187 posts so far. So, over six months now. Wondering if I can go a year. At this point, why the hell not? I’ve got some cool stuff coming up and will have more time and space to write away from the madhouse that is my kitchen. So maybe, just maybe, I’ll be able to hunker down and focus some more. The last six months have been an interesting experience. I started writing from home to save money and to help more with my son in the morning. The result has been just so-so. Try writing sometime with a woman talking to you, talking on the phone with her sister, asking questions, etc. in one ear and a crazy kid in the other. In fact, try to do anything that requires any sort of concentration. I’m impressed I’m able to do anything at all. Big self pat on the back.

So you want to be a writer? You’ve got to write every damn day. You have to find some amount of time to sit, alone, and try to get the words down, drown out the resistance. Yes, every damn day. Two pages a month is 24 pages a year. Two pages a day is 730 pages a year. Big difference right? In the old days of coffee shop writing I could get up to four pages a day most days, this is how I was able to get so much done in the last couple of years. You have to just get your ass up in the morning and go. Mornings bad? Do it at night. Do it during your lunch break at work. Do it whenever you have a free moment. There was a writer, can’t remember his damn name, but he would sleep from eight to twelve, wake up, write for two hours, then go back to sleep from two to six. I carry a note pad and jot down ideas while I’m at the kid’s park for two hours a day. Yeah, you read that right too. I take notes while keeping one eye on my child just in case a pedophile tries to snatch him. And oh, woe to someone who touches one hair on his head.

At any rate, The Seasonal Bar. I’ve sent out a couple more queries in the last month. I’ve got to keep up on those. The writer’s and artist’s ego is so interesting. You have to veer wildly on the narcissist/neurotic scale. You have to believe someone would want to buy your book and hear what you have to say and on the other hand be incredibly critical. Most publishers want to know how you would sell 10,000 copies of your book. They want nothing to do with marketing. But aren’t they responsible for that? Aren’t they the ones making the bulk of money off your hard work?

Right now the melon/stone fruit season is in full bloom and it’s a magical place to be. Andy’s Orchard’s nectarines and peaches are mind blowing. The Weiser Farms melon of any kind is a globe of sunshine and mouth magic. It’s truly remarkable how good they are and how they elevate your palate. It’s difficult to eat any produce from a box store afterward. Vegetables don’t have this same level of disparity. For the most part, broccoli is broccoli, but once you’ve muff dived into Weiser melon, a cantaloupe from Von’s tastes like wet cardboard. It’s actually depressing.

I’ll get back to more cocktail stuff over the next couple of days here. Some mornings I really wrack my brain for subjects. I have to plan the day before, take pictures, etc. and a lot of time, at least lately, my mind has been somewhere else. a little distracted. We’ll get back there.