For no other reason than it's time for a change, I am attempting to move my newer writings, along with some classics over to Substack - which is apparently the next evolution of blogging, much like all the others.
So for some new and old, check me out at substack.com/metajayroyston
I've had this blog for about 10 years now. I don't know how many people actually read it so at times it's part journal, part essay, part stories. With my focus switching to a new five year plan, I've made a move of sorts over to Substack, which allows for a new audience of fans who will also 'support' my writing via a subscription service.
It gives you an option to pay to have special features sent directly to your Inbox or simply maintain subscribing for free to get notices of when I have posted some type of entertaining substance.
It also allows me to see how many subscribers I have.
You can see and/or subscribe to my substack here.
Like every social media, I need to learn the rules to drive the algorithm. As this is to be more of a writer marketing site, there will be little personal entries there. Perhaps I may make this more of my journal.
However, there is always the risk that one day this will all disappear into the Cyber-Nether.
In other news, I found a CD of Word back-up files from pre 2005, so that's been fun. I will be posting contents from that stage of my life mostly on substack so if you want to read of a world pre-USA politics, You can see and/or subscribe to my substack here.
Soon it's back to school time, I find out if I have successfully transferred to a new school closer to where my youngest is going. Change is good, right?
You can answer that here; You can see and/or subscribe to my substack here.
This year, in honour of the kids being older, options becoming more limited, I'm throwing money behind myself and my writing by hiring a marketing person. She's an old friend, gregarious and smart.
I have 2 books in the chamber but we are getting my 'ducks in a row' which unfortunately also requires me working a trades job 40 hours a week while trying to carve out some time around my goals.
I have also learned over the last month that while I'm trying to adopt a 'me-first' attitude, my family will always comes first. So that has meant camping and driving a lot. My writing took a back seat which is not a bad thing, when I recognize the love I get in return. On those days, I feel like a good dad and I pity the boy who will replace me one day in my daughter's life. He's got some big shoes to fill.
I digress. This was only meant to be a quick update to mention I am trying to merge my writing life over to Substack, as that is the weapon of choice for Jasper Fforde, a writer I admire.
I also have to write up an options contract for Unlimited Media, who are purchasing the film rights to Enter A Fistful of Marijuana (World Domination, baby!)
I also have my 12 year old's birthday party today. My wife's high school bff is visiting for the weekend so there is a possibility I'm undergoing a husband review from a 3rd party.
Here's a picture of my ducks in a row.
After all the excitement of the 4 Nations hockey tournament and the continuing mention (by Canadian hockey announcers) of Drew Doughty recovering from injury in time to lead the back end on the Canadian blue line, it made me think of 10 years ago and my hilarious (to me) blog around the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which I hope I can link in it's original blog form here.
I decided to convert it into a hard copy booklet form because, you know, practice and vanity and perhaps the off chance Drew himself would read it and I would get some bankroll/booksales from him (or one of the many other Team Canada/NHL players who may have read it).
I didn't and honestly, reading it 10 years later, it's not as good as I remembered, likely as there were no pictures.
But that didn't stop me from making a new cover, which looks a bit less like a 16 year old with a class in graphic arts did it.
If you've read this far and don't have this little booklet, you can buy it digitally or in book form here. Personally, I'd go with the book form as I made some edits in order to keep up with how my writing taste has changed over the last 10 years.
It's so hard to decide I keep having to flip between the two, thereby only catching 1/2 of each story. They are both great stories and great examples of a genre i just was informed of "Absurdist Fiction". So help make that a thing.
Plus, in an odd coincidence they both mention Angelina Jolie. I couldn't take the remote possibility of having to decide between two excellent shows happening again so I had to shut it down for the rest of the night. Also, Global was showing the Premiere episode of Saturday Night Live back in 1975 but was calling it a repeat but as usual, there were too many commercials so I saw none of it.
On my other semi-secret project. I am hitting .333. I was surprised at how much i am enjoying it.
oh well, off to work and write and kill zombies (not in that order). 
Kelly trying to save her baby
Kelly trying to save Twilight
Random afternoon thoughts in no particular order as they come to me...
I've received my 10th rejection for Flies, I think that's enough. I'll just self-publish. I don't think 10 or 100 copies will make much of a difference in the big picture; I will still need to work another job. The movie deal will have to wait, I guess.
In the meantime, I've also rewritten Karmageddon, which despite my best attempts, actually increased by 500 words. I've changed some names which have always bothered me, added some finer details which I didn't think I'd be d
oing. Basic editing, I guess.
I just finished putting a call-out on my loyal FB fan page, asking if anyone is interested in reading an advance copy for review.
What writers don't think of is the turn-around involved in books; I read a post where the author states it's a 12 month turnaround time. Crazy! But, on the other side, also not.
I've looked into substack, booktok, hosting a wix site, wattpad, medium, patreon. They all have their benefits, all require a lot of time and dedication, which I don't have. So I guess I will just keep chipping away. I've joined Blue Sky, which I guess is like Twitter but less 'bot'-y.
I'm still stuck on my #U2? dystopian sci-fi legal thriller's 3rd act, the book itself is clocking in at WAY too many words (155,000) at last count. I think I could break it down into 3 novellas but again, need the time. Once I push out Karmageddon and Flies, I'll punish myself by taking another go at that.
I've also found many of my hand-written short stories. I'd like to put those down on hard-drive somewhere for posterity. Again, time and dedication is my weakness. Did I mention finances? Those are also my weakness.
What about new writing? I ask myself.
Thank you for taking an interest, I reply.
I keep having random philosophical thoughts that I'd like to explore but they're big picture thoughts that are hard to write into little sentences. I have one line about depression that is sticking with me; Depression is like always feeling you are two sentences away from crying. I feel like that a lot, which is why the line is sticking with me.
I have an idea about a book that's a fun read but too high-brow (for me) so I want to dumb it down a bit. I also want to rewrite my wrestling epic, Duff Ragwell and His Amazing Channel Changer, someday. Retitle it 1994 (no relation), perhaps.
Anyways, that's all I got for now. Thanks for reading, future me.
Nobody really to brag to about this-especially as nobody is really waiting for it. But it took me another six months of sporadic editing, delayed by summer to trim Flies down about 2800 words. Sure it's tighter, and I've changed some names but will it shoot me up the best-seller list? Nope.
And I see that there is another SPA in my neighbourhood; more chick-lit. I'm torn because I'm happy for them of course. They're completing what they love doing. Sorry, they have completed what they love doing...20 books so far. Crazy! Congrats to her for doing what she does. But back to me.
So yeah, I've finished Flies...again. Should I resubmit, wait another 6 months? I still have no idea how to sell this. 'it's a murder mystery told from three different points of view, told in three different points of view."
That's actually pretty good. I should add sex in there somewhere. It would be fun if i could make it subtle, like ItS EXciting to read or ... I'll have to think about it.
Anyways, but the writing gets me on my old stuff that I would like to put out there before I die. That would be nice. I'm never going to be a KV jr or Doug Copeland but I do enjoy their stuff. If only there were no bills in my life, what could have happened?
At least my secret blog is still there until that website goes the way of MySpace and LiveJournal. It has lasted through a lot of temptations from other sites; wordpress, wattpad... a few others I already forget. The newest one is this linktr.ee which I'm going to study up on now. Perhaps with my operation laying me up for a week, I'll get organized.
Until then, I'll ponder what to do with Flies.
Here's a start of a spur of the moment query letter:
To Whom it May Concern
I'm submitting an 84000 word murder mystery told from three different points of view, told in three different points of view. The victims are teen sex offenders, plucked out of a residential treatment program meant to correct these young individuals' sexual predator instincts before they are released back into society, their minority age allowing them to avoid being registered as sex offenders.
The three 'protagonists' are Detective Doug Bennett, a shunned detective whose marriage is breaking up after his son was found guilty of sexual molestation and is in the program the victims are from. Reed Fontaine, whose sister is missing in Thailand as he stays at home, caring for his aging, abusive father while working in a local group home that provides shelter for boys attending the treatment program. Johnny Taylor provides a foster home to kids in the program. His wife has left him over arguments about his job caring for sex offenders and their inability to have a baby.
Their stories intertwine throughout the week as their paths cross, tensions mount, and accusations are made. Flies of Our Fathers looks at the damage caused by generational trauma from a male perspective and some of the problems and solutions needed to help sons and fathers be the best humans they can be.
Something like that. I added a fresher version on my facebook page. Anyways, time for bed.
Yep. Whoop-ee-dee-doo.
I spent exactly 2 hours editing Flies since the end of June. And both those hours were yesterday. A busy fucking summer of renovating our bathroom. I think I spent about 4 days not in there working on some part of it, excluding the days going family camping. From experience I didn't even take my computer to work on it, knowing the chances of that happening were fucking slim to none. And i even forgot to write Father's Day letters to the kids this year, which admittedly was in June but ya fucked up.
But now I'm editing the Thursdays, so only 6 more chapters to go; I've trimmed 2500 words, changed one suspect's name from Thomas Flowers to Cosmos St. Thomas, as I had some weird segue in there from Holly bushes and I couldn't clarify on the Internet if Holygyn (the old English name for Holly) meant prick. I also got rid of Johnny's drinking problem and re-worked his arguement with his ex-wife, who I think is named... Missy? Maddy? Hold up, i gotta check...Ashley. Her name is Ashley now, an Easter Egg from Evil Dead, if that is such a thing.
Anyways, just an update that nobody cares about but future me.
Hi bro - how far did you get in binging Always Sunny? You're on S3 now so don't say that hasn't helped distract you from the writing. Sacrifices, buddy. Sacrifices. And finish that fucking dolphin book.
How did this get to be May already? My last round of query letters have now gone the full 6 months with no replies. That sucks. I've been becoming increasingly cynical of all the FB/Reddit groups I'm in; there seem to be only 3 or 4 subjects; How do I write my memoir? Who will publish my memoir? I'm so happy I published my memoir, how do i self-publish (or some variation of).
I feel ashamed that I'm part of these groups and more recently have been wanting to express my self-loathing on being on these sites, wanting the same thing all these people want; to be read.
And I'm sitting with a novel ready to go, sitting in Kindle for the last 2 months, waiting for me to pull the fucking trigger and just press publish. Why am i so hesitant to just put it out there? Probably because I'm over 50 now and I don't want to be considered a 'senior' writer? I don't know.
Plus, who really reads this shit anyways. I saw a therapist 5x at the start of this year. He ended it, not me. I wound up crying every time I saw him. Typical suicidal thoughts. 1st time, I told him I wouldn't call him if I decided to do it- I think that's when he realized I was really in trouble. 2nd time, he wound up crying. 3rd time, he tried to get me to find my happy place, i couldn't and he literally said 'oh oh' as I started bawling. We had a 10 day break after that. 4th time, he told me the next time would be the last time and on that 5th and last time, I barely cried which I guess we/he considered good enough.
So here I am. I'm still working on the dolphin rapist thing. It's pretty big; 180,000 words (est) so I'm trying to cut it down and I cut out this huge chunk but I'm reconsidering as of course, it ties to the end. I'm also confused as to if it's funny or not. People have been raped by dolphins. That's not funny. But it is. But it isn't.
Anyways, here's a picture of an evil dolphin for the likes.
I've been spending some time listening to a podcast on writing, where three women critique query letters by hopeful writers. I've liked and hated it; the letters are basically all follow the same format; here's my genre, my word count, what the story is about and who the comparables are (meaning similar books). Blah blah blah about the arc of the story, a little bit about me to humanize me and the first 5 pages of a manuscript are critiqued.
I'm in a love/hate mood with it. First I don't love that of the 10 critiques I've listened to, every query letter has been by women. Second, I don't love that (spoiler) I sent out 5 intro letters to my top five specific agents a three weeks ago and not a word. I hesitate to call them query letters as they weren't for one book specifically, but a pitch for all of them. I also don't love that none of those intro letters were like what these ladies would want.
I do love most of the advice; clock in around 400 words; careful of comparing yourself to 'famous' authors, which is a bit difficult because I like to read the more tried and true. I'm no Kurt Vonnegut but I sure am influenced by him. Grab the reader at the start, show character arcs in your summary.
Anyways, the podcast has given me some ambition to look at my marketing again. The only one I feel is a slam-dunk of a one-liner is my current manuscript but the way it's going, it won't be for another year at least.
Which brings me to a short topic about prioritizing and fatherhood.
I annually hate myself when my birthday roles around, reminding me of pledge I made when I was 40 to get published. It's 12 years later and I still haven't achieved that goal. I totally get that a lot of it is on me; nobody is rushing to find someone who isn't making it easy to find. But a small epiphany- part of this delay in life goals is, yes, fear of success but it is also the responsibility of parenting.
I spent an hour today teaching my 10 year old how to play Risk, 30 minutes of him explaining a detailed map he drew. We made Kraft Dinner together. Last night, my 14 year old asked me to sit with her on the couch and we watched TV (9-9!) for a couple of hours. I've spent hours this summer ripping up weeds and replanting my lawn as it gave me a sense of completion and honestly, will make our home look better as my wife and I grow older here. Nobody else was going to do it. I've also spent many hours not with the kids, doing other things to avoid writing, which is such a cliche but it's true. It's so easy not to write and I hate myself when I don't, when I listen to podcasts of others who are that much closer than I am, Some were mothers and I wonder how their support system is; where their kids are. I read Danielle Steele has nine kids and has written 94 books. That sounds impossible on both counts. Nine kids? Where does she find the time to be a mother. Then I think, she likely doesn't. Now I've never read any of her books and likely never will but I'm envious of her output. That's a dedication to the art I simply don't have in me.
Yes, I could have used all those hours to write, not write, promote myself, draft query letters, get closer to my dream. Instead, I CHOSE (and I have to remember this) to be a good father, dad, husband. They come first, usually always come first and that is nothing to be ashamed of. No matter how litle I write in a day or week.
Families are what we make them.
Everyone has some type of passion project. For me, my passion is not finishing my passion project. But I am working on it.
We all need dreams. I've rekindled mine of sorts, been spending a few hours a day over the last two weeks trying to print out this mess of a dystopian legal thriller novel which I envisioned over a year and a half ago. I know this because, thanks to Google Docs, it keeps a version history of my works in progress.
I think I found the original seed of this epic novel; it's from Jan 7, 2022. Over a year and a half ago. Crazy.
It is a meeting of potential sexual assault victims to create consensus of filing a lawsuit against a dolphin and the company that manages it. A lot of the original guts is there; five victims, an official rep from the company, at the time called Playa De Blanca; it's now a global vacation conglomerate called Great Holidays.
Two nights ago I night-dreamed of finding out the names of the agents of my top 10 favourite contemporary authors and sending off a query letter for representation. I had a good start in my head to the letter; giving two examples of roads to success, the one told to Michael J. Fox by his father when he wanted to become an actor and the one told to Kermit the Frog by Gonzo in the original Muppet Movie when he wanted to do the same thing.
I'm basically the Great Gonzo of writing.
Wow. So many months since my last entry. That's because of all the press I am doing around my other projects is really cutting into this side project. Perhaps if I just admitted that jay royston is a pseudonym for the real me, a few more admiring fans may take an interest in this blog.
But for them to take an interest, they'd need to bite the worm, which if you've read this far, you have.
I believe this is called catfishing. I apologize to the real jay royston for appropriating your name and wonderful sense of humor in making this blog. I trust you like a good joke and won't sue.
So who am I?
Here's your first hint; I have a coffee in front of me. It contains 2 spoons of sugar and some cream, maybe one, maybe two. So cross off everyone you know who drinks it black, or black with sugar.
Still unsure?
The second hint is I have written 3 (maybe more) fan letters/email to authors of books I have read. There may be more but I don't really keep track of these things. I think if I told you who those authors were, you'd be too close to my real identity. However, I will say that one author was also a pseudoymn and wasn't an elderly wise Jeff Lebowski-type dude but more of a young Jeffrey Lebowski-type dude who wore seasonal Xmas sweaters instead of housecoats.
I think that is enough hints for now. I shall enter my next set of clues in about 15 months time, in keeping with my current updating the blog schedule.
I earned myself a 12 foot aluminum fishing boat last year, doing it the old-fashioned way, bartering it from an obese neighbour who couldn't assist me in the building or paying of a shared fence. The boat had sat on an old utility trailer in the back corner of his yard and to which we stared at for the last five years, and after the bartering, found out it had sat there for twenty.
I spent most of last summer rebuilding the trailer from the frame up, because also when you are an adult, you should have a utility trailer (caveat, you don't need one if you don't have property). So I rebuilt the trailer and spent this summer slowly migrating the boat from our back yard to the top of the trailer. I also needed to invest in a means of propulsion, for despite it also coming with a 7hp 45 year old outboard motor, I felt an electric motor would be more suited for my needs; specifically a quiet trolling speed.
So for my 50th, I bought an electric boat motor and a battery to go with it. I also bought a fishing license, which is like an official ticket to enjoy the bounties of nature.
I have used the boat twice this summer, which is a 200% increase over last year. I have taught my boy the ritual of the Fisherman's Club, which is to jump overboard and pee while holding onto the side of the boat. He enjoys doing that. I have learned that the slower it goes, the longer the battery life. I have learned rowing is not as easy as it looks in the movies.
I have yet to catch a fish.
But I have a boat.
I levelled up.
yay.
In other news, I was informed an ex-girlfriend of mine died last year of a brain aneurysm while running. She was 49 and one of those women who seemed larger than they were; who brought joy and laughter and excitement into my life and then when she left, it killed a part of me. She was someone who showed me how joyous life could be but I equated that to only being possible if she was there to point it out to me. I wrote poetry for her, wrote a short novella also about her that nobody has ever read. She was my first reader and my poetry made our relationship last maybe... two months longer? I can't exactly remember. However long it was, it wasn't enough for me, more than enough for her. It took a long time for me to get over her but that's on me. Life goes on until it doesn't.
I can only imagine how much laughter she and her husband for over two decades and I am sad to hear her life-timer is over. Just recently I had used her as an example to my daughter in a discussion about careers. My daughter had chosen 'computer designer' or something that sounded so establishment/stereotypical. My ex, on the other hand, 25 years earlier, told me she would love to be a do-wop girl, one of those girls in the background singing the ooohs and ahhhs while the singer did their thing. I loved that thought, someone not wanting to be the one in the spotlight, but instead being in the background, experiencing her own dream as she doo-wopped her way through life.
She never did become a background singer, but I'm sure she helped so many others in her joy, laugh and smile, do-wopping through life. Here's to you, SJ.
I have this picture on my phone, a screenshot I took March 3, 2020 which mentions a virus death toll reaches 9.
I think I took the screenshot because I thought it odd this virus (out of China) would make international news, make it all the way to this little corner of the Okanagan.
The same screen shot shows a headline about a tornado that killed at least 22.
So yeah, that was a pretty big jump in two weeks. But still, why would there be that mention 2 weeks earlier when it was only 9?
Things took a pretty big dump soon after. I recall there was a weird/funny rush on toilet paper; videos of Costco TP going as fast as the workers could unload them. A lady at work had a husband that worked there and confirmed that was what was going on.
Then my next screenshot is on March 18, 2020 stating the total, now called Coronavirus worldwide as 8,969.
According to Wikipedia, BC's first CoVid related death happened March 5th (a man in his 80s)
I believe Canada effectively shut down on March 17th, meaning for us, that the kids would be on an extended Spring Break.
We pretty much went full stop. I drove into town and it the roads were quiet; it felt like Christmas Day or a summer morning at 5am. So little movement.
In the days to follow, Trudeau announced the CERB, malls, restaurants (barring drive-thru), airlines, travel all shut down.
I recall thinking we were becoming really societally stupid when the District closed off all open spaces (like our local 10 acre dog park) with caution tape (due to CoVid). Then when it did open up, they had wrapped up the park benches with tape as well despite no evidence. NO SITTING! Because someone, without any scientific proof, hypthesized that this airborne virus lurked on every surface; you could catch it simply by sitting on a common bench or god forbid, reading a book from a public library.
While everyone was worried about their jobs, their bills, many utility companies put up a deferred payment plans for 6 months. Mortgage holders, those Big Banks, gracefully allowed mortgage payments to be deferred for 6 months (interest still accumulating) but no ding on your credit history. Soon complaints began of the stupidly long wait times to try to arrange this with said banks because they were all closed, due to CoVid.
Yet our town's Garden centers remained open (for mental health) which meant Rona/Home Depot/Walmart opened their doors to limited customers, making many wait in line-ups outside as they hurried to buy paint and materials for long-neglected home renovations. Smaller businesses complained to deaf ears about why they had to be closed, about how this all just helped big business, like usual. The rich got richer. McDonald's staff risked their lives so we could order our coffees and chicken nuggets, every time wondering if this would be our last meal, served to us by minimum wage people with no health insurance while we praised all the hospital staff in their overly-sanitized buildings and layers of PPE who were willing to put their lives on the line while waiting for the rush of virus victims who (must stress that this is in my small town) failed to materialize.
Then George Floyd was gradually choked to death by a cop who must have known he was being recorded and shit really started to get crazy again down south. Nobody cared about CoVid. Cops were not your friends. Riots happened, shit got real, many people were breaking the 6ft radius rule and the focus changed. Trump continued to do shitty Trump things, with only half of America caring, the other half cheering.
I questioned not the number of deaths, but the age. Of nearly 11,000 fatal cases in Canada, around 300 were not in care homes. That didn't make the news as much as I believe it should have.
I have consistently said the people dying were elderly and yes, it's bad and they deserve to die with dignity and being able to see their loved ones but they weren't. Last words were done by Zoom. It was shitty. Yet people still said no contact.
The average age of Canadians who died of COVID-19 in 2020 is 83.8 years. By comparison, the average age at death in Canada in 2019 was 76.5 years. Life expectancy is 82.1
| Region | Deaths, due to COVID-19 | Average age at death, due to COVID-19 | Crude death rate, due to COVID-19 | Life expectancy in 2019 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| number | in years | per thousand | in years | |
| Canada | 15,651 | 83.8 | 0.41 | 82.10 |
Even with CoVid, the average age at death has increased!
Life expectancy at birth (LEB) in Canada in 2020 is still unknown, but it will likely be lower compared with previous years. Deaths caused by COVID-19 contributed to an estimated reduction in LEB of 0.41 years in 2020. Compared to the life expectancy of 82.10 years observed in 2019, this decrease of 0.41 years would reduce LEB to what it was six years earlier, in 2013 (81.68 years).
We are now expected to live FOUR less months than expected due to CoVid.
For the record, I'm not against vaccines but it was sure convenient when Pfizer announced they had developed one Nov 12, 5 days after the too-close-to-call-but-probably-Biden American election (spoiler alert; Biden officially won Dec 14 according to the electoral college, which was also the date the first American vaccine was given).
Pfizer is an American pharmaceutical company. Moderna is as well. Coincidence.
We were warned of a second wave and everyone had to go through the motions again; but with much more mask wearing. Summer ended and schools/indoors/restaurants/cops all had to wear masks. A lot of fights were shared on social media of people not wearing masks vs people who said they had to.
Then we all had to have vaccines! Social lepers if you didn't. Talk of Vaccine passports, mandatory return to work vaccinations.
Gas went down to 96 cents, as nobody was driving to and from work anymore. Some front line workers (such as nurses) were hailed as Gods, as they awaited the in rush of dying that for most smaller cities never came. Other front line workers (such as cashiers in grocery stores) received a temporary $2 'danger pay' raise. Other front line workers (such as at your local 7/11 or McDonald's drive-thru received nothing).
At my firehall, we stopped weekly practices, were told to wear hazmat suits, including face shields and taped up gloves to prevent exposure on any calls we attended. I grew a small beard instead.
In June 2020, school started again, attendance optional. Teachers learned Zoom while also working on a Day1/Day2 schedule for kids who attended. Most parents kept their kids at home.
It was rumoured CoVid was carried by kids (who would show no symptoms) so anything they touched, could be infected by CoVid, which resulted in much wiping and hand-sanitizing; in my school our hand-washing schedule was; once before school, once entering, once leaving for recess, once returning, once when going to the gym, once when leaving the gym, wiping desks before and after lunch. God help you if you coughed. And yes, we were all supposed to stay six feet from each other.
It was stupid time to be alive. But we did it.
In April, 2020, somebody in the Maritimes dressed up as a cop and killed 22 people on a weekend murder spree; surprising everyone who thought those type of things happened only in the US.
That's all I can think of for now.
I'm still not vaccinated but likely will be in the coming year as my mom has paid for accomodations in Hawaii for us to celebrate her postponed 70th birthday.
It is now July of 2021, the mask mandate is over, 70% of us have been vaccinated but that isn't stopping the Delta Variant which for all I can tell, still continues to kill older people that have lived past their average life span.
And oh yeah, the Okanagan is once again completely covered by smoke, much like 2017. It just feels worse this year.
Update July 28, 2023, : my last CoVid Count post;
Well, after the "I got this" talk of Thursday night, it turned out I didn't 'got this' on Friday.
Instead of resubmitting Flies to another possible publisher, I chose to do other things, like clean up my tool room (which had been on the list for a long time) and finish my rough editing of Karmageddon.
It's amazing how much I want to change after leaving it alone for 2 (?) years. Does it naturally get worse or is that just me? Anyways, I finished tagging all the things I want to change and have been spending this morning (Saturday) doing that instead of, again, resubmitting Flies.
Here we are, still alive, still trying to figure out what this last 16 months has meant. A lot of people have died, current update is 4, 167,500 deaths, 26,000 in Canada.
A lot of questions; vaccinations, yay or nay, lot of media propaganda which after nearly a 20 year bad rap (harkening back to Bush/Cheney) of being puppets to government spins. Nobody trusts anyone anymore, forest fires burning like 2017, masks no longer mandatory, US states 'opening' and dying again, the Delta variant, the Jan 6th capital attack, Branson and Bezos going into space, with the argument of what actually defines 'space' last week, no rain in the last 4 months, with a 44 degree heat spell and the town of Lytton incinerating.
And somewhere in the last 5 months I completed Flies, and if I say so myself, it's pretty damn good. My 3 beta readers have loved it with one yet to check in. I am working on one last re-edit before doing the real work of pushing it off into some publishing houses to attempt to get that elusive traditional deal done; I'm old-school all the way because I hate the work of self-promo.
So that is my quick update for the summer. I've not done much outside and the family has gone off for the weekend but I have to keep my eyes on the goal(s) and it's easier said than done. Still so much to do, both inside, outside and 75 pages still to edit.
It's been awhile.
I've been busy. Busy being a father, a dad, a renovator, a learn-as-you-goer, teacher's assistant, dog-walker, home-maker, etc etc. with little time for writing. I'm only here because I am on a sick day from work with it's own weird little backstory behind that which I won't get into.
I did Nanowrimo, which is a writing challenge held in November in which you try to type 50,000 words. I cut out an hour a day and my family let me with little to no distractions. I used that to edit a 1st draft I have let simmer for many months. It's a murder mystery thing; someone's killing pedophiles and it's done in three different points of views; a step away from my preferred Karmageddon world building.
It's a challenge in itself and I'm only like... 1/2 way done, even with Nanowrimo. And CoVid.
According to Worldometer.info, here are the latest stats worldwide; . 1,665, 000 deaths (about 3% of those who officially contracted it). In Canada there were 13, 865 deaths. They don't give out an age breakdown but that can be found with a little digging; last I checked, 96% were people over 80.
Yep, CoVid is still the thing. There are too many conspiracy theories to count and, depending on who you ask, faith in our leadership is plummeting. We have small owner-operated restaurants forced to close while McDonald's has their best sales ever. You can't have a wedding with more than 20 people (depending on where you are) yet Home Depot and Walmart are fine. You can't work out at a gym or have dinner with more than 4-6-10 family members but you can go into any store that is open as long as you wear a mask.
Masks are mostly mandatory the world over yet nobody mentions the mask-makers as part of any conspiracy. That's left to Big Pharma, two of whom have announced vaccines immediately after the US election win of Joe Biden over Donald Trump. And socialists; that one is fun. While the stock markets show huge gains (keeping the rich richer), somehow this is all a conspiracty for a great economic reset where everyone will get a (gasp) basic universal income.
As back when this first started, nobody really rich or famous has died. Tom Hanks was one of the first to get it and that would have been a game changer. But he was fine. As was Justin Trudeau's wife, Boris Johnson (UK premier), P!nk, Trump ('cured' over a weekend), a ton of other White House high-ups in his cabinet, Prince Charles.
I had my own theory at one time (writer brain kicking in) that this was a War of The Worlds/Invasion of the Body Snatchers thing where those who die are pod people, advance forces for alien overlords. It's not sensitive to those who have lost someone but we all have to try and make sense of all this in our own ways. If that involves me coming up with a Killer Alien Virus theory to explain why I can't watch my daughter play ringette, so be it.
Mostly, those who died have been old and with weakened immune systems. I went for a walk awhile ago and had this minor epipheny of how this is a Boomer reaction to the approaching of Death, as futile as it may be to fight it, they're going to try. It's backfired a little, such as so many have had to die alone, their families unable to hold their hands one last time, in fear of infection. When we, as a society, placed our elders in care homes, paid other people to care for them then get angry that they are dieing in these places we have put them, who really is to blame?
So we have people shouting online to wear your masks and other people shouting it makes no difference. In my province, nearly all the deaths were in long-term care homes (which are like bus stations for funeral homes). We have a 50 person cap on a hockey arena that sits 3000 and a 2 person cap in public restrooms.
We have this 'front-line workers are the real heroe' memes going around yet many of those are the cashiers who are keeping the economy running. There has been no mention of Big Banks or credit cards doing anything other than lip service to everyone falling deeper in debt. I don't know how that will play out but in the meantime, we try to keep as normal as possible.
Yet on my end, things are actually quite stable. We both kept our jobs; I caught up on a lot of side-projects such as building a front walkway, building a fence, bartering my labour from that to a 14ft aluminum boat and a utility trailer (which I then rebuilt). We resided our house, finally losing the avocado green aluminum siding and replaced 8 windows. Then to top it off, we have a new(er) truck, one that can actually tow the utility trailer! So yeah, sorry society is in the crapper and our alien overlords are about to run the show but I'm doing pretty darn good.
Now if I can only get a book deal.
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| Current method of Social Isolation. |
