Since I wrote last, I had to prepare for the arctic blast that hit here. I fixed the drywall in my bathroom to keep the cold air from leaking in. That took most of a day, but it was satisfying to get it done after putting it off for so long. One day last week, I had a really good day of writing and wrote about four pages. When the extreme cold finally hit I spent a few of those days watching Fargo episodes with my dad. So far, I like season one the best. Lorne Malcolm is a great villain. Also, I finished reading Red Magic. Overall I liked the book. The characters grew on me, but I wasn’t satisfied with the ending. I hoped for a more drawn out fight against the red wizard. It felt like it ended just as it got started. I’d still recommend it though.

This morning was difficult. I had broken sleep. That in turn made it difficult to be productive. I wrote about a page. Caffeine helps. I had a cup of coffee with breakfast: a single slice of whole grain bread with a tablespoon of store brand crunchy peanut butter. It’s not the healthiest breakfast, but not the worst. I hoped a little exercise would help revivify me, but it only helped a little bit. After exercising I prepared my space to sit down and write and made a cup of green tea. Normally I would turn on my music and start writing then, but my mind still wasn’t fully awake yet. Instead I browsed YouTube until I found something that peaked my interest. I saw a video about Project 100,000 or McNamara’s morons. It was a sad, but not surprising story about how the US military used people with low IQs and those who weren’t physically fit to help fill the frontlines during the Vietnam war. They were canon fodder. It reminded me of how Russia emptied their prisons to help fill their ranks when the war with Ukraine didn’t go as quickly as they planned, but I’m going off on a tangent. After about an hour of watching military related videos I turned my music on and started writing.

Here’s the latest page from my sketchbook: