When things get Tough

The last few months with COVID, going to school, and having the kids at home makes it hard to get anything done. The kids demand attention. My wife wants me to be more than just a body clacking at the keyboard. This is all understandable. The kids are just kids. They don’t understand the greater picture of what is going on. They don’t understand that writing my novels is my job. I’ve managed to talk to them about what is going on, and I think I have convinced them. However, when they ask a thousand silly questions in a row, I have my doubts.

My wife is another story. She is my confidant and business partner. She helps me with some of the non-writing aspects as well as being a sounding board for me to figure things out like new story plots and such.

There is also financial toughness. COVID has put millions of people out of work, and that causes hardship. Paying rent, bills, food, etc. That is all up in the air for most people. For me, this is not the case as I am going to school and have student loans, among other things.

For me, toughness is when things stagnate and slow down. I like having a purpose and being able to strive to accomplish that purpose. This is a big part of my writing. Having a goal and a mission to keep things from going sideways.

For many people during this COVID pandemic, they are without work, stuck in their homes, and bored. They have no purpose — their purpose was work. They have to passion — it was watching the game on Sunday. Many are being paid unemployment or some type of subsidy to get them through financial difficulties. However, the abundant amount of spare time leaves the mind idle.

So, after all of this, I ask what are you doing during this pandemic. For me, the answer is simple. I’m writing and publishing.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

COVID and the Haircut.

With the economy shut down, many businesses are closed. This post is not about politics or whether or not it was wrong to lock down or to stay locked down. This post is about hair.

All around the interwebs, there are memes about the COVID hair cut. Where someone tries to cut their own hair or the hair of a loved one. This ends up in hilarious horribleness.

For me, this is not the case. My wife has cut my hair for the last five years. The one change for me is that I have stopped shaving. A razor hasn’t touched my face in over sixty days.

But before that, I had stopped shaving. Not because I was lazy (like now), but because I was at 289lbs. I was fatter than I was now, and I have discovered, to my horror, that I had another chin. So I grew my beard out to hide that.

Now, I am weighing 258lbs, and my additional facial flab may be gone. I am not 100% sure as my beard covers my face. It could be gone, but I have no intention of finding out.

What do you think about my facial hair?

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Doing things outside your Comfort Zone

In my journey through university, I have finally found where I must take a course, not in my minor or major. In order to keep my full-time status for my student loans, I need to take three courses. I managed to find two courses I can use. It’s not the story I heard of some students taking a full semester full of electives cause they can’t find a course they can use.

For me, I’m taking a photography course. To most, it does seem like a waste of time, but for my family and me, it is in line with who we are. My wife paints, sculpts, graphic designs, takes photographs, and is a potter. She is an artist. I call her a renaissance artist as she does everything. My daughter dances. She is in ballet and tap. My son plays piano and is learning how to code so he can make video games. For me, I write novels.

The photography is outside of my comfort zone. I’m not a visual person as my stories go from my head to the paper. I use words and sentences to tell my stories and not pictures. This is something in my wife’s zone. She is the visual artist, not me.

For being a creative, going outside of the comfort zone is essential. Being in the comfort zone forces the creative into a rut or a groove. The work becomes stale, and the artist becomes dissatisfied with the project. It happens to the best artists in the world. Going outside of the comfort zone forces the creative to think outside of the box.

Thinking outside of the box is something in the basic skill set of a creative. It is one reason many become a creative. They don’t want to be at a 9 to 5 job. They want to work for themselves, creating for a living. This, I understand, as I don’t want a 9 to 5 job. I want to write my novels.

However, doing a photography course is expanding my ability to see the world in a different exciting way. Photography has allowed me to take some interesting photographs. There is not going to be anything posted this week, but starting next week, I will share a few pictures.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

COVID 19 and Loneliness

With most people being locked in their houses, going on months for some, a sense of loneliness has spread across people. People are going crazy as no one can interact with anyone. It’s like a bar that needs to be filled up, Sims style.

Being a bit of an introvert, it didn’t take much for me to be content. For me, when I was working at a real job, I had a certain amount of social interaction with my co-workers. After I was laid off and I went back to school, I had some from my class-mates. I was able to use them to fill that bar.

With COVID, I haven’t talked to anyone I met in university. My need for social interaction is not coming from anyone I met there. Which is fine as the level of social interaction was face to face and not online. Most of them I talked to on campus.

In the course of both stages of my life, I spent some of it online. My online writing contacts were there. Is it enough to make me feel fulfilled?

Not really. Writing to someone in a chat is different than in person. There is video chat, but it still is not the same.

The reason I talk about this is not to complain about what I am going through. There are some that are going through worse time. This is to talk about how I didn’t see the social interaction I was getting. I thought I didn’t need social interaction.

This is not true. I need social interaction, like everyone else. I also doubt anyone who says they don’t need social interaction. Those scenes in I am Legend with the Will Smith character so lonely that he is talking to mannequins as if they are real. For the longest time, I never truly understood the scene. I never understood how a person could get so lonely that he has gone nutters.

Being locked up in my house, I can see that happening. Of course, my life is nowhere as secluded as the fictional character. Humans are social creatures, and we can’t get away from it.

In conclusion, I wonder how you have been reacting to being secluded in your home? Which secluded movie character do you identify with?

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

April 2020 Update

With the ideal of keeping honest and transparent, here is a breakdown of April.

COVID-19

With still being locked down in my house, and everywhere closed or operation in a take-out only function, I have yet to get out to write much. My standard writing procedure is to rotate the place I write in. Most times I write at my desk. Except when I get “cabin fever” and must get out of the house. Before the COVID-19 bull, there are a few coffee shops I like to write in. One of them is Starbucks. But I only use that as they have a policy stating they can’t kick people out. The other is a coffee shop right on the beach. Being stuck in my house, I had to figure out how to stay productive.

Goal Recap.

2020 GOALS

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.
2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 731 days in the road.
3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.
4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.
5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.
6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.
7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.
8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.
9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.
10. Write one blog post a week.
11. Write update blogs at the start of every month.
    1. Write an update blog for the remaining months.
12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.
13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.
14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to amazon.
15. Set up a Patreon account.
16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.
17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.
18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.
19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.
20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.
21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

There are my goals for 2020.

Breakdown of Goals.

As I have so many goals, and many of them build on others, I will be only going over the goals I am dealing with at the moment.

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.
   • I am at 204k words for 2020. This month I wrote 48,670 words. If I keep this pace up, I will be around 614k words for the year. This is good. I am writing more than I did last year. I want to raise that number for the year up, so I will have to do better in April
2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 731 days in the road.
   • I am on day 487 of 731. I am making my goal.
3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.
   • There has been changes with this number. I looked back at my Felix story and decided to make some big changes in regards to the magic system. This means I now have an additional two novels to be edited. On a plus side, I have received edits for my Des O’Neal books. Look for updates on that in the next few weeks.
4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.
   • This is being done. I have more focus on this than my other goals. Editing finished work is a week spot of mine. The time getting it done at least. I have been getting more editing per day than words. (Especially with changing Felix #1 and #2.
5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.
   • Working on this. Hard going, but expect updates on it soon enough.
6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.
7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.
8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.
9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.
10. Write one blog post a week.
    • This is being done. I have yet to miss one and I don’t attend to miss it.
11. Write an update blog for the remaining months.
    • This is to keep going. No time to waste.
12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.
13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.
    • I should write some short stories.
14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to amazon.
15. Set up a Patreon account.
16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.
17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.
18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.
19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.
20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.
21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

Future plans.

I am getting close to being about to publish some manuscripts. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it isn’t a train. I hope to get things moving and up. Being in the fifth month, I have yet to publish anything. I need to change that. I hope things will move soon and I will have some new titles being launched.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

My weight loss so far.

In January, I made my yearly goal post. In it, I made a bonus post about my weight. Half a year before that, I had decided to add a goal about my weight onto my 2019 goals. I used calorie counting, and after about a month or so, it got exhausting, and I stopped.

21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

One issue I have been fighting with is my weight. I’m out of shape and to be blunt. I’m fat. I need to fix that. So my goal for 2020 is to lose 20 lbs and to keep it off. My current weight is 277lbs. This time last year it was 287lbs. That means I lost 10 lbs last year. It’s okay, but I need to do better.

My weight fluctuated as I paid attention to it before giving up on watching it altogether. On Feb 15th, I weighed myself, and I was back up to 285lbs. Back to square one. Amid my semester with five courses, there was very little I could do to get more exercise.

The amount of misinformation on the interwebs is immense. I had no idea where to turn and how to get in shape. With the COVID stuff ramping up and the stress of homeschool kids, finishing my semester and working on my novels, I didn’t pay any attention to my weight.

A week ago, I weighed myself, and I was at 267lbs. I had somehow managed too loose weight. I did this by accident because during the day I would forget to eat. Some days it would be after 2pm for I had my first meal. I would be busy and forget to eat anything.

After a week of trial and error, I weighed myself this morning, and I am now at 261lbs. From Jan 1st, 2020, to now, I have lost 16lbs. More if you include the added weight I had gained back.

I had learned this is intermittent fasting. Where a person restricts the intake of calories for an extended period of the day, then eating a meal(s) afterward while still trying to keep the amount of food to a healthy quality and quantity.

This is the best result I had in a long time, and the way I got it is simple. I am not putting pie in my pie hole. I don’t eat sugar. I don’t eat candy. I stay away from that. I also try to watch my servings sizes. I still go back for four servings of spaghetti, but they are small servings.

While others have worried about gaining weight during this pandemic, I am losing weight, and I hope to keep going forward in the future.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Times are a Changin’

That clip above is from the movie Watchmen. This is my feeling in a nutshell.

With all of the change going on in the world at the moment, it is hard to tell what is going to happen in the future. People are hoping that in a few weeks, things will go back to normal, and we will all go back to work. People expect this situation will be a distant memory.

The human part of me hopes this will be the case. July will roll around, and the world will be back to normal. Borders will be open, people will go to concerts and sport’s games.

The writer part of me knows this won’t be the case. The writer part of me starts asking questions. Many of which the human part of me knows that’s not going to happen.

(Please note, this is a thought exercise to show how I world build scenarios for my novels.)

The writer in me starts compounding the situation. The scenario. In the United States, ten million people have lost their jobs in a week. Air travel has stopped, and borders are closed. Millions of ex-pats are trapped in foreign countries with no ways to get home.  Around the world, tens of thousands have died from the disease and more will before everything is over. Most of those who have passed away are the elderly, but the young have also been affected.

I see things happening in multiple ways. This list is not complete.

One. In response to these events, many places have adopted authoritarian policies to combat this virus. China went even more welding people into their homes. Hungary has taken authoritarian policies. In New Jersey, a guy was arrested for paddleboarding. There was no one within miles of him.

Authoritarian power is given by the people willingly. Those in charge will never voluntarily give that power back. It only is given after violence. This is the start of a dystopian world where everyone is afraid of the virus and stays isolated from each other.

Two. A cure is found and wildly given to societies. People try to go back to the way it was in the hopes they can have normal. It doesn’t come as the world of yesterday is gone and gone for good. The new world is one where people are wary of each other, where people keep a stockpile of food and medicine. Where people pay off the debts and gather together three months of money. The threat of a new disease spreading across the world is too high for people.

Three. Things get worse. Currently, there is an argument over the real death rate of the disease. Accusations of the CCP lying about their numbers is rampant. There are huge gaps between what is happening in New York City and rural Alabama. There are also reports that people are getting re-infected over again.

The disease exemplifies the rifts in society and causes society to crumble. Federal governments become helpless to do anything as their employees refuse to go to work to keep safe their own families. Regional warlords and strongmen pop out of the woodwork.

Are any of these going to happen? Who knows. I am not an oracle. I don’t have the gift of foresight. But I can make educated guesses by studying current events.

If I were to write a novel based on one of those scenarios, then I would spend more time fleshing out the idea.

But as a writer, what do you think is going to happen?

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

March 2020 Update

With the ideal of keeping honest and transparent, here is a breakdown of March.

COVID-19

The world has changed as people hide in their houses. I’m not going into much detail, but it’s changed how I live. Not to a great extent, but now I have a reason not to leave my house. Many creatives are hitting the COVID-slump. Me. I’m writing more.

To sum up January, this was the second-best month I have ever done at 57k words. My editing is doing well making the daily editing goals.

Goal Recap.

2020 GOALS

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.
2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 731 days in the road.
3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.
4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.
5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.
6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.
7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.
8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.
9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.
10. Write one blog post a week.
11. Write update blogs at the start of every month.
    1. Write an update blog for the remaining months.
12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.
13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.
14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to amazon.
15. Set up a Patreon account.
16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.
17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.
18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.
19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.
20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.
21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

There are my goals for 2020. I’ve altered goal 11 to keep me writing these update goals. Cause, just because I’ve failed, doesn’t mean I should stop trying.

Breakdown of Goals.

As I have so many goals, and many of them build on others, I will be only going over the goals I am dealing with at the moment.

1. Write 600,000 words in publishable story related projects.
   • I am at 156k words for 2020. This month I wrote 51,041 words. If I keep this pace up, I will be around 621k words for the year. This is good. I am writing more than I did last year. I want to raise that number for the year up, so I will have to do better in April
2. Write every day of at least 500 words making words in a row at 731 days in the road.
   • I am on day 457 of 731. I am making my goal.
3. Catch up on editing allowing no more than 2 manuscripts waiting to be edited.
   • I have four manuscripts waiting to be editing or currently being edited. The number is dropping. It doesn’t help that I am still writing new words. It means I need to keep up with things.
4. Edit every day of 1 chapter at a minimum.
   • This is being done. I have more focus on this than my other goals. Editing finished work is a week spot of mine. The time getting it done at least.
5. Secure cover art for any book in the editing stage.
6. Publish a minimum of 1 book.
7. Publish a minimum of 3 books.
8. Publish a minimum of 5 books.
9. Publish a minimum of 7 books.
10. Write one blog post a week.
    • This is being done. I have yet to miss one and I don’t attend to miss it.
11. Write an update blog for the remaining months.
    • This is to keep going. No time to waste.
12. Clean up Tokyo Tempest #1 with a proofread.
13. Write and submit 5 short stories to markets.
    • I should write some short stories.
14. Publish 7 short stories or novellas to amazon.
15. Set up a Patreon account.
16. Set up proper social media author accounts and a proper newsletter.
17. Have 1 paying client of editing services.
18. Make 100 dollars one month through publishing.
19. Make 500 dollars one month through publishing.
20. Make 1000 dollars one month through publishing.
21. (Bonus) Get back in shape physically by losing 20 lbs.

Future plans.

I am getting close to being about to publish some manuscripts. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and it isn’t a train. I hope to get things moving and up. Being on the fourth month, I have yet to publish anything. I need to change that.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free in Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

Change and being Creative

In the last two weeks, the world has changed. It has changed, and I fear it won’t go back to the way it was. No one wanted this specific change. No one wanted to be locked in their homes for months, yet here we are. Once this is all done and a memory. People’s mentalities will have changed as the disease has affected either loved ones or their friends.

I’m not going into detail about Covid-19. There are a dozen different people to read and watch who are smarter than I am.

For me, my focus is my writing and my creative pursuits. Before, I spent my time writing, and I do the same thing now. I write things and hope one day I get projects completed.

As a creative, it is crucial to keep working and keep being creative. I have seen other creatives bend under the weight of this change. They aren’t writing, drawing, etc. They spend their time binge-watching whatever Netflix has going on. Maybe they need to do that.

But is it the best thing to do as a creative? Life is full of change. It comes and goes. Many times it is unwanted, yet it will happen anyway.

Change is the only constant thing in life. There is no point going against it. There is only letting it flow around. To move with the water, not against it.

For this COVID bullshit, it is looking at the silver lining. I’m not starving, and I am not being evicted. I have the time to be able to do what I need to get done. I have time to write. I will make use of this time and do just that. There is no point in letting change ruin my life.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.

 

COVID-19

The world has changed. One day I was looking forward to the start of my kid’s spring break with family coming over. I have a month left of my semester at university before I start the summer session.

Now, things are different. The spring break went from two weeks of having my kids in the house to being done until September. Except the school district didn’t say, it’ll be back in September. They said it’s closed until further notice. To me, that means I may be homeschooling the kids for the next few years. If it lasts that long. My kids were disappointed when I told them spring break was over, and I bought them school books. They have been doing schoolwork every day, whether they like it or not.

For me and my schooling, it has all been transferred to online learning. Which is different. Now students all over have to learn the discipline to self-motivate to get their work done. For me, it’s challenging to get the assignments done on time, and I think my self-discipline is higher than most. Not better than most, but it’s high. My wife might say something else about my work habits. She calls me a workaholic perfectionist under my own tyrannical rule.

The amount of stress from the uncertainty is everywhere. I can’t turn on Facebook or Youtube without seeing it. The uncertainty of money, food, etc. is everywhere. Store shelves are bare as people stock up on essentials. The last thing people want to do is to be locked in their homes and starve to death. (I’m not talking about the TP fiasco. I don’t understand that.)

However. All of that is an aside and not what the blog is about. Like many, I have self-isolated into my own house. I have a terrible history with bronchitis, and as this causes breathing issues, I have no interest in getting it.

What to spend my time working on?

For me, the answer is one of three things in no particular order. I help my kids with their schoolwork. Or I do my own school work. Or I write my novels. I am even hoping to read a few books myself.

For you, it might be different. It is something to do with escapism, and I got your escapism right here.

If you are from the United States and not Canada, like I am, Kindle Unlimited has a two-month trial. This is a good deal, and details can be found here.

Once you have the trial, what do you read?

Sleeping Legion Series by J.R. Handley

One of my all-time favorite series filled in intense action and in-depth characters.

Rebyrth by R. Max Tillsley

For those with kids needing distractions, this is a favorite story of my son, who says its a great adventure story about robots, conspiracies, and kids defying all odds.

Cone of Silence by Drue Bernardi

Take all of the disaster books, and the cream of the lot will be this one. Written by a storm chaser, this is about a meteorologist trying to do the right thing.

Demon Scroll by Tim Niederriter

Demon Scroll is an epic sword and sorcery novel where the heroes and monsters may be one and the same.

Jordie in Charge by E. A. Shanniak

For those whose takes aren’t in the standard fantasy and science fiction genres, Shanniak has got you covered. She writes romance novels set in a fantasy world of her own.

Storming Area 51, an anthology.

Thirty-five awesome stories – one kick-ass meme that started it all.
It started as a joke. Storm Area 51 they said. They can’t stop all of us they said. But all laughter stopped when the U.S. Air Force mobilized the reserves and pulled out the big guns.

This is an anthology where you can find my short story, “Rise of the Ghids.” Storming area 51 is all about people to storm the secret base to see the aliens. But what about the aliens? What is their story? That is what I told.

Seismic Shock by Nathan Pedde

This is my own novel. Set in Tokyo, Japan, when Yellowstone supervolcano blows its top. This starts a chain of disasters from earthquakes to tsunamis that shut down nations and society as its currently known.

I hope these suggestions help you to spend your time in isolation.

This journey is not something I can do alone. It takes support from many people for it to become a reality. The easiest way is to visit my Amazon Author Page and purchase one of my books. They are available in all countries and for free on Kindle Unlimited. I do have a tip jar set up at Ko-Fe, where you can buy me a coffee. Or you can also visit me on Facebook. Your help and support are much appreciated.