March Sweeps - Day 401

"The rumors are terrible and cruel,
But honey, most of them are true."
Taylor Swift

Today, Monday, was so busy with work (the money kind) that I could be forgiven for not writing at all, but after yesterday's pathetic display, I feel like I have to at least double my numbers from yesterday.  

I have to go to the post office, to Fed Ex, and to the storage unit (where I really ought to do a song . . . why can't I have an extra two hours today, just to get things done?), and it just occurred to me that I didn't eat lunch, only a bit of breakfast and a Coke Zero.  Whoops.

Sit-ups Today: 110
Sit-ups In March: 852

A year ago, I was flirting with going jogging, doing it a couple of times a week, for about two-thirds or a half a mile.  Now, I go out running either six or seven days a week (but never more often than that--I'm not some kind of nutcase or anything).  On bad days, I get the need to turn around and go home before the half-mile point.  But on good days, I get to thinking about writing projects or ideas, and I am able to focus on that more than on my running, and before I even realize it, I'm a block from home.

This particular run, I was thinking of a new "Lara and the Witch" story, but not the ones I've been telling you about.  It occurred to me: What if Lara Demming ran into another girl who used witchcraft at her school?

And my imagination just started to run after that.  

Push-ups Today: 145
Push-ups In March: 810

Now, you've heard me bemoan that Big Anklevich once said to me that you knew a story was written by Rish Outfield if the main character was a big loser.  I know I've complained about that too often (he has since revised his statement that you know it's a story I wrote if the main character is a geek [which I'd say is a step up from being a loser]), but I would be totally fine with it if somebody said to me, "You know it's a story written by Rish Outfield if there's a mention of boobs, breasts or juggs somewhere."

One of my Facebook friends said in 2019 that she was no longer going to write any stories, from that point onward, that didn't have gay, lesbian, or LGBTQ characters in them.  This seemed awfully limiting to me at the time (since I sometimes write Children's, YA, and Western stories), but I think I understand her reasoning.  And I'm tempted to make a similar bold resolution, that I'm not going to write any stories from this point onward that don't mention breasts in them (or sketches or songs or haikus, while I'm at it).

Wish me luck.

Anyway, at the library, I started this story where Lara meets another witch (or "witch" in this girl's case), and if the place had been open its normal hours (instead of its shortened COVID schedule), I might have gotten two thousand words written.

But after my nightly run, I was eager to jot down my ideas, and I ended up writing more at the end of the day, bringing my total up way higher than anytime recently.

Words Today: 2141
Words In March: 7560

I Perform "A Case Study in Natural Selection" on Tales To Terrify

A teenager tries to balance coming of age and simple survival in the post-water apocalypse of Southern California, in Eric Guinard's "A Case Study in Natural Selection and How It Applies to Love," in the newest episode of the Tales To Terrify podcast.  This is among the longest stories I've ever been asked to narrate for somebody else's show, and I decided (a page or so into it) to do it in my Teen Boy Voice 1.  But don't worry, the other characters get Teen Boy Voice 2, in case you miss that one.*

This is an amazingly bleak story, set in a future where global warming has turned the United States into a brutal desert, where human beings struggle for resources, and occasionally spontaneously combust.  Editor Seth Williams asked me to perform the story, but gave me the option to reject it if I chose (they usually do this, and I can't think of a single time I've ever turned them down--though there was one where the main character was definitely supposed to be female, and I asked if they were sure they wanted me to do it--though there have been one or two I wish I had turned down).

Still, it's absolutely made for me (unless, of course, you hate Teen Boy Voice 1), and a couple of moments really resonate with me, imagining an End of the World episode of "The Wonder Years" where everybody gets to nail Winnie Cooper but Kevin.  

I don't think I've ever written anything like this, but I'd like to give it a try (I couldn't manage anything this bleak, though, as shitty as life can be, which includes lines like, "As Liz leaves, I almost tell Tommy how unfair natural selection is.  For in this environment, I've become the least likely to propagate.").  If I, or the world, live that long, that is.

If it interests you, check it out at THIS LINK.

*I don't know why you would; I'm sick to death of it.

February Sweeps - Day 400

Today marks four hundred days in a row of writing, although the numbering is most likely off.  I wish I had some spectacular blogpost for you, summing up all I have learned, or at least a huge number of words I got in today, but nope.  I didn't get anything written until the very end of the night, even though I'd grabbed my laptop, threw it in the car, and headed out around five, hoping to park somewhere and write someplace where I could see the sun set.

But it was cloudy, and I got talking to Big Anklevich on the phone, and before I knew it, the sun was pretty much gone, and I started thinking about heading back and getting a run in before it got dark (and briefly, I did think about trying the rollerblades on for a few minutes, but I just don't dare, and won't even come close to my goal of ten times practicing in March).  I still got my exercise in, though.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 742

So, last night, I did sit down--though it was late, and my heart wasn't really in it--to record the first section/chapter of "Meet the New Clerk."  There are a couple of lines from the ghostly antagonist, and I had intended on giving him a really deep, really big voice.  But in my head, the guy is a Cletus Cassidy type (a skinny, scraggly, big-eyed white dude who isn't PHYSICALLY intimidating, but his crazy eyes tell you to back away anyway), so I gave him a scratchy, amused voice, kind of like Matt Frewer would sound if he played a serial killer (and maybe he has, I dunno).

I also had to establish Meeshelle Lovett's voice, and John Lennon's (although Meeshelle has appeared in two other stories I've recorded before).  The story/novellette starts with Meeshelle speaking to the former Beatle on the phone, and to get his voice in my head, I typed "John Lennon interview" into YouTube, and the first thing to come up was one of the last (if not the last) interviews he gave on TV, with Tom Snyder on the "Tomorrow" show.

Sadly, the interview (which Snyder refers to as "not terribly entertaining or enlightening") didn't do much to affect my impression, and I was sorely tempted to watch the whole thing instead of recording anything.*  But record I did, and the damn program froze over and over, despite me closing every other program running on the system, and probably doubling the amount of time it took to get that short first segment taped in.

John is by far the most beloved Beatle, and not having a lot of friends that revered them, I've mostly had to talk to myself about them and their impact (sometimes I'll jabber at my niece, who until recently, would listen raptly to my wisdom and life experience, before, at age nineteen, she has already eclipsed what I've accomplished), but it's hard to put them in perspective, since we live in a world where artists like Drake and Mariah Carey and I dunno, Mackelmore, are touted as being bigger than the Beatles.

I was very young, but I did live through Michael Jackson during the "Thriller" era, so I do have a little idea how big a deal John, Paul, George, and Ringo were.  Still, as much as I like Michael Jackson (especially that song), it hasn't changed the face of popular music like the Beatles did.  John seemed tired of talking about the Beatles in that interview (in which he was only thirty-five), and I can't imagine, were he alive today, that he'd even want to have the subject brought up.**

Something really interesting that John said in that interview was that people tended to leave him alone in New York.  They knew he lived there, and didn't bother him, didn't pester him for autographs, didn't follow him around.  I guess that's irony for you.

Push-ups Today: 66
Push-ups In March: 665 (would it have killed me to do one more push-up?)

I did the second section of "Meet the New Clerk" tonight--I never know whether to break stories into chapters or just segments with asterisks in between.  If it's novel-length, sure, but on something that has just crossed over 15,000 words, I don't know what the answer is.  I break the audio files up into chapters anyway, but there's something pretentious about putting chapters in a short story, or worse, doing that thing where you not only number the chapters, but name each chapter something.

Words Today: 299
Words In March: 5419

*I hadn't quite reached a thousand words for the day, which was my goal, and to my embarrassment, when I stopped recording at nearly two in the morning, I had only added 48 words to my total.

**It reminds me of how Michael Crichton would come into our video store all the time, and I was warned (more than once), "Do not bring up JURASSIC PARK with him."  He seemed like a friendly guy otherwise, always willing to talk about his (other) books and movies, but I never tested him.

February Sweeps - Day 399

The weeks are starting to fly past at breakneck speed.  I'm back at the library again, an hour before it's going to close, and everything from email to Wikipedia (to this blog) is drawing my attention away from writing.  I had told myself, in the short drive here (it's probably only six or seven minutes) that I'd get a thousand words for sure, but now five hundred seems like a generous expectation.

I didn't record "Meet the New Clerk" yesterday, but I did open it just now--fixing two typos, and one sentence that was so horrible, I thought I would share it with you:

"You just take your time, dear.  I've been here my whole life, so the people here are place is my family."

If you can make heads or tails of that then you are quite intelligent, my friend.

The story is just over fourteen thousand words long, which means the final version will be between fifteen and seventeen (I would guess).  I've forgotten how it ends (believe it or not) and I'm hoping that Meeshelle defeats the ghost in a clever way, instead of just telling Fred Krueger that he's shit and she takes back all the energy she's ever given him . . . but I suspect that's where I went with it (if you're going to steal, steal from the best).

I really like the character of Meeshelle Lovett.  She has a smart, biting wit that I don't usually give my female characters, but is also super-damaged, which makes me want to give her a happy ending someday.  We'll see if I can get started recording this tonight.

Now, the library closes in forty-five minutes, and I only have 86 words to show for it.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 642

I did finish my edit of "A Sidekick's Errand," with my final correction being that I said "waterfall" instead of "waterfowl" and never noticed it.  If you'd like to listen through and let me know what other mistakes I missed, let me know in the comments.

This is still my mock-up (not the final version Big's doing for me), I just tried it with a different font.  I like this one better, though.

Push-ups Today: 144
Push-ups In March: 599

Well, I buckled down, and was closing in on a thousand words when they announced that it was time to hit the road.  Every week or two I will ask a library employee if they're considering extending the hours back to how they were a year ago, and the answer is always not yet.  Walmarts are now open until eleven, but they still close overnight, whereas one of the things I've done for more than a decade now is go hit a Walmart at midnight, or one, or even two am, especially when I can't sleep.  That was something I did so recently, and yet it feels like a memory of youth, like going to Hardee's and ordering a regular hamburger, but filling it so thick with tomatoes and lettuce from the open condiments bar that it felt like a Big Mac, or calling a girl on the phone and chatting with her till her parents told her to hang up and go to bed.

Words Today: 1009
Words In March: 5120

Rish Outcast 194: Lara & the Witch Q&A

Warning: Spoilers. I mean it.

Rish answers Marshal Latham's questions about his "Lara & the Witch" series of stories, including talk about the most recent installments.

Download the episode directly by Right-Clicking HERE.

Support me on Patreon by Left-Clicking HERE.

Logo by Gino "And The Kitsch" Moretto.

February Sweeps - Day 398

So, having finished another story yesterday and being free to go onto something else today (to either a previously-abandoned story or a new one), I'm tempted to work on the "Lara and the Witch" story I considered doing for Valentine's Day (already a fudgin' month ago).  I was talking to Big Anklevich about it, and came to the realization that, as much as I enjoy the Ben Parks stories, they're harder than they should be (since they're set in the 1890s and are Westerns instead of Horror) . . . but that I far prefer to write the "Lara and the Witch" stories, and if I could get away with it, I'd write a whole series of stories where:

1) Lara encounters someone with a problem*
2) Lara decides to use magic to solve that problem
3) The consequences are unexpected
4) Lara realizes that magic was not the solution.

The beauty of this concept is that the next story would reset to one, and no matter how many of these I wrote, LARA NEVER LEARNS HER LESSON!!!!  It seemed so brilliant to me when I was talking to Big that I thought, "Dang, I'm gonna write one of these a year.  Heck, maybe I'll write two or three a year!  Imagine the possibilities!"  I also hand-waved away any consideration that doing this might make me a hack like the worst cartoon or sitcom writers out there,** and you can watch those shows in any order or combination because nothing is ever going to change . . . maybe not even the clothes the characters wear.

But I'm still tempted to do it.  I'm always getting ideas for little two or three page Lara stories, like the one where a dumb boy in her class (she's in the 7th grade by this point) farts and blames it on her, so she casts a spell so that every time he farts (for the rest of his life, mind you), he must announce that he has farted to those around him.  The consequences are . . . well, not unexpected.

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 542

I said that my fall yesterday didn't hurt, but I will admit that, doing my sit-ups today, my tailbone ached not unlike the first day back from Bible Camp.  

Well, the library's about to close and I've only gotten 333 words in (I sort of stopped when I reached that number, more OCD than superstitious).  I looked over a sketch I wrote about Bryan Adams songs, a spiritual sequel to the Kenny Loggins sketch I wrote a couple of years back.  I wrote this one in 2019, at my mom's computer, and I must not have saved it or something, because when I went looking for it, it was gone.  Then, the day last year I went hiking in the same canyon I so pitifully failed at this past Sunday, I stopped at a park and wrote the sketch out again, as best as I could remember it.  It's not good, and it's certainly not funny, but I'd still like to sit down with Renee Chambliss and record it, to include in a future episode.  I decided to call it "Bryan Adams, At Large."

I also looked through my works-in-progress, hoping one would catch my attention, and I grabbed "Meet the New Clerk," which is the next "Dead & Breakfast" story I should record and put out there.  It's supposed to be a scary one, with a Nightmare on Elm Street vibe, with Meeshelle Lovett being the Nancy Thompson character.  I scanned through a few paragraphs--found two typos--and stopped at an interaction with Mrs. Bice, the owner of the bed and breakfast.  I liked it quite a bit.  I've found that, sometimes, to make a scene scary, you don't have to describe anything particularly frightening, you can just convey that the characters are afraid, and that does the job for you.

In this scene, Meeshelle (still spelled Meechelle in this draft), has to do a night shift for the first time since coming back to the hotel, having quit years before after a run-in with a nasty Fred Kreuger-like ghost.

She heard a sound to her left, and whipped her head in that direction, expecting . . . well, expecting to see something a lot more terrible than the elderly owner of the establishment, slowly coming her way, a purse and light jacket on her arm.

   Bice crossed in front of the reception desk, then hovered there, looking down at her hands, clearly uncomfortable.  "Well, I'm off.  Are you . . . ?"

"I'll be fine," Meechelle said, letting her boss off the hook.  

Mrs. Bice looked eager to say something else, but she didn't.

"You don't stay here at night, do you, Connie?"

No response.

"Is it like me?  Do they scare you?"

The old woman looked torn whether to answer or not.  Finally, she said, "I've seen things too, over the years.  Lord knows, I've seen things."  She shuddered, but Meechelle didn't know if that was genuine or just theatrics.  "You say they like Mason.  And that may be so.  But there are some, and well, they don't care for me much."

Then Bice leaves, and Meeshelle is alone in the lobby.  But of course, she's never TRULY alone.

That sort of thing makes me excited to do the audio.  I look forward to coming up with a voice for the ghost, and trying to differentiate my Meeshelle and Natalie voices.  And I hope that I did my job well enough that the story is scary, and we fear for the new clerk, and root for her to overcome.  

Guess I'll find out tonight.***

Push-ups Today: 50
Push-ups In March: 455

I'd hoped I could sit down and record something, and presumably add a few words to my total, but it didn't end up happening.  I have other obligations, and I'm often too easily distracted, and the time just flies (by the time I could've recorded, it was past one, and I thought I'd do a short story--I've got a bad one called "Lemon Pledge" that wouldn't have taken long--but even that took a back seat to watching a YouTube video on the conspiracy theory that lizard overlords masquerading as human are among the elite in society--including video evidence where the Queen and Mark Zuckerberg have reptilian eyes.  I only pray my Uncle Len has not watched this video, since he would surely--Oh, he's Liked and Subscribed, as well as Commented on it, hasn't he?).

There are people who have much bigger writing days than I do, and there are also folks that manage far fewer words than I do, and I need to simply remember that and try to be proud that I've gotten as many words as I have, for as many days as I have.  Good luck to us both. 

Words Today: 524
Words In March: 4111

*This could be a student or friend or teacher or neighbor . . . OR somebody who's mean or rude or in need of a little correcting, so the spell could be a positive one or a negative one.

**I'm reminded of an old "SCTV" episode where there was a hotel John Candy ran, and Eugene Levy checked into the hotel and said, "I'm here for some time off and relaxation.  Oh, and I have a irrational, debilitating fear of gorillas, just so you know."  Of course, there's another guest that checks in that owns a gorilla suit, and well, it just writes itself.

***Oh, and I forgot, in the first scene, John Lennon speaks to Meeshelle.  That will be a blast to record!

Big Joins Rish & Marshal Talking About Star Wars Future - Part 2

 

It's the rest of the "Delusions of Grandeur" podcast where Marshal and Rish have Big on to talk about the various future Star Wars projects on the horizon.  

Check it out HERE.

February Sweeps - Day 397

I mentioned yesterday that I restarted my laptop.  I don't know if that was to blame, but the sound suddenly didn't work on my computer this morning, and the whole system was insanely sluggish, causing me to suspect something had gone wrong in the update.  So, the first thing I did was restart the system again, but it fixed nothing (the sound plays, but it's all staticky and there's some kind of interference that is not there when I plug in headphones and listen that way).  After that, I disabled and reinstalled my audio driver (that has worked in the past when there's no sound at all).  Not a solution.

Because I suspect it's the update (although it could be a virus, so I did a virus check, and found nothing), I tried to roll back the update to where it was yesterday.  I'm not sure if it worked, but it insisted on restarting my system again, and things seem to be running faster, but still, the sound is really bad.  Bad enough that I wouldn't be able to edit audio without headphones (which I concede is not the end of the world, but should not be happening with a computer this new).

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 442

So, it's the fourth of March, and I had yet to get on my rollerblades this month (as you may recall, one of my goals for March is to practice on those medieval devices of torture TEN times), and I couldn't figure out why I'm so afraid of them.  I can't really explain it.  If I had set the goal of playing the guitar ten times this month, or practicing Russian ten to twenty times this month, or striking my gonads with a putting iron five times this month, I can't see being so nervous about it.*

There must have been an angle to the parking lot because once I started rolling forward, my body kept going, speeding up beyond what I was used to (although, to be frank, I'm not even used to standing up in those things, let alone moving forward).  I tried to use the black thing on the heel as a brake, but all it accomplished was my very first spill on the rollerblades.

And happily, it didn't even hurt, just a quick flop back onto the cement.  But I discovered that I didn't know how to stand up with the skates on, and that was a bit of a surprise.  I finally managed to flip myself onto my knees and stand up that way, then rolled--slowly--back to my car.  It was tempting to just get into it and drive away, but I forced myself to try again, pushing myself forward, trying to keep my knees bent, and attempting to skate like you do with ice skates on.  

This isn't anything like ice skates, it turns out.  If anything, it makes me want to go to an ice skating rink--even alone--to prove to myself that I'm still capable of forward motion.  As slowly as humanly possible, I rolled to the edge of the parking lot, turning around and almost as slowly skated back.  Then it was time to go to the car, and--

But wait.  Since I was already at the park, I took my skates off and compelled myself--as penance--to run to the stairs and go up and down it.  It had been months (probably September or October the last time I'd done it), and it will please you to know that it was just as hard now as it was a year ago, when the world was shutting down, but I could always go to the park and exercise or write, since there were seldom other people around.

Push-ups Today: 143
Push-ups In March: 405

I made it to the library and, blah, blah, blah, the same as always: I saw people with masks on and wondered what they looked like without them on (or any clothes), there were the usual one or two who wouldn't wear them, I tried to write but got distracted, and then it was time for the library to close.  I did, however, finish my "Dead & Breakfast" story, which is exactly what the series was supposed to be, where a person checks into the hotel and a ghost comes to their door.  I doubt it'll be anybody's favorite in the series, but I'm counting it anyway.

Words Today: 948
Words In March: 3587

*That DOES give me a fine idea for April, though.

February Sweeps - Day 396

We had another unseasonably warm day today so my cousin and I were able to eat outside without much discomfort.  And it looks like the world is getting closer to normal again, as you can now sit down in a Taco Bell (after which, you'll be doing a great deal of sitting down, if you know what I mean).*

My laptop has been bugging me for a restart the last few days, having some kind of update it absolutely NEEDED to do (more on that tomorrow), and I finally went ahead and let it restart.

Big mistake.  Apparently, this is one of the reboots that are supposed to happen in the wee hours of the morning when you're not in front of your computer anyway, because an hour after the restart, it had a blue screen that said it was 63% finished with the update.  I did paperwork, a small revision on "A Sidekick's Errand," and laundry while I waited, and as soon as it was done, I packed up the machine and drove over to the library.

Well, I only had about forty-five minutes to write, and I didn't manage to get to the end of the story I'm working on, despite it being a very short tale with very little connection to the others in the series.**

Sit-ups Today: 100
Sit-ups In March: 342

Last night, my cousin and I got to catch up on "Wandavision," and man, the show is constantly surprising.  Or maybe it's just surprisingly constant.  No, the first one.  If it can end on a high note, I may declare it my favorite Marvel series.  And yes, that's including the "Helstrom" series I just now found out happened during the pandemic and was canceled as soon as it aired. 

I was disappointed that Kathryn Hahn's character was revealed to be Agatha Harkness, not because it was badly done, but because all the dorks that insisted that's who it was (before the show even effing started) due to things like her name being Agnes ("Get it: Ag . . . . . . . . Ness?") and that she wears a--gasp!--broach the first time we see her.

But Hahn is rather wonderful, and the purple magic she casts is visually delightsome.  Still, wouldn't it have been grand if they'd cast Betty White in that part, considering her legacy as television royalty, and the fact that she's rarely been able to play a vicious or evil character before.

Push-ups Today: 50
Push-ups In March: 262

Words Today: 630
Words In March: 2639

*I apologize, that was a low blow.  It always bugs me how much crap Taco Bell gets compared to all the other fast food places (except maybe McDonalds--people LOVE to bag on McDonalds), but I have to admit that I always laugh at the myriad Taco Bell equals diarrhea jokes.  I just find the concept amusing.  As the be-otches say, sorry, not sorry.

**Although it DOES answer the big question (or one of the big ones) posed in the very first story "True Ghost Encounter."  You know the one.

February Sweeps - Day 395

The kids were watching "Friends" today on TV, and it sort of made me sick.  Not that I have anything against "Friends" or anything: I watched every single episode, bought the soundtrack, got a hat in '95 with the logo on it, laughed out loud through every show (even the semi-awful ones with Giovani Ribisi in them).  No, the beef I have is with the way they were presented on television.  Syndication has always been notorious for cutting out parts of episodes so they can shove more commercials in, but this was a new low.  Not only did they run the end credits smashed down at the bottom of the screen while the next episode started up, but they also ran the opening titles (sped up and sans music) squished below while the episode was playing, so they could cram in another thirty or forty seconds of Jake From State Farm, Diet Coke, and Peleton ads into every show.  And yes, they trimmed out scenes and lines too, so that each show runs approximately eighteen minutes long, which kind of broke my heart a little.

I finished editing "A Sidekick's Errand," and it came to one hour and forty-eight minutes.  I think that's about right, though I don't know if the story itself is any good or not.  I do love narrating these suckers, though, because they put me in the mindset to write more of them, and I worked on "Sins of a Sidekick" for the first time in a year last week, and might get on it again as soon as I finish this little "Dead & Breakfast" tale I'm close to finished with (it'll be my shortest one, I imagine, but is exactly what I intended with the series when I first began it, before getting involved in the lives of the employees that work there).

So, one of my goals for March is to try to rollerblade TEN times in the month.  That involves putting the darn things on, and seeing if I can propel myself forward on them.  I hope that, after two or three more tries, I'm no longer so afraid of them, and filled with less self-loathing than I was the two tries last week.  

For the first time in thirteen months, one of my goals is NOT to write every single day.  That ship has sailed, and I'm happy to see it go.  Now sure, I wrote yesterday and I wrote today, but I don't feel obligated to do it every day.  Maybe that's bad, but that's fine.

Push-ups Today: 142
Push-ups In March: 212

Sit-ups Today: 142 (I purposely matched the number of push-ups, just to be a tool)
Sit-ups In March: 242

Words Today: 1049
Words In March: 2009

February Sweeps - Day 394

This won't be an impressive blog post as I have nothing to report today.  

I had a busy Monday (still not done with work), and it's a new month, but I haven't done my Patreon address, nor even finished the episode I was recording on the drive to the canyon yesterday.  Marshal Latham and I are going to record a podcast tonight, but he usually isn't available till nine or ten, so that gives me a little time.

I noticed a (very) small plothole in "A Sidekick's Errand," and typed up a single paragraph to resolve it, but I didn't have time to record it or edit it into the rest of the story.  Something that occurred to me is that I could change all of the uses of "writer" to "journalist" or "newspaperman," so that it didn't sound like "rider" in the audiobook.  Or I could just enunciate "wri-TER" every time, but I wonder if that's going to bother anybody other than me.

I think back to when I used to read the monthly sales reports I'd get from Audible, seeing what was selling and how much I was making on the various audiobooks.  I stopped reading them altogether when I discovered that there were audiobooks I had recorded, edited, and put out there, that had never sold a single solitary copy.  It really put into perspective how fruitless my efforts had been* and probably contributed to me becoming way more picky in which projects I signed up to do.

Regardless, I was thinking that I could put out a collection that has "Choice of a Sidekick," "Birth of a Sidekick," "A Sidekick's Errand," and "A Sidekick's Journey" in it and maybe have a better chance of selling that than the two single volumes ("Birth" and "Journey") that are currently available.  Again, show me the Pause button on the world, so I can press it, get that out there, then go back about my day.

Sit-ups Today: 100

Push-ups Today: 70

Words Today: 960

*I got a check (direct deposited) for February today that said I had sold ONE audiobook (total) in Canada in the month of February.  While that's better than nothing, it's a bit of a chilly reminder that not much has changed since I first started doing this.