go back to getting physical items in general; books, movies, games, and music. Partly because it’s nice to have the physical object (especially when the object is cool like an album or special edition movie. The bigger reason is that, while I’m all in for the convenience of digital media, I like to own the things I pay for.

Missing the Sessions

Blog Post No. 493

Christian was at Shock Stock last weekend and I can’t tell you how disappointed I was that I didn’t go with him. (But let me try. I was very disappointed). I’ve mentioned a few times recently that I don’t feel comfortable at public gatherings yet. That means he had to make the difficult decision to go without me. I know he must have been torn, but he soldiered on alone—with his family. His daughter filled my roll admirably, selling stickers (and probably drawing in more people than I would have with my dumb books).

Reluctant

Blog Post No. 490

I was hoping to announce that Snow from a Distant Sky is available this week, but I haven’t gotten the sample copies from the printer (as of writing this) so the wait continues. I hope I get to release it soon. Not just because I’m excited for people to read this one, either. Since the province where I live is opening regardless of infection rates, I’m getting more and more requests to take part in events.

Going Out

Blog Post No. 428

It’s taken nearly a year, but I’ve had my first real pangs of missing going out. I’ve missed my family and friends and I’ve certainly missed meeting the Writing Wrecking Crew for writing sessions, but going out for the sake of going out has never been my thing. I enjoyed going to the bars in my 20s, but even then that wasn’t my favourite way to spend time. As I talked about last week, I love going to cafes and I’ve missed my regular visits to Anchor. I love going for a quiet meal or seeing a movie, too. What I’m feeling now is different from just being tired of staying in the house, though.

Ode to Anchor Coffee House

Blog post No. 427

Right off the hop, I want to point out that while the location Huron Line is gone, the Anchor Coffee House and bakery in Walkerville is going strong. I’m ecstatic that they have managed to keep the Walkerville location open during the pandemic. Sadly, due to heightened risk, I haven’t been much support. I am enjoying a cup of local Chance coffee while I write this. I bought a bag when I stopped by to pick up the books that had been for sale at the Huron location. It’s good, but nothing replaces actually going there. The atmosphere, the people, the other customers—there is something special about going to a good local coffee shop and spending a little time enjoying a good beverage.

Eight Years of Posts – 2020 in Review

Blog post No. 424

I totally get the end of a year being a meaningful starting or ending point for people. We perceive the passage of time naturally in days and seasons, but we created weeks, months, and years to make it easier. It’s not like because we started a new year that everything is reset, though. The same issues we had a week ago are still here (unless it’s something you’ve already taken care of, in which case, good job!).
Still, I mark the passage of a year on this blog. I’m up to eight years of weekly posts. It may not be special for everyone, but I’m pretty proud of it. I had some rough starts where ten or so posts came whenever I could force myself to do them, but when I decided to give writing a go, I made a commitment to weekly posts and here I am.
Now, it’s about this time in each of my yearly review posts where I point out that I have one gleaming error in my otherwise pristine blogging record. One week (when I was working three jobs at the time) I missed putting a post out on Thursday and got it out on Saturday instead. I’m usually hard on myself for that failure, but thinking back on it this year, I was able to convince myself that I did manage to get a post out that week, so it’s not all that bad.

A Little True Story

Blog No. 368

I had to go into work on Monday. I usually get the day off and make up for it sometime over the weekend. The shift started later in the morning, so I went for breakfast at one of the places I wrote about earlier in the year. I enjoy taking my time at meals, and I had plenty. The restaurant was empty when I went in. It was a rainy morning and they had some quiet music playing that matched the mood. The songs were familiar, but nothing I’d heard before. I was served right away and sat with my coffee looking out the window at the wet street.

Changing Gears

Blog No. 366

The Fall Book Crawl is over, and I’m not sure what to do with myself. That’s a lie. I have a literally endless list of things to do, but no events scheduled anytime soon. It’s about this time (often sooner) that Christian and I sit down and put together a list of events for us to approach and/or plan in the new year. It hasn’t happened yet, however, and I suspect that the delay is down to simple priorities. I was laser focused on the novella, and he is knee deep in his next novel. I’m at a standstill with the novella, though, with the second draft finished and doubt. As Christian goes over Broadcast Wasteland for me (another distraction from his novel) and I finalized the title of the next novella (a little early, but I have to put it in the back of this one) I have the comic as my main focus. Scripts are a tricky thing to write. You’d think that with so much free space and mostly just dialogue to write, it would be way easier. In my experience it isn’t.

Summer Review

Blog No. 355

I know it’s technically still summer until the 23rd, but lets be honest. For most of us, the summer ends at the start of September. That’s how I feel, anyway. Since so much of my summer was rooted in self analysis and self criticism, I’m now at the point where I can look back, see how I did, and hopefully, come to some conclusions. The focus in question is my summer slump. Every year from some time in may to usually September (if I’m good) my productivity plummets and I haven’t been able to nail down why. The obvious answer to outdoor-type people is that summer is spent having adventures and enjoying time outside. I am not and outdoor person. Especially not in the melting heat of the summer. So, that was an easy one to rule out.