Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, August 17, 2023, or: A Bit of Blogger’s Potpourri on a Stormy Day in Florida

Late Morning, Thursday, August 17, 2023, Lithia, Florida

“The weather is nature’s disruptor of human plans and busybodies. Of all the things on earth, nature’s disruption is what we know we can depend on, as it is essentially uncontrolled by men.” ― Criss Jami, Killosophy

Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s a gray, cloud-shrouded morning here in the Tampa Bay area on this fourth day of the workweek. I awoke to the flashes of lightning and peals of thunder a few hours ago; thankfully it wasn’t at 3 or 4 in the morning, but at 6:42 AM, which is reasonably close to my normal wakeup time anyway.

Of course, I am not fond of thunderstorms; as a child, they scared the living daylights out of me, and although I have learned over the long decades of living in Florida – the lightning capital of the U.S. – to get used to them, I still do not like “boomers.” Especially if they interrupt either my writing schedule or my sleep.

Anyway…as I write this, the skies are leaden and what little sunlight filters through my closed blinds is dim and weak. Still, despite the rain we had earlier, and despite the cloudiness, it’s still Florida-in-summer hot. The current temperature outside is 83°F/29°C under – unsurprisingly – mostly cloudy skies. With humidity at a sticky 85% and a south-southeasterly breeze of 4 MPH/7 KMH, the heat index is 93°F/35°C. Today’s forecast calls for thunderstorms to pass through the area and a high of 90°F/32°C.

Well, I’m not going to venture outside, but I do hope that when the thunderstorms “pass through the area,” they will either bypass Lithia – so I don’t have to work from my laptop – or tarry on quickly so my enforced break from writing is not a long one.

A Little Bit of This, and a Little Bit of That

Yesterday, after a glacially slow reboot of my brain that included playing a Skirmish in Regiments – a game that I have yet to review – and consuming two hot dogs, I finally managed to begin Chapter 11, Scene Two of Reunion: Coda, 12 days after I completed the first draft of the preceding scene.

Because I got started – admittedly – at an extremely late hour (between 3:30 and 4 PM), I did not write a hell of a lot in the “scratch sheet” file that I use to jot down rough first draft ideas on Word. Per the word count function on that app, I managed to coax a grand total of 585 words (11 paragraphs, 38 lines, including the temporary scene title) out of my weary little gray cells.

Still, as any writer will tell you, 585 words are better than zero words, and writing any new words at all is better than saying, “Okay, I still worked because I edited and revised stuff I wrote before.” 

If all goes well, i.e., the weather is not terribly stormy, my little gray cells are not too weary, and my creative mojo does not flag, my plan for this writing day is to pick up where I left off yesterday evening and add even more new words to Reunion: Coda.

Speaking of writing, I wanted to let you know that my friends and frequent (okay, only) moviemaking colleagues (Juan Carlos and Adria Hernandez) in NYC are putting the final touches on Sunny on the Village of Crickets, Popcorn Sky Productions’ latest short film and the first one that gives me a producing credit. (Associate Producer, ladies and gentlemen!) If all goes well, Juan will upload the finished short to YouTube soon. As of yesterday, he was still working on the end credits – what in the book industry would be called “back matter.” I will, of course, keep you posted on the release date – right now, I don’t know, but since the more complicated aspects of post-production (or “post”) are done, Sunny in the Village of Crickets’ release is…imminent.

And, While We Are on the Topic of Writing….

As you know, there are some people who, for one reason or another, have a simplistic, narrow, and indeed shallow idea of what, exactly, makes a person a writer. I’ve been told, on at least one occasion (and perhaps even more) that even though I have two blogs (my original censored-by-Trump supporters one on Blogger, A Certain Point of View, and this one), have written for various websites (and gotten paid for it), worked for several clients (and again got paid for it), have at least five film writing or co-writing credits, and have written and self-published two books (and I’m working on a third one!), I am, in their opinion, not a real writer.

My short answer to this particular opinion is: “Horse hockey.”

My more detailed response to this opinion, which I wrote as a rare Public post on my Facebook page, is:

My New Resolution:

I will no longer listen to anyone who says, “You’re not a real writer.”

I write every day. That makes me a writer.

I studied journalism at both South Miami High and Miami-Dade College. Even won an award for my work on the college student newspaper during my freshman year. That, too, makes me a writer.

I’ve written for clients, and I have also been paid by websites for my writing. That makes me a professional writer.

I have two self-published books available for sale on Amazon and Barnes & Noble (online store only, though!). A third book is in the works. That makes me a writer, too.

Oh, and I’ve written or co-written several screenplays that have been made into short films (viewable on YouTube), and I’ve helped produce another one. Guess what? That makes me a writer, as well.

End of discussion.

My reply, by the way, is not an opinion. It’s based on facts.

Action This Day

As I mentioned earlier, my plan for today is to continue to work on Scene Two of Reunion: Coda’s 11^th chapter after my late morning/midday rest break. I also will continue to promote my existing novella, Reunion: A Story on social media in hopes that I’ll sell a few more copies today.  Hopefully, the thunderstorms we had this morning will be the only ones that pass through the Lithia area and I won’t have to worry about lightning strikes or having to work on my laptop in a more public part of the house. We’ll see what happens.

I must wrap up this post and publish it on WordPress, so I’ll close for now. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.