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No More Mondays 2022
One of the great things about PTO (Paid Time Off) is that if you can save it up, you can spend most or all of the 4th Quarter with long weekends. That’s a great arrangement if you’ve got a lot of writing to catch up on…
Every 🌹 Rose Has Its Thorn
But he that dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose. ~Anne Brontë
That sounds like a downside, but it really isn’t. Falling in love is all fluff and teddy bears, but staying in love is a process of getting to know your significant other and appreciating the differences.
Staying in love is a matter of keeping each other on our toes.
It’s great when things are great, and you’re getting along well. When things aren’t going well and you’re on each other’s nerves, appreciating the differences can be harder.
Some couples let this drive them apart. Some couples see it as a challenge to overcome the issue together.
The more you do this, the more you come to appreciate the “thorns”.
My wife is one of the dearest, kindest, most nurturing people you will ever meet, but she’s got a wit that cuts right to the bone.
When you piss her off, she’ll let you know.
I do my best not to unleash that razor wit of hers, but she is worth more to me than a mountain of rubies even when she zings me.
Immature couples let that kind of thing put the relationship in jeopardy.
Kelly and I have been together for over thirty years because we don’t. Tempers flare. Feelings can get hurt, but there’s always more to the rose than the thorns.
Appreciating the entirety of the relationship makes it easier to get through the occasional issues that turn up.
Appreciating the fact that we can get through difficulties together makes it much easier to forget them and move on.
I appreciate my wife for every facet of her personality and the sharp edges between them.
It’s because I so dearly love the whole package that I know we’ll be together for another thirty years or more.
Better a garden of thorny roses than a barren patch of dirt.
🍂Autumn Chill And Writing🍂
Beautiful Relaxing Hymns, Peaceful piano Music, “October Autumn Colors” in 4k by Tim Janis
This is the part of the post where I’d normally geek out about the season finale of the shows I’ve commented on before.
She-Hulk had a funny conclusion to its season. The meta commentary made in passing and to the production staff is hilarious and it rubs the noses of the haters in their own stupidity.
Rings of Power capped off with a final reveal of who Sauron was and a pretty good idea of who the meteor guy was. Hopefully, they won’t be deterred by the whiners and purists. I’m interested in seeing what they’ve got in mind for Season Two.
House of the Dragon has two more episodes to shove their fists into our chests and rip out our hearts. Brutally cruel plot twists are the domain of any series based in Westeros, so it will be interesting to see how they wrap it up.
That being said, I’ve got writing to do.
The whole reason I came up with the No Monday Policy was to facilitate writing my Holiday Season Serial Romances.
After a rather long and exhausting year of work, I need the extended run of long weekends to recover.
Oh, my goodness. What a bunch of stuff I had to do this year. I enjoy a challenge, but I need to get done with these side projects so I can focus on my primary responsibilities.
I also need to get on with Merry 🔔 Bells and The Sentinels.
That’s not happening if I’m up until all hours writing code. So, 🍂Fall🍂 is my time to catch up and get it all wrapped up for the year.
Classical Music for Writing
Hope And Word Counts
If a writer is to tell his own story – tell it slowly, and as if it were a story about other people – if he is to feel the power of the story rise up inside him, if he is to sit down at a table and patiently give himself over to this art – this craft – he must first have been given some hope. ~Orhan Pamuk
One of the hazards of switching into 🍂Autumn Mode🍂 is that it tends to make me want to switch genres.
It makes me want to dive into fantasy writing. Swords, sorcerers, goblins and haunted forests spring to front of mind this time of year.
Even so, i’ve got to focus on the Sentinelsverse in order to get done what needs doing. The Tales Of Olde Auringia need to wait for another time.
More’s the pity, because I’m really in the mood to write some stories that take place in Auringia.
Well, if I have time, I’ll probably write some flavor pieces to reference when it’s actually time to work on that project.
In the meantime, I’ve got to get my head into Empire City and the Tri-State Area again.
I’ve got the basic plot points of the first book, but I don’t have the details that make them hang together.
I’ve also got the basic premise of Meridith’s plot line, but the details haven’t come into focus for that either.
The thing is, once I get in the zone, I can crank out some serious word counts. I’ve had over seven thousand word days before.
The trick is getting into the zone. In order to do so, I need to be able to tune out everything else.
After a long, very distracting year, settling into these long weekends is going to be an absolute treat.
I’ll let you know how things are progressing once I dust off my writer’s brain and get back to work.
That’s all for today. This is my first long weekend of the 4th Quarter, and I’ve got plenty to accomplish. I hope you’re having a cozy, restful weekend.