Well, dear readers, I must stand tough, I must have resolve, I must buckle down, Winsocki and I must stop eating like a pig. I got through the holidays okay, but when I begin a new book, all I want to do is eat all the time. I’ve been trying to just do a main meal a day, which I’ve done, but then I’ve been getting cashews and candy and there was a lot of leftover tuna pasta salad that I felt I had to eat, and if I don’t stop now I will gain back all the weight I lost, and I will not do that. So, if the weather is okay, I must start regular jogging again – not necessarily every day, but at least three or four days a week, and I must go back to 1200 calories a day and that’s that. I shall not be weak, I shall not succumb, I shall not fail – I shall lose the few pounds I’ve regained and then I shall lose more until I am where I wish to be. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad.
Yesterday was a fine day. I got seven hours of sleep due to the overactive brain, was up at eight-thirty, and then she of the Evil Eye arrived. I futzed and finessed about half of the previous day’s writing, and then I went and had a breakfast burrito for my main meal o’ the day (had I but only stopped there). Then I did some banking and then came back home. I finished futzing and finessing, making several additions, smoothing out a bunch of stuff, and then moving on to new pages. I wrote three pretty quickly and then I had the fun of introducing a new character who will play a major role in the rest of the book. So, that was fun. It took me a bit to get with the character, but then I remembered a line I’d written earlier when this character is first mentioned and that gave me a clear way in and I thought of something really funny for later in the chapter. I took a short break and picked up one package, stopped at the local mini-mart and got some cashews and a small box of Dots (you see the pattern here), then came right back home. I then wrote more pages, whilst eating the cashews and then the Dots – at that point I think I’d done seven. Then I really needed to take at least a two-hour break, so I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Yesterday, I watched the first hour of a motion picture on Blu and Ray entitled Western Union, directed by Fritz Lang, and starring Randolph Scott, Robert Young, and Dean Jagger. I’ve actually never seen it before, one of the few Lang films I haven’t seen. I’m really enjoying it, I must say. First off, I love Randolph Scott, and Robert Young is surprisingly fun in his role. The transfer has pretty good color but is a little odd at times. I’ll finish it up at some point today, but it was a nice way to relax.
After that, I wrote another two pages, then went to Gelson’s (you see the pattern here) and got some salad from the salad bar and a package of four vegetable rolls from the sushi case, so nothing horrible. I came home and ate all that – the salad really was filling but everything in it was completely non-caloric including the red wine vinegar for the dressing. Then I wrote three more pages, for a total of twelve. Then I took a hot shower, got one excellent idea that I went back and set up and will pay off later in the chapter I’m on. I also realized that chapter three was going to end up over forty pages, so I found a perfect place to split it, so that each of those chapters will now be about twenty-one pages. And that was that.
Today, I’ll write, I’ll eat something light and not repeat the pattern of the past few days, I’ll watch the rest of Western Union, write, relax, and write. At about two, I’ll print out however many pages I have at that point, go to Staples and get them Xeroxed, and then bring them to Muse Margaret and hope she likes them.
This week is all writing all the time, plus meetings and meals, helping LACC set up an Indiegogo campaign they need to do, putting up the Facebook event page for the February Kritzerland show, and we’ll be shipping the Kay Cole CDs tomorrow.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, futz and finesse, write, eat, print out pages, Xerox, get pages to Muse Margaret, write, and wait for Muse Margaret’s call, which I hope will be positive, watch the rest of a movie, and write. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, finding the strength to not repeat the pattern.