STATUS – 09.15.2025 –

Hello and good afternoon.

We’re another week down, and another week closer to Baby Girl D’s arrival. I can feel the pressure starting to pile on, right as it feels I’m finding my strive (I plan on writing a slightly longer piece for later this week discussing my new notebooking practice, who I’m drawing inspiration from, and why I think it’ll keep me limber even when I got into full-on Baby Hibernation mode), but as long as I got freedom, I got time.

And that’s what I have now. I called this “The New Normal for Now” over on Bluesky and I think that’s the way I have to process life going forward. Nothing is ever going to be set in stone for too long, so I need to be ready to perform a switch-up at a moment’s notice (Again, new blog post, coming later this week, stay tuned, check it out), so instead of trying and trying and failing and trying and failing to establish “The New Normal,” I’m only going to call it “The New Normal for Now.” It gives me the freedom to not feel bad when things aren’t “how they’re supposed to be.” That was a big problem for me, and a key source of frustration in the early days of being a Dad Writer, where I thought I had more time and then, oops, one of the babies wakes up early from their nap.

It’s only “for now.”

I have a few hours after I work my morning shift at the pre-school before I need to start picking up kiddos. I’m at a coffee shop instead of going home (Home is where naps happen. Naps don’t happen in coffee shops.) so we’re working. Morning Pages, Blog, then back to the novel.

This is how it is.

For now.

PROJECT UPDATE:

NESS – I’ve broken up the changes needed to be made to Project NESS into five tangible actions. Action 1 was a complete rewrite of Chapter 1, after deleting the original chapters 1 and 2 and making chapter 3 the new chapter 1.

Next up is adding in key details into chapters 2 and 3. Nothing too dense, as I still want the pace to be accelerated and to reach the inciting incident more quickly, so this will take some adept weaving…

….oh no….

#AMQUERYING – BIANCA and NESS have not gone out in a while. I think I’d like to send out BIANCA a few more times before Baby Girl D arrives, just so I can expect responses once Hibernation is in effect.

CITY – Still in the backseat, waiting to be let out. I recently reviewed the story outline I developed, and I fell back in love with the story, the characters, and his conflict. It’s a story I DESPERATELY, want to tell. I just need to figure out how to work it into my routine…(hint, hint, come back later this week, like, subscribe, comment, ring that bell icon…)

CURRENTLY LISTENING: There was a time where I didn’t know how to buy techno CDs so I just listened to movie soundtracks that had techno songs on them. This was how I discovered Paul Oakenfold and never looked back.

CURRENTLY READING: 100 Bullets Vol. 1: First Shot, Last Call by Brian Azzarello and Eduardo Risso

This was a fast paced, interesting read. I’ve been aware of this series for as long as I’ve been seriously reading modern comic books. Azzarello’s captures the voice of the gangsters well, if not feeling a little outdated by today’s writing standards, and Risso’s are is on point throughout. Tilted angles, distorted bodies, and heavy shadows, it’s super reminiscent of Miller’s “Sin City” but in color.

And that’s where I was left. This book, positioned as a heavy-crime story, I feel, has more in common with “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” than “The Departed.” And that is absolutely not a bad thing.

And I can’t wait to share that with my fellow classmates on the JINXWORLD/Word Balloon book club.