Wednesdays

I’m a bit at a loss for what to call this new regular post. Wednesdays are going to be my catch-all, catch-up posts. Yes, I know it’s weird to do that on a Wednesday, but have you not met me? If you haven’t, welcome to the weird ways my mind works sometimes. Here I’m going to talk about what I’m up to, writing project updates, things I’m reading, shows and movies I’m watching, or whatever randomness that pops into my mind. However, as I said, I don’t have any idea what to call this column/feature. Here are some things bouncing around my head

The Wednesday Weekly
Wednesday Wrap
Wednesday Wrap Up
Wednesday Wanderings
Wednesday Wonderings (But this might be too close to The Wondering Project.)

Leave a comment with what you think I should call this. Feel free to make other suggestions. I’m not overly invested in any of the above.

For now, I’ll just get on with talking about some stuff, starting with…

MY BIRTHDAY!

This last week (being Wednesday-Wednesday), I celebrated the 3rd anniversary of my 50th birthday, and my friends went all-out for me. Technically, we started on Friday with a celebration for a friend, Sweetly, at a great pub. That gathering happened to involve a bunch of people who are in both our friend circles. Then, on Saturday afternoon-evening and Sunday morning, we had an epic party and my buddy’s house. Good food. Good drinks. Amazing company. One of the low-key best parts was that I slept on the ground because I forgot a vital part of my air mattress, and I woke up with no amount of pain. I was a little sore, but I’d had an active day and night. Guess that physical therapy and working on strengthening my body are showing their benefits. Sunday evening, I emceed an event at the Sacramento Poetry Center, featuring a new buddy, Derrick C. Brown. He’s a skilled writer and performer. You should check him out. On Monday, I featured at the Sacramento Poetry Center and read from The Re-Imagined Princess and Honest Dating App Profiles. I’ll be posting the video of the performance to Patreon soon. So, all-in-all, a great birthday week.

WRITING

Here’s a quick list of the writing projects I’m currently working on.

• Weekly short stories. I’m doing a short story a week. I start on Mondays, writing one page a day and up to two pages on Sundays as needed to finish the story. I have three journals with decent-sized pages that add up to almost exactly what I need, page-count-wise, to do this. These will also get added to my Patreon.
• Daily Poems. Last year (2024), I wrote more than one poem a day. I’ve missed that over the last four months. I’ve written some poems this year, but not nearly as many as my spirit seems to yearn for. So, birthday to birthday, I’m doing it again.
• Tears of Rage Book 5, The Sharpened Edge of Fate. Each day, I’m going to tackle the edit/rewrite of a chapter of this book. It’ll be out in July.
• Spellpunk Requiems. A page or two for these every day. This is the re-envisioning of my first completed novel,  Spellpunk. It’s blown up into a time-travel, multi-dimensional, surreal epic that might be something you’d get if Philip K. Dick and Sir Terry Pratchett collaborated on something after dropping some LSD. Y’all will see updates now and then about my progress.
• Halloween Jack 3. Once I finish the “warm-up” writing each morning, I’ll jump into this one for the rest of my writing time each day. I’m in the home stretch on this one, and it’s coming along nicely. I’ve put in hours and hours and even more hours of research on this one. I’ve worked and reworked the narrative arcs, taking great care to respect all the colliding folklore clashing in this one. Looking forward to sharing this book with everyone at long last.

READING

Here’s what I’m reading this week. (Clicking the links will provide me with a small commission.)

• Wonderworks – Treats writing and literary devices as technology. It’s a fascinating perspective. Every writer should have this book.
• Approaching Oblivion: Stories, by Harlan Ellison – I’m reading this collection of short stories on my Kindle some nights before bed.
• Unlocked, by Andrew Defeye – A poetry collection by a former poet laureate of Sacramento.
• A Little Grief Break, by Derrick C Brown – New and selected poems from his first 10 books.

WATCHING

• The Rookie – I love this show, and not just because I’m a Nathan Fillion fanboy. It’s got solid writing with a diverse cast. We’re at the end of season 7 or 8, and I’ll be sad to see this one go.
• Andor, season 2 – Damn, this is Star Wars at its best. Every episode is well-written. The acting and directing are superb. We might get one more season out of it, but then we’re butting up against Rogue One in the timeline.
• WWE – Usually, the post-WrestleMania season slows down. Not this year. This year, it feels like WrestleMania was the prologue rather than a finale. I’m here for it.

That’s it for this week. I’m sure over time, I’ll figure out some structure and method to the madness of this. Maybe that will help streamline the process of getting it all out.

Thanks for reading.

If you have specific things you’d like me to write about, drop them in the comments. Maybe you’ll spark off something epic.