Revised May 17, 2024 from home in North Carolina
If you’re joining my life in media res, here’s the backstory:
2020-21: Covid lockdown
2022: My cancer diagnosis & Dad’s death—all on the same day!
2023: Rehab post-cancer treatment…
Frankly, 2023 was a blur:
I wrapped a nonfiction ghostwriting project for a client. That book should be out August 2024.
I accompanied Denise on two trips to research the book she’s writing.
I went with her on her fall 2023 book tour for her Young Readers Book. Happy to report that book event attendance appeared to be up over fall 2021.
I wrote ton of blog posts for this site, and guest posts for SleuthSayers.
Revised and updated this website incessantly.
Compiled a family cookbook; delivered to my editors—my brothers—Dec. 24th.
A ton of follow-up doctor visits and therapy appointments, which were tedious but necessary.
And yet…
Throughout all of this, I was conscious of the fact that I was frittering away my precious time. Procrastinating. Not doing the work that was important to me, which is, of course, my writing. Why? See 2022 note above. Illness and mourning are my only excuses. Maybe shock, too.
Jan 2024:
Rereading Pressfield, and hoping to reverse this state of affairs, I analyzed all my open creative projects and realized that if I hustled, I could finish four writing projects in 2024.
March 2024:
The first is done. You can download the first volume of my SleuthSayers essays on the Starter Library page of my website. Strangely, this book may well be the most personal I’ve ever written, filled as it is with a ton of short essays about the writing life, my journey to writerdom, and my childhood obsession with the mystery genre. You can only get it on this site for now. I’m not sure about pubbing wide.
April 2024:
The second project, a novel I’m calling TIMoNY for now, is first-draft finished, and sitting on the back burner while I try to forget about it. I’m due to resume edits May 27th. The cover is already done, so I think this too will be a quick publication, provided I nail the edits.
May 2024:
In the meantime, I’m building an online store to sell the personal books and projects that Denise and I love to make but which aren’t really appropriate for traditional publishers. Current goal is to have the direct-sale site go live September 1. It’s a Shopify site, natch.
The Garden:
Tons of tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and more purchased but not yet planted. Temperatures here averaging 60-70s F during the day. Some days of torrential rain, which is typical for the mountains. And yes, already two black bear sightings.
The Dog:
Because of the pooch, I’m learning a lot about behavioral psychology. See the works of Stanley Coren, Alexandra Horowitz, and Tommy Tomlinson for more. (Affiliate links.)
The Reading:
Happily immersed in a cycle of reading nonfiction business, marketing, and Big Think books in an almost promiscuous manner. If I read a book in which the author references another book, I try to read that second book too. Ditto for podcast book mentions. It’s a wonderful experience. I am reading books that I would have never read years ago, and finding that I learn something from every one. I may post some notes on what I’m reading in the future, but right now I don’t want to disrupt the flow of learning.
The Schedule:
For health reasons, I allowed Dry January to extend into the rest of the year. I’m sleeping better, and digging it. When I tried sleep consolidation, I found that I naturally wake at 5 a.m., which is a great time to work on personal projects. Of course, I’m wiped by 9:30 pm-10 pm, but that’s how it works.
Enough for now. Thanks to Derek Sivers for inspiring this Now page.