I played a little hooky on Friday and ducked into the local Barnes and Noble, walking away with a bag of books and DVDs.
The book I picked up first, when I got home, was No Excuses by Brian Tracy. The subtitle is “The Power of Self-Discipline.” It popped out at me while I was browsing the bargain books no doubt because I knew how undisciplined I’ve been of late. I need the slap upside the head that Tracy is good at, and so I raced through a few chapters to try to reset the groove. I felt less scattered by the end of the day, for what it’s worth.
I picked up the PBS Anne of Green Gables movies because I’ve heard good things about them, and I need a dose of L.M. Montgomery’s feisty redhead as I ease back into my Jeep Thompson chronicles. I picked up a four-pack of Thin Man movies because I need to remind myself of the tone I’m seeking for the Comfort & Joy fantasy detective series, which is Thin Man meets Harvey. And I picked up Spectre because we have the other three Daniel Craig James Bond movies and I’d like to watch all of them again before we venture out to see No Time to Die.
After mulling what I gleaned from Tracy – like the quote attributed to Emerson, “What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear a word that you say” – I sat down and mapped out my game plan for the rest of 2021. Watch for a new Roger Mifflin edition, perhaps a collection of W.B. poems, and an announcement that I finished the first draft of Jeep Thompson by the end of the month.
And watch for more random thoughts and bursts of creativity in this space, just because that’s why I started this blog and I’ve gotten away from it. Encourage, entertain, enlighten – that’s my mission statement, and I aim to get back on topic.
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W.B.’s NaNoWriMo progress report – as of midnight Nov. 6
Novel 1 – 51.3% to 40k goal
Novel 2 – 40% to 40k goal
Plan for end of 2021 – completed
Plan for 2022 – in development