My 300th Blog Post!

The word of the week is SPARTA!

Aug 12 - Three Hundred Posts!

This week's post sort of snuck up on me.

To be honest, I knew it was coming but given how busy I've been for the last little while, hitting this milestone came as a pleasant surprise to me this week.

I won't repeat what I wrote in my 250th post, but instead comment on the near future: it looks pretty decent. My sister is employed for at least the next three months, my work is going well( when I'm not sick ) and I've managed to succeed in bringing the second draft of my novel into physical form to share with a fair number of people. I'm looking at completing two major writing projects by the end of the year, one of them being the third draft of my novel and I really have nothing else of import on my plate. Which is great, because it means my stress levels won't be climbing sky-high about any of the above things.

300 posts: I'm pretty proud about that number. It shows that not only can I keep myself to a weekly deadline while being pleased with what I've written, but also that I've improved with every blog post. Being able to speak clearly while keeping the reader's interest is critical to being a writer and I firmly believe that my weekly blog has sharpened my writing skills immeasurably since I first began B.C. Beginnings in November of 2007.

Not bad for someone who doesn't live the life of a rockstar, I'd say.

I also stayed home from work today, as I was just too sick. It was a midshift, so easier to cover, but I still felt bad about feeling bad, as it's the first shift I've missed there in over six months. No helping it though; I'm killing Kleenexes at an alarming rate and have NO energy. I can only hope that by the end of this week that I'll be over this cold and nothing could please me more this point. 

One thing I'm very concerned about is keeping the cold from moving to my lungs, as I have no wish to repeat my serious bout with pneumonia from late last year. Not one bit.

Aug 13 - Icky Misery

While the number thirteen's been good to me lately, today was not on that lucky list.

There was no one who could cover me today at work for my closing shift, so I went in an hour later by mutual agreement with the manager and did my best. My head feels like I've been swimming underwater, which is never a good thing when you're trying to pay attention to detailed work. Fortunately I'm not working with heavy machinery or power tools, but it's still taking all that I've got to ensure that each order is accurate and that I'm doing my job properly. As it is, a couple things snuck by me today but fortunately they weren't big things and my coworkers noticed before anything got out of hand.

The hardest part today was not blowing my nose while out on the floor. Through sheer force of will, I kept everything on the inside for a few hours at a time until I at last had to relent and go upstairs to clean house, so to speak. It wasn't fun but it meant I could work today and since I had no choice, things went all right. It was a slow ride for me though, as I felt totally beat, mentally and physically. I don't remember what time I fell asleep because I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow, which is unusual as my thoughts are usually slow to settle at the end of the day.

Aug 14 - My novel comes home in spades!

Today I did what I wanted to do yesterday, but couldn't: pick up my books!

It was my day off and as I was still feeling very woozy, I persuaded my parents to meet me at the printer' s to load the two boxes of books, as I had no idea how heavy they'd be. As it turns out, they were fairly compact and were filled to the brim with copies of my book! I ponied up my carefully-saved money and walked out of Island Blue with dozens of copies of my novel's second draft in physical form.

Once I was home, I took a few pictures:

Don't they look GREAT ? 

Next, I quality-checked each book( while wearing gloves )to ensure that they were all in perfect shape. I then sorted the books into piles according to their final destinations, with the largest piles being the ones destined for Niagara and to be distributed locally here in Victoria. Then I numbered and signed each book carefully, taking my time as I don't have the greatest signature skills in the world.

After that, I weighed and measured a copy and worked out the costs for various methods of shipping within Canada and outside of the country to. That took a while to figure out but I had some final numbers by late afternoon which were very encouraging as they were much lower than I'd hoped for initially. Again he should be mentioned that I'm not making any money off these copies that I'm distributing, as their solely for the purpose of people reading my work as it stood as of the second draft. This distribution of drafts came about because I have no idea when my third draft may make it to store shelves; it may be years before the process gets that far and I'd like people to have a peek beforehand.

I know I wouldn't like to wait that long.

Aug 15 - Humidity

I had a surprise waiting for me after I got home today from a very busy day.

It wasn't a good one: with all the rain in damp from the last 24 hours, the humidity levels around Victoria and in my apartment in general had risen sharply. I noticed that some of my novels had developed a slight curve and I freaked out slightly, as I hadn't expected the humidity to be so high that I needed to take precautions before leaving for work early this morning.

Thinking quickly, I rushed down the road to purchase two large bags of rice and raced back home again. There I broke out my supply of large Ziploc bags and distributed all of the novels among them, along with generous scoops of dry rice. I sealed them all up and ensured that they were airtight, so that any humidity within the bags would quickly be absorbed by the dry rice. It was something I'd learned as a kid, when we kept bits of rice in our salt shakers to ensure Niagara's humidity didn't affect the salt.

I also placed many heavy books atop the carefully-laid-out novels to encourage them to stay flat inside the Ziploc bags. Once I'd completed all of this, I felt a lot less worried; I've never had books printed before and this sort of thing is new to me, but I feel I've done the best I can and time will tell if it's, worked. I don't own a dehumidifier and quite honestly the Victoria area doesn't usually see spikes in humidity like this, so I'll just have to keep the books in their bags until I ship them out in the coming week.

I went to bed even more tired than usual tonight; this cold is really kicking my butt instead of the other way around.

Aug 16 - Flat Tired

This morning, I had a flat tire.

It was my first one since I started cycling in Victoria, so that's almost six years of biking without any punctures - a good record, I think. Unfortunately, it happened on my way to work and though I arrived on time despite the occurrence, the tire was totally flat and the tube inside needed replacing. Meaning I was stuck here until I figured a way to fix the tire and get myself home again. Seeing as it was the rear tire that was flat, it's a rather involved process to remove the tire from all the chain gearing and I didn't have those tools with me today. I've stopped carrying anything other than the basic tools when I cycle as I normally carry quite a lot of weight with my other gear as it is.

Hard to tell from this angle, but it's VERY flat - click to zoom

Fortunately, later in the day a coworker told me that SportCheck could fix my tire and they were just across the parking lot. So when I finished work today, I wheeled my bike over and arranged to have it taken care of for tomorrow on Saturday. All it would cost me would be the price of a new tube, for the grand total of $5.24 - a pretty good price considering the time and effort it would take me to change it myself.

Once I dropped off the bike, I figured out which bus to take and was home around dinnertime. Not bad for having started at 7:30 this morning, I thought, given the circumstances. I was pretty tired as I'd still been battling this blasted cold all day, trying to keep my thoughts focused and not to make any mistakes while taking orders. I thought I did all right overall and went to bed early very, very tired indeed.

Aug 17 - Rest Day

It was breakfast on the patio for me this morning, to start my day right.

Nothing special really, just the A&W downtown, but as it was my first day off in over a week I wanted to start the day out right. I went straight back home and got busy with some domestic chores that had been languishing for the week for lack of energy. Not that I had a whole lot to around today, but I could take my time to do things instead of prioritizing here and there for what I could get done with my limited energy levels. Chicken soup has been my saving grace and for the last few days I've consumed quite a few bowls of it; the combination of the hot liquid and its soothing properties have slowly pushed back the veil of cotton that I've been thinking through and today I felt the first signs of the cold giving up its knotted grip on my sinuses.

Three hours of my afternoon were wasted though, as retrieving my bike from SportChek proved an exercise in futility. After busing up there, I got my bike back and locked it up outside my workplace, where I proceeded to do some novel-related work for an hour and then started cycling home. I only got as far as the next block before I felt a familiar sensation run through the bike and, looking down, I could see the rear tire had run flat again. 

I wheeled my bicycle back to SportChek, where I was told that the tech had left hours earlier and the soonest I could have the problem sorted out would be Monday - which I was working. Having no other choice, I left the bicycle in their care again with the admonishment to remove whatever hazard was in the tire before putting the new tube in . Then I started walking home as I'd managed to just miss my bus and as the next one would be along for half an hour, it was as fast by foot and I arrived well after dinner time.

Needless to say, I didn't do much for the rest of the evening and it was another early night for me. The good news was that the fresh air and the decent temperatures seem to have reduced my cold symptoms and I hope that I'll wake with a clearer head in the morning.

Aug 18 - All Day On A Patio!

Today I was at a book signing: mine!

Actually, I'd already signed all the books and I was just there to hand them out to people. From noon until well past five o'clock today, I sat on the patio at Moka House with a dozen copies of my novel. I was there to meet people from here in Victoria, my friends and co-workers, to hand them their copies and personalize the books if they so wished.

This is how I felt, despite the cold's sniffles!

It was a gorgeous day, temperature-wise; though the sun hid behind clouds for half the time I was there it came out for a while around tea-time. I was kept company by one of my co-workers for the entirety of the time, as it was his day off and we had some great wide-ranging discussions as people came and went. About half a dozen folks showed up over the course of the afternoon to get their books, each of them excited to take home their copies and leaving myself excited to hear their feedback in turn, in time. It was a great feeling to sit there and hand out each book, to pass my imaginative work on into other's hands to see how they liked it. I'm itching to hear back from them already!

After I called it a day, the evening passed fairly quickly. I felt relaxed and fulfilled, having handed out around a dozen copies to date. I'll be mailing out the rest early this coming week on my next day off, as I have to haul the large box down the road and I'll need some energy AND my bike to do so. Very exciting!

As a bonus, spending all that time outside in the fresh air seems to have socked it to my cold, as I've had nary a sniffle here and there all evening. I'm hopeful that I've seen the last of this bug and I'll be sure to redouble my efforts NOT to get sick again this winter.

It just takes too much out of me, and I need that energy to write this fall season!

That's about all I've got this week; beating this cold has really beaten me up. It's the first summer cold I've ever had and I can't say I'd EVER want to repeat the experience; at least in the winter you can turn up the heat without swimming too much in your own sweat.