Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, November 16, 2023, or: The Packing Process is Almost Complete, and an Update from the Writing Front

Late Morning, Thursday, November 16, 2023, Lithia, Florida

“A person should always be willing to adjust for a rainy day. That was a good attitude in all of life, but was a reality to the way of life for those residing in Florida.” ― M. Reali-Elliott, Summer 20XX

Hi, there, folks. As I write this, it is a gray, gloomy, and cool late autumn day in the Tampa Bay area. Currently, the temperature is 75°F/24°C under cloudy skies. Although it’s not raining now, the forecast for today calls for rain throughout much of the afternoon, and the high temperature is expected to be 77°F/25°C.

Meanwhile, the New Hampshire town where I’m moving to in a few weeks, Madison, is experiencing somewhat nicer – if perhaps colder – weather. The temperature there is 47°F/8°C under sunny conditions. It should be a nice day up there – by New England standards, at any rate – because the forecast calls for sunny skies and a high of 56°F/13°C.

From Lithia to Madison: The Movin’ Out Saga Continues

“There is always a sadness about packing. I guess you wonder if where you’re going is as good as where you’ve been.” ― Richard Proenneke, One Man’s Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey

Except for my 1979 Kenner Millennium Falcon from the original Star Wars collection and the more recent Hasbro Sandcrawler and Jawa set, all of the Star Wars action figures and vehicles that made this room mine have been put away into moving boxes. There are still two Star Wars posters on the walls – a metallic (and simplified) version of the famous “Circus” poster co-created by Charles White III and Drew Struzan from 1978, and the well-known Star Wars Episode I teaser poster with Jake Lloyd’s Anakin Skywalker casting a shadow shaped like Darth Vader on the sands of Tatooine – but aside from my TV/Blu-ray player, some family pictures, and a few knickknacks on my shelves and desk, there’s very little of me left here.

If I sound a bit sad about this, well, that’s because I am. Aside from Miami, this part of the Tampa metropolitan area has been my home for just over seven years. That’s longer than the time that I lived in Bogota, Colombia as a child (almost six years), and now I’m leaving it behind, part eagerly, part reluctantly.

On Writing and Storytelling: ‘Nibbling at the Edges’ of the Novel, and a Modest Uptick in Sales

As you know, I have accepted – reluctantly – the reality that getting ready for an interstate move and writing a novel (my first!) are not compatible with my personality and ability to multitask. I’ve written quite a bit about how my emotions affect my writing output; if I’m calm and happy (or at least calm and somewhat content), I can produce close to between 1,000 and 1,500 words during my writing workday. However, if my mind is troubled and trying to cope with a stressful situation – such as a death in the family or a move, then my output is affected by my inability to focus on the tasks that go into writing a good story.

Nevertheless, now that most of the media materials that I depend on for keeping myself entertained – books, movies on Blu-ray and DVD, and music CDs – are in boxes that are not only neatly packed and stacked in the Florida room and kitchenette but also taped shut, I have to keep my mind occupied somehow, so between now and M-Day (December 12), I will still try to either add new copy to Reunion: Coda’s manuscript or edit, revise, and rewrite the stuff I’ve already written since I started this project in March.

Yesterday I did what I call “nibbling around the edges,” which is looking at the manuscript and seeking “easy” edits, such as getting rid of unintentional “hard returns” and correcting typos that even Word’s spellcheck function misses. I didn’t spend too much time on that because, you know, pre-moving anxiety and depression set in and affected my concentration. But before that happened, I was able to make a few fixes, thus – hopefully – avoiding some of the errors that crept into my novella Reunion when I wrote the first half of the duology back in 1998.

Oh, and about Reunion: A Story. I’ve seen a modest increase in sales this month – 13 orders (1 Kindle e-book, 12 paperbacks) so far, and 52 pages read on Kindle Unlimited. As I always say, I don’t get the full $8.50 list price; I get something like $2.25 or $2.50 of that, while the rest covers printing and shipping costs, plus Amazon’s cut of the profits. If no more copies are sold this month – and I hope that doesn’t happen – I stand to receive $36.56, which includes the $0.22 I made from the 52 pages read on Kindle Unlimited this week.

As much as I hate the business end of writing, I’ll just remind those of you who are reading this post and have not yet purchased a copy of Reunion: A Story: Please consider buying either the Kindle or the paperback edition to (a) get a well-written story and (b) support my efforts as a writer. There are plenty of customer reviews on Amazon that say Reunion is worth purchasing (or, barring that, reading on Kindle Unlimited).

That’s all the news that I have to share with you, so I’ll close this post here. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the less rainy side of things.