Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, March 7, 2024, or: On Making Corned Beef Hash and Writing Novels…But NOT at the Same Time!

Late Morning, Thursday, March 7, 2024, Madison, New Hampshire

Hi, folks. It’s a cold, gray, and wet New England morning here in my corner of Eidelweiss, the district of Madison where I’ve been living for almost three months. Currently, the temperature is 43°F (6°C) with light rain. With the wind blowing from the northeast at 10 MPH (16 KMH) and humidity at 99%, the feels-like temperature is 39°F (4°C). Today’s forecast calls for scattered rain showers and a high of 47°F (8°C). Tonight, we can expect mostly clear skies and a low of 28°F (-2°C).

Well, I guess today will be one of those rare “stay indoors and don’t go outside” days for me. It’s been raining on and off ever since I woke up around 6:30 this morning, and both the driveway and Huttwil Drive – as well as the entire front yard – get muddy in spring. The snow that has been around for weeks is beginning to melt as the temperature gradually rises, and because we’re out in the country, there’s not much asphalt on the roads and driveways. I’ve been told that mud is going to be something that I must get used to, especially later this spring when it’s warmer and more snow melts.

I suppose I’ll just forego my habitual daily walk later. I don’t mind getting wet in the rain as long as I don’t get soaked to the bone, but I do mind catching a cold, or the flu, or even COVID-19. And I’m mostly a homebody, anyway. I will miss going out to get some exercise, fresh air, and sunshine, but I’ve only missed a couple of days of that due to rain or snow days.

What’s Cooking?  (Some Things You Never Forget Dept.)

After I finished working on the edits and revisions on Goodbye, Farewell, and Adios’  sixth scene, I decided to make corned beef hash for dinner. I hadn’t eaten that dish since I left Florida in mid-December, and I hadn’t cooked it since I moved out of Miami; the Tampa area house where I lived from 2016 till 2023 didn’t have an electric stove, and while I was comfortable using a gas oven, I wasn’t keen on cooking on a gas stove cos of the burners and fear of spilling something flammable and starting a kitchen fire.

So, since I’d been craving corned beef hash – a simple dish that Mom taught me to prepare when I was 17 or so – I bought two cans of the stuff when Marc took me to Walmart to restock my groceries and decided to make some for my evening meal after working on the novel for most of the afternoon.

Since I’ve already made a few simple dishes on our electric stove – eggs, mostly, but also some Kraft Mac & Cheese – I wasn’t worried about screwing up the corned beef hash. I did worry about some cooking-related issues, such as cutting my fingers with the lid of the can when I opened it (it didn’t happen) or having a tough time cleaning the cooking utensils after dinner (that didn’t happen, either). And, as the old saw about riding a bicycle after a long time of not riding one goes, some things, such as cooking, you just don’t forget if you’ve done them for decades. (Plus, making corned beef hash is easy-peasy: just put the corned beef hash in a good-sized skillet, mush it with a spatula or cooking spoon, put one or two eggs on top, then cook over medium heat till the meat and eggs are cooked.)

It took me 15-20 minutes to prepare my corned beef hash, but it was worth it. I didn’t overcook it, and even though one of the yolks didn’t stay intact when it landed on the corned beef, the other one did, and the result was…yummy.

On Writing & Storytelling: Action This Day

As of this writing, I have not decided whether I will begin writing Scene Seven – the last one in the novel’s 13^th chapter – or focus more on editing and revising Scene Six (and other parts of Reunion: Coda) during the afternoon “novel-writing” shift. Objectively, I want to do both, but I can’t mix the two processes – I can either edit the existing material or create some brand new “copy,” but my mind can’t do both on the same day.

(In college, when I was younger and more mentally agile, I often did both things, but more often than not, when I worked on my college’s campus student newspaper, I was editing other student journalists’ articles in my capacity as a copy editor, in addition to writing and editing my own stories. Now, at age 61, it’s become a matter of “either/or.”)

I’m still over the moon that I managed to complete Scene Six in a way that reflects my original concept and adds to the overall story I am telling in the Reunion Duology. My friend Juan Carlos, who is one of the only two people who have seen the bulk of the Reunion: Coda manuscript – the other person is my Beta Reader, Denise Longrie – says that this section of the novel is his favorite so far.

In an email regarding a newly revised version of Scene Six that I’d sent him after I finished making revisions last night, Juan wrote:

This is my favorite scene, I think; either way, I loved reading it, even if it was for the tenth time. It is much cleaner and clearer, so I see the work you have done to it…Honestly, this is professional writing Stephen King would love.

Now, of course, Juan and I are close friends, and we tend to be supportive of each other’s work. Hell, we’ve collaborated on four or five short films since 2019. Naturally, he is rooting for me and my efforts to write a first novel. But he’s also an experienced storyteller and actor, and he’s honest and doesn’t mince words. So…if Juan says that someone’s writing – not necessarily mine, but anyone’s – blows his mind or is “professional writing Stephen King would love,” he’s not just saying what I want to hear…he’s saying what he thinks.

Here’s a brief, non-spoiler fragment – the only one from this sequence in Scene Six I found that I can share on A Certain Point of View, Too:

Don’t hurry; we’re not in a rush to go. Mom’s words rang in my ears as I strolled around South Campus, dragging my feet, with my shoulders sagging and my eyes glued to the massive concrete structures that had been standing for nearly two decades. I felt dwarfed by the towering columns and cantilevers that supported the Brutalist buildings, designed by architect Hilario Candela in the late 1960s. The campus was no longer new, but it still lacked the charm and warmth of other places. The covered walkways that connected them offered some shade from the scorching sun but also made me feel trapped in a maze of gray. I thought of the kids from high school who were going to Miami-Dade Community College in the fall – the ones who didn’t get full scholarships to four-year colleges, couldn’t afford to start their post-secondary education at Florida International University, or just wanted a two-year degree. I felt a pang of envy; they got to stay here, while I had to leave everything behind.

I had no idea where I was going. I just kept walking, hoping to clear my head. It was difficult; all of my thoughts circled back to the moment two days earlier when I’d handed Marty the letter that changed everything. The letter in which I’d told her how I felt about her. The letter that I had been too afraid to say out loud. I asked her to wait until after the ceremony to read it, but I had no clue if she had followed my request. Maybe she had already opened it and read my confession. Maybe she was still holding it in her purse, unaware of the bombshell inside. I wondered if she had already left the campus, or if she was still around. I wondered if I would ever see her again. I closed my eyes and sighed, fervently wishing that I could hear her voice one more time, but I knew it was too late. I had missed my chance.

Of course, the bits of the story that Juan likes so much follow this excerpt, which is the intro to the mind-blowing part that made my buddy nearly cry when he read the first, unedited draft.

Reunion: Coda by the Numbers: Where I Stand Today (March 7, 2024)

Per Word’s Review functionality, here are the latest statistics regarding the novel’s length and word count:

• Number of Pages: 195
• Number of Words: 82,948

The page count is based on the current “printed page” size, which is currently set on the default of 8.5 inches by 11 inches. More than likely, the number of pages will be larger than that when I begin the pre-publication process of formatting the finished manuscript. Not just because the completed manuscript will have more pages added between now and the day that I type “THE END” – whenever that happens – but also because I’ll have to change the page size for the Kindle Direct Publishing paperback edition, which requires settings that allow pages to be printed at 9 inches by six inches. If I were to fiddle with the page size settings now (I won’t), I’d probably see a page count of 300 or more pages, based on the word counts/number of pages figures I see when I do a word count in my WriteItNow creative writing application.

Well, that brings me to the end of this, the 1,454^th post on my WordPress blog, so I’ll just take my leave of you. Until next time, stay safe, stay healthy, and I’ll catch you on the sunny side of things.