Blog Post No. 544
I’m not going to claim that after a week and one writing session that I’m back on track with my writing and editing. That’s going to be a long, slow process, especially as I have to figure out what the new job means for my writing schedule. Chances are I’m going to be doing some solo evening writing in order to keep up any reasonable schedule (and progress). I feel like I’ve taken the first step in that area, though. Now, there’s another aspect of my life that needs some attention and, if successfully added to my routine, should help just about everything.
I’m now a couple of weeks into the new position at the Day Job and while I still feel like my hair is about to fall out (due to stress) I am starting to settle into a more consistent routine with my days off. One of the benefits of the new job was supposed to be the consistent schedule, though for the first two weeks, I had made some concessions in consideration of the new employees who had a rushed training. Now, ideally, I’ll get back to some consistency (my precious routine) and with any luck, that means getting back to at least a little bit of writing.
I’m feeling a little disconnected right now. It’s April and for the previous five years in April I had a book come out in the 
I had to be at the day job early on Sunday. (It was stupidly early). I had been dreading it for weeks as among the rest of the hectic schedule we’d been facing (the day job and myself personally) the very early shift was a beacon of impending exhaustion (for the really incredibly early start and the busyness of the event itself). The funny thing is that I’ve been struggling with where to go in the novella I’m currently writing, and it was while I was getting dressed in the (rather spectacularly early) morning that I was struck with a bolt of inspiration.
As you can read in the title, my epic run is over. Thankfully (as far as I know from home testing) I haven’t gotten the dreaded COVID, but late last week, I succumbed to the common cold. Having not been sick for so long (I have to admit) I was a bit of a baby about it. Thankfully, I had a rare weekend off, so I was able to do what had to be done to kick the butt of any cold or flu. Nothing.
In the coming weeks, I’ll hit a really weird milestone. I don’t remember the exact day (because who would) but it will be three years since I’ve had fast food. Initially I stopped getting fast food because of the lock down and not necessarily for the obvious health benefits. Even without the extra fat and sodium, I can’t say I’m eating especially healthy at home. I actually can’t stand when people spout nonsense about fast food being toxic or not real food. At least in Canada, there are enough regulations to ensure that the burger and fries are meat and potato. They’re just full of fats, carbs, salt, and sugar which in excess are terrible for you. The biggest takeaway for me has been how much money I’ve saved.
In an attempt to avoid editing, I was cleaning up my desk the other day and came across an old cassette tape. It was marked “three” in my teenage chicken scratch and had no other information on it. I popped it into my player (which needs to have its belts changed since the speed consistency was all over the place) and on the tape were snippets recorded off the radio from the summer of 1997. I had to deduce the date based on the songs that were in the top charts for the day and the advertisement for the station’s summer music festival that was supposed to be happening in a matter of weeks.
I’ve written about music a lot on this website. Some of the earliest posts are about 
Before I sat down to write this week’s post, I wasn’t 100% sure what I was going to write about. I had a few half-thought-out ideas, but nothing that felt strong enough for a post. Then, I went through some old posts to determine exactly when I started the Invasion Novel (because I’m not done talking about that thing, yet and won’t be for some time). Turns out, the first post where I talk about actually starting the novel was in 
I’m not going to lie. The title of this post is a bit of a bait-and-switch. To be completely upfront, there is only one book planned for this year and even it’s only in the planning stages. I’ve started writing my part of it, though, so I want to talk a little about it. I briefly mentioned a potential 
Ben Van Dongen 