Late Morning, Friday, September 15, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Hi, everyone.

Well, we have arrived at the midpoint of September (and the third Friday of the month). Even though we are 15 days into meteorological fall (traditional fall begins next Wednesday), it’s still awfully warm and humid here in the Tampa Bay area.

As I write this, the temperature is 80°F/27°C under sunny skies. With humidity at a sticky 81% and the wind barely blowing from the east at 1 MPH/2 KMH, the heat index is 84°F/29°C. Per today’s forecast, we can expect mostly sunny skies and a high of 92°F/33°C. There’s also a 28% chance of rain, and the long-range forecast calls for scattered showers on Saturday and thunderstorms on Sunday.

What we won’t have, weatherwise, is a strike by either a tropical storm or a hurricane. Hurricane Lee is heading north toward Nova Scotia, and if it stays on its present track it might just end up missing most of the New England area. I have at least two friends who live in Maine and New Hampshire, and they are keeping an eye on Lee in case it hits their states directly. Looking at the satellite images and the “cone of uncertainty,” I’m confident that Lee won’t affect them too badly, since it is projected to make landfall somewhere near Yarmouth, NS, tomorrow morning.

Action This Day

According to the Word Count function on Microsoft Word, I am 585 words short of the 50,000-word mark in my manuscript for Reunion: Coda. I had hoped to reach – and surpass – this mark yesterday, but my creative well was almost bone dry, and I ended up editing and revising instead of adding new words to the third scene in Chapter 11.

I will, of course, attempt to write more material for Chapter 11 after my midday break. I say attempt because now I feel tired after a rather restless night, and I cannot predict how the rest of the day will go between now and 1 PM. My hope is that I will get some rest and feel a bit more energetic before I begin working on the novel. I’d be disappointed if I am still tired and unable to write, even after I eat lunch and relax for a while. I really want to finish this novel’s first draft before mid-October (a month from today) so I can publish it in time for the winter holidays.

With that in mind, then, I’ll close this post now so I can start a longer than usual rest break. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.