STATUS: Friday, May 15th

The State of the Me

Okay. I am still improving, but I’m not about to make the mistake of declaring I’m recovered… I think this is going to be one of those illnesses that just tapers off so slowly that I stop thinking about it and then at some point look back and realize that it’s not there any more.

The Daily Report

Well, today I put the previously mentioned plan into motion: woke up, and the very first substantial thing I did was spend a two hour block of time writing Tales of MU. It was not as cleanly productive a two hours as my typical late afternoon writing session would have been, but… well, I’m now in much better shape for that. And I have to imagine that as I build this into a habit, I’ll get better about doing a cold start in the morning.

I’m not saying this will work every morning, but on the mornings where it does work, I’ll do it, and that will leave me in better shape for the days where it doesn’t.

I’ve had a lot of people express interest in particular books for Mr. Upjohn and/or his patron Mr. Pratt to review. Actually, both Madeline and Corduroy came about specifically as reader requests. But here’s the thing, and this is also part of why I’m not sure how long I’ll continue it: I don’t actually have a pile of children’s books lying around the house. While there are Wikipedia summaries and in many cases performances/adaptations of the books on YouTube, all the books I’ve done so far are ones that I’m familiar enough with to essentially sit down and block out the major points from memory, and then just check the available sources for corrections.

The years I spent reading these books to children coupled with a brain that’s wired for stories has probably left me better situated for this than the typical childless adult, but the store’s not inexhaustible. Even if the flow of comedic inspiration doesn’t run out on the puppygators’ side of the fence, my own personal well of reference material is bound to be exhausted sooner or later.

It’s been suggested to me that I just put a bunch of children’s books on my Amazon wishlist, but here’s the thing: if people are going to be spending money on my humble artistic endeavors, I’d rather it be on something I can use for myself, like… money.

None of this is to say that I’m done with the things. I have one coming up for today still… the actual publication time on each one is pretty much just whatever time of day I finished writing it at assigned it a date, so sometime this morning. I have nothing in particular in mind for next week yet, but I started last week with nothing in mind and it turned into nine consecutive weekdays of a thing happening, so…

Plans For Today

Shaky as it was, my writing block this morning was solid enough that I am confident I can post a good chapter to Tales of MU this afternoon. Beyond that, I’m making no plans/claims, because convalescing.