#267 - Dragons and Rosemary Salt

Whoops! I did it again.

Down in my writing cave.

I should be really mad at myself for pulling an all-nighter writing session at the last minute once again. The silly part about it all, is that I really enjoyed telling the story while I was writing it. So why can’t I get myself to enjoy that feeling everyday and weeks before the assignment is due?

And yet, at the same time, I am proud of myself for finishing another short story and adding to my word count goals. It’s a bit of the carrot and the stick going on here. I think I need more stick.

Once again in these pages, dear reader, I promise to do better in the next two-week period of writing assignments. I am making a pledge to write on my sci novel every day, unless I have an assignment, and then I need to be working on that first!

I left my covered writing cave and experienced that weird sensation of it being light outside the window and expecting it to still be dark. But duh, it would be light at six thirty in the morning, wouldn’t it?

I stumbled up two flights of stairs and headed straight for the bathroom and brushed my teeth. I tried to be as stealthy as possible when slipping into bed so as not to wake my slumbering wife. The fact that it was light outside helped to make sure I didn’t stub my toe or knock anything off my nightstand.

I felt a bit like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.

I fell asleep almost immediately, which was no wonder after how much pizza and sweets we ate at my sister’s and then staying up writing.

I managed to stay in bed until ten. I felt pretty good all things considered.

Not great.

But better than I deserved to feel with less than fours hours of sleep.

I got straight to my home studio computer and logged in. Messages started pouring in right away. There was nothing critical to address, so I got stuck into doing approvals for the show we are currently on. I had enough work to get me by until the eleven clock meeting with our supervisor and my twin lead in Ottawa.

I nipped downstairs to make myself an Earl Grey before the meeting started. I should have caffeinated myself earlier.

We all looked like the weekend had taken it toll on us. None-the-less, we were in good spirits and ready to tackle the day. After discussing our priorities for the week and going over things we wanted to discuss with the crew at the afternoon meeting, we said our goodbyes and I got back to work.

I was puttering along, when I got a message from one of my painters who was revising work from a past show. Anything to do with a past show is usually a priority as there are likely people waiting on the assets.

So, I switched focus and moved over to the older episode of make corrections and do the approvals process to get the work to the next team.

That got me to lunch and since I didn’t get any exercise yesterday, I really felt like I needed to walk. It had rained through the night and a bit in the morning, so any trails weren’t going to be a good option.

And being a Monday, we had a one o’clock meeting and you all know how I hate a one o’clock meeting. We did a shorter walk around our neighbourhood that usually takes us about forty-five minutes to complete. Plenty of time to get back, make quick snack and get a drink before the meeting started.

I did a bit of overtime hours last week and quickly fired off an email to the producer to let her know the number of hours I did.

The meeting went well and we were able to convey some important information to the team. I always feel these meeting go on longer than they need to be. We allot a half an hour for the meeting, but most Mondays we only need half that time. But we used up the whole time, some if it was just talking about this or that. That kind of chatting can be more important that the work talk sometimes as we can feel out how the team is feeling and it lets us be humans and not just painting robots on a factory floor.

Often there is an interesting exchange of thoughts, new media to watch or events that many of might be interested in.

After we signed off, I was starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation. I tossed around the idea of taking a quick nap but ultimately shrugged it off in favour of powering through.

I got back to approving paintings and put on some videos to distract and entertain my mind. I had an episode of ‘For All Mankind’ running in the background for a while but ultimately shut it off because it seemed like a good episode with lots of things going on that I might want to pay full attention to.

I switched to YouTube videos instead.

The Norwegian fellow I follow who lives on an electric boat he made and sailed to Spain has been having a bit of bad luck with the locals. The impression I am getting is that there are a lot of thieves in Spain. He was fine until he got there, but since arriving they have stolen not one, but two of his dinghies to get to shore and his anchor, which he was using at the time.

Some kids also threw rocks at this boat and broke one of his large rooftop solar panels.

He never had any issues in Germany or France, but Spain has been an expensive stay for him. And it’s just annoying when you go to shore and someone steals a dinghy that you made with your own hands.

Twice.

There’s always some asshole out there ready and willing to take your things.

I’d have one of those Wi-Fi cams installed at the front and back of the boat just to see who it was. It would satisfy my curiosity to see their faces. It must be hard to know that as soon as you leave the boat someone is ready to strip it down to the wood just to make a quick buck. Flying the Norwegian flag off the aft is likely a flashing sign that he’s an easy mark that isn’t likely to report the theft or stay around long enough to spot the thieves as well.

He and his girlfriend seem fine and are shrugging it off as a part of their adventure and one of the prices you pay to live a life of freedom, going where you want when you want.

Overall, it’s probably a pretty good trade off for them.

By four o’clock I was running out of steam. I had made a good dent on the approvals front and was still waiting for three or four paintings from the past show to be completed. I stuck it out another half an hour before giving in and went to lie down for half an hour.

I woke up two hours later feeling refreshed. I checked my messages to see I had slept through anything important and was relieved to see I hadn’t missed anything at all.

Robyn was getting ready to go to her support worker job, so I started preparing vegetables to roast in the oven as well as battering some haddock in panko crumbs and almond flour. I set them to bake and nipped outside to the back deck to do a little writing in between the times the fish needed to be flipped.

Robyn picked up kiddo #2 after she was done and then they brought home some groceries from Walmart. I left the food in the oven to stay warm, since I had no idea when they would be home, which ended up being at eight forty.

The fish and vegetables were delicious and nutritious. I was glad I took the time to make new batch of rosemary salt this weekend because it turns the roasted onions into a real treat.

Robyn and kiddo#1 were supposed to go walking, so I prepared to get some writing done while the wife was away. I was hoping we would have a night in, snuggled up in bed, watching a few shows and then get some writing done after she went to bed.

My wishes came true when the kiddo reneged on her desire to walk.

We currently have a swath of shows to choose from, Welcome to Wrexham, Dutton Ranch, From, This Week Tonight, a new season of House of Dragons, and the Agency. There were some more, but can’t remember what they are at the moment.

We started with This Week Tonight. Sometimes a little informative comedy is called for. Something light to start the evening with.

Then we watched a Dutton Ranch, which was a good episode with lots of moving parts and reversals.

My next choice was to watch Wrexham, but Disney Plus was being fussy, so I opted for the House of Dragons season three premiere. And it was a bit of a doozy with sea battles and aerial dragon fights. Some of the main characters were killed off in true George R.R. Martin style.

All in all, a good night of relaxing television and it was just what the doctor ordered after a busy weekend with not nearly enough sleep as I would have liked.

It’s already past midnight and I wonder where all the time has gone today. It seemed to fly by. I took all three of my sleep aids a little while ago and I am grateful that I don’t have to go into the studio tomorrow as the extra two hours while be extremely restorative.

And I can take a quick nap if needed to keep me going or do a Non sleep Deep rest meditation. Both work well to make you feel like you have slept well.

My stocks are still doing well. There seems to be some hope that the Strait of Hormuz will open up again soon. At least the market seems to indicate that people are feeling more optimistic about the near future.

I had two of my “Depth Charge Muffins” today as snacks. On in the morning and another as a late night snack with a cup of tea. Having these muffins satisfies my desire for baked goods, cakes and most snack foods. And they go great with a cup of tea or a coffee.

And on top of all that, they are good for you. They are basically apple bran muffins without all the things that shove most other muffins into the junk food category. I like them. They keep my satiated and regular!

My writing instructor announced a sale on his blog today which includes all of the challenges they run like the 2026 Words a Day challenge that I am doing all of this year. It was chance to see all the challenges listed in one easy to read place, so I gave it short perusal.

I don’t have the time to get involved in anymore challenges this year with the mentorship running as well. But I was eyeing some of the novel challenges and though they might be interesting for next year.

Below is a list I copied from his blog of all their challenges:

—    The Super Great Challenge. One short story turned into me per week, published two weeks after.

• — The Super Great Publishing Challenge. One major book published every three weeks (novel, novella, collection, or omnibus) and send me a B2R link. 17 in one year.
• — The Super Great Novel Challenge. One novel written every six weeks, published two weeks after and send me a B2R link.
• — The Super Great Novella Challenge. One novella written and turned into me every month, published two weeks after and send me a B2R link. (novella is 15,000 to 30,000 words.)

The Super Great Novel Challenge is the one I am interested in. Writing a novel every six weeks feels impossible, but I have done the math, and it all adds up. It is very possible. In fact, many authors write much faster than that.

The real difficulty is keeping it up for the entire year.

Well, it’s coming up to one AM and this boy needs his beauty sleep.

Night all.