Well, folks, it’s afternoon here in my corner of Lithia, Florida, on Saturday, May 13, 2023. I’ve been awake since just a bit after six in the morning; I had hoped to sleep till, oh, maybe seven, but I think the days of waking up later than six are gone, at least for me. I’m not a “late morning” riser; I think having to get up at 5:30 AM to catch the 6:30 bus to South Miami High School in the early 1980s affected my circadian cycle – other than the few times that hurricanes hit South Florida and I stayed up all night thinking about possibly not making it through a storm, I haven’t slept till nine or 10 in the morning (even on weekends) since I started junior high school in August of 1977.
Today, I think, will be a day off from working on The New Story. As much as I want to finish the first draft and revise it, so it’ll be ready for (self) publication by midsummer, I need to relax and try to have fun, at least on weekends. I have bought movies I haven’t even watched since they were delivered, books that are in various levels of “reading progress,” and even a few CDs I have not listened to yet even though I bought them last year.
(And, if truths must be spoken here, it’s not like I have millions of avid fans who are clamoring for new stories by me. Yes, I have some, and yes, I’ve been asked to either write a collection of short stories or a specific type of book by at least one or two of those fans. But I’m nowhere near as popular as, say, Stephen King, Danielle Steel, or even the late Tom Clancy. If I were, I would own my own home, be financially independent and debt-free, and quite possibly even be in a happy relationship again.)
I am happy that The New Story – so far, anyway – is coming along nicely. At the end of yesterday’s workday, I finished the third scene in what I believe will be a four-scene Chapter 7, even though the word count ended up being a bit shy of the 1,000 words I was aiming for. Most of the characters are believable and multidimensional (One minor character is a bit cliched, but I’m not too worried about that now.), and the situations so far are both believable and relatable. And since I’m not trying to write a doorstop of a novel a la 11/22/63 or Red Storm Rising, I think I’m almost done with the second act of The New Story and will probably finish (the first draft) by the beginning of June. (I don’t do outlines, but in my mind’s eye I see TNS as having 11-12 chapters in all. 10 at a bare minimum. We’ll just have to see how the story wants to be told.
And yet, I need to enjoy the weekend, even if it means entertaining myself in near solitude by reading a book, watching a movie or TV show, listening to music, or gaming for a while. (Going out is, at least for the moment, a no-can-do thing.)
I don’t know what I want to do, though.
I’ll figure it out, I suppose.
And, if worse comes to worst, I can always work on The New Story.
A Certain Point of View, Too 
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