Toast
Finally saw a doctor about my shoulder, another round of edits on Paper Nightmare, a fun discussion about toast, and much more.
Good morning,
Finally decided I've had enough with my shoulder and made an appointment with a free clinic here in our city last week. Remember, I do not have medical insurance to cover things like this, so I had to find and locate a time with one of the free clinics that I could go in and get checked out. The appointment went pretty well. Really nice people working there. The doctor checked out my shoulder, had me do a bunch of different movements with it, which hurt like hell, and decided that I more than likely pulled a muscle under my right shoulder blade. She put me on a stronger form of Aleve to take twice a day, and muscle relaxers to take as well. I also go back in a couple of weeks for a recheck and some physical therapy. So Hopefully Moving forward I am not in so much pain and eventually pain-free. That's the hope anyways. And I gotta say, I do not like muscle relaxers! They make me feel tired and groggy when I take them. So those are a only a if I'm in extreme amount of pain and can't take it kind of thing. Otherwise I'm just taking the Aleve and alternating with Tylenol when I can. So far that seems to be helping.
Finished up those edits I mentioned in last weeks newsletter for Paper Nightmare. I got that newsletter out last Monday morning, ran around and got some housework done quick, then dove in on the editing and knocked it out of the park before lunchtime. Felt great finishing that up.
While working on those edits for Paper Nightmare, I got to thinking. Dark will actually be the next book I start editing. If you don't remember, that one is a full length novel. Actually coming in at over 82,000 words right now. And, that scares me a bit. The editing process for Paper Nightmare was fun enough, and I'm a little nervous about when I start editing Dark. Mainly because it's such a big project and how long it's going to take. I am excited to dive back into that world again though and really polish that book up and make it shine so damn bright that it blind your ass. But, that is all going to wait a bit yet. I've had enough fun right now with edits and moving forward with working on getting Paper Nightmare ready to go, that I'd rather focus on writing right now than editing. My plan is to continue working on my next book Blood Sucking Bastard, then go right into writing another novella after that tentatively called Biters. Once I finish both of those, I plan on then sitting down and starting the editing process for Dark. I know that's going to be a long process, and there could possibly be snow on the ground before I start editing it, but I'm sure it will move along at its own pace, and I will really get into the groove of making it the best it can be. A little side note, maybe more of a secret I guess, there could potentially be a sequel to my book Dark called Darker. Don't quote me on that yet, but I do have an idea wrote down that might be a second book featuring my character Anderson from Dark, and moving the story forward from where that book ends. I actually already have the opening paragraph wrote for it. But again, just an idea I'm kicking around. If I do decide to write it, it will certainly be After the two novellas I'm currently working on are done. Just something I'm thinking about doing.
An interesting and probably funny thing I wanted to talk about is toast. Yup, you read that correctly. Seriously though, let's talk about toast. Specifically how you eat your toast. Hold on a minute, don't call the hospital and send the people with that coat that makes you hug yourself my way just yet. Let me explain. For a long time I've always eaten my toast a specific way. I don't know why, I just do. I will pop my bread in the toaster, and when it pops back up and is ready to go, I will coat it with either peanut butter or butter. Most of the time peanut butter though. Then, I will take the knife and run it right through the middle of the piece of toast, scoring it, then folded in half and set it on my plate. I just find it a lot easier to eat my toast that way. I don't know, maybe I'm crazy. That's not the point though. The point is, my wife and oldest daughter continually tell me that I'm only getting a half of a piece of toast that way. Seriously, I'm not making this up. They literally say that I only get a half a piece of toast when I fold it in half. Somehow, and I have no idea how, when I fold the toast in half I change the amount of bread that's there. Apparently folding it in half changes the volume, I guess. At first I thought they were just fucking with me. But, this has been an ongoing argument in our household. They literally think that by folding my toast in half I'm not eating as much toast as if I left it unfolded. Sorry, what? By magically folding my toast in half I've changed the volume of bread that is still there? OK, maybe it's just me, but just because I've changed the shape of the toast doesn't mean the amount is different. It's just in a different shape. Am I Thinking about that wrong? Am I really only eating a half piece of toast that way? If that's true, then I guess if I fold all of my food in half I'm only eating half of the quantity, right? As far as my thinking goes, I've only changed the shape of the toast itself, not the volume of bread still present. So I'm eating the same amount regardless of what shape it is. That's my thinking anyways. What are your thoughts on the subject of folding or not folding toast? Do you fold your toast in half and eat it? Am I crazy in thinking that the same amount of toast is present whether I have folded it or not folded it in half? Let me know your thoughts on this interesting subject. I'm very interested to see what you think.
Finished reading Contest by Matthew Riley. This book was OK. A bit more sci-fi than I generally read. It did have some good terrifying moments and interesting scenes where the different players in the contest would die. A bit gruesome and bloody at times, but like I said, just a bit more sci-fi than I'm used to reading. Not bad though, and an interesting read.
Also finished reading Maggots Screaming by Max Booth III. This was a pretty entertaining book. Had some damn weird stuff in it. Especially unearthing the three corpses in the backyard. That was pretty strange. Also some good body horror moments in it. All in all I would say it was a pretty OK read.
Currently reading: Queen of Teeth by Hailey Piper.
Currently listening: Episode nine of season three of the Impact Winter podcast. Awesome episode, and awesome show really. Listened to my APC, Puscifer, and Tool playlist while editing this last week. Love rocking out to all of the music on that playlist I built. Also, been enjoying this new song I came across, "Love Enemy" by the band Skeleten. It's just a cool song with a chill vibe. Been listening to it a lot the last couple of days and love the hell out of it. Give it a listen on whatever streaming platform you use for music.
Currently watching: American Rust season 2 on Amazon Prime Video. More Hawkeyes and Wolverines football as well. Just have to say, both Iowa and Michigan won on Saturday, which was awesome. Always nice when both of my teams go home with a win.
OK, so, changed my plans a bit. After sitting and thinking about it, I decided to go ahead and do another round of edits on Paper Nightmare. I just wasn't 100% happy how I had left it after my last round of edits. It just didn't feel complete yet. It's a good thing too because already going back through it again I found some more misspellings, extra spaces where there shouldn't be, and just some things that I wanted to change. Maybe I'm being too critical, but I just want this book to be the best it can. I didn't feel like it was ready yet after the last round of edits. So, I'm meticulously going back through each chapter and really taking a look at every single thing. But, this will be the last time. Once I finish this round of edits I am calling it done. What is there when I finish this time will stay there.
Well, I'm going to go grab my MacBook and sit back down and start working on the final round of edits for Paper Nightmare. Blood Sucking Bastard is screaming at me to sit down and fucking write it, but for now I have to ignore those insistent ramblings from it and focus on these edits. I need to get this project Done and be 100% happy with it before I move on. I know if I don't I will constantly think about it instead of focusing my attention back on Blood Sucking Bastard. So for now it's just going to have to be patient and wait. If it can that is.
Hope you're having a great Monday, enjoy yourself a hot cup of coffee this morning, take it easy and I will talk to you soon my friends.
Thank you for reading this weeks newsletter. I hope to see you back here next week. Be yourself, be original, and be bloody.
- Matthew R. Taylor