Blog Post No. 544
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.
I was going to title this week’s post A Room of One’s Own, then I looked up the title in Wikipedia. I knew it was the name of an essay by Virginia Wolf, and I knew it had something to do with needing a space (and money) in order to write, what I forgot was that she was taking about the specific issues women faced when writing fiction and I really didn’t want to co-opt that (even as a silly tittle for a dumb blog post). As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, this post will deal with the basic idea of needing space, physically and mentally, in order to write. (There are plenty of great women writers that you should check out for more on their personal struggles like Brittni Brinn, Elly Blake, and Vanessa Shields, among many others). 
Something happened at the end of February that lasted until about a week ago. I don’t want to say it’s unexplainable because I’m sure there is an explanation, just not one I’m capable or willing to explore. During those three weeks I had a huge increase in views and visitors to this website. In one week I got more views than I usually do in some months. Most of those folks were American and most of them here came from Facebook. It was as if I paid for one of those Facebook ads, but as far as I know, I didn’t.
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.
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 
I’m sure everyone has heard or read about how extensively people can acclimate to just about anything. There are people out there living with pain, stress, or other burdens that (while I’m sure it beats them down) they have just gotten used to all the things they do to mitigate their situation and move forward. Sometimes there’s no other choice and sometimes it seems easier to just put up with things the way they are than go through whatever it may take to change them. That’s an extreme example, but I’m sure we’ve all had a temporary burden hardship like a broken down car or 
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 
Ben Van Dongen 