Naughty Or Nice

Which were you this year, boys and girls? It's important, because what kind of Tic Tacs you can have depends on your answer.

We saw these the other day. Tic Tacs in lump of coal form that taste like sour cherry for the naughty kids, or white candy cane flavored ones for the nice kinds.

I don't know why, but I thought it was kind of cute.

A Restart, Time To Be Intentional | Lion Diet Carnivore & Alternate Day Fasting | Week 76 Roundup

I had an absolutely terrible week filled with nothing but missteps. I decided to change up my video this week, skip the reports of my daily failures, and instead reexamine my process and change it up in a way that will hopefully produce results. I've been floating along for too long. Time to get out the oars and start rowing. I'm going to be intentional about this from here on out, until we meet in One-derland.

Patreon Address for November

We're well into November, so it's past time for another Patreon address. After the fiasco of what happened with archive.org, I've decided to put this one onto the normal feed again so that people who don't subscribe to Patreon will know that it exists, but this will be the last time. Next time around, this will be a total Patreon exclusive. Check it out!

I talk about my most recent project which I just finished recently, and update you on my progress on my goals. And you can cheer me on in my quest to become someone who makes an actual living writing books.

As always, thanks to Kevin McCleod at incompetech.com for the music.

You can find the episode on the podcast feed, or right-click HERE to download the episode. You can just as easily just push the play button on the embedded player below, and listen right here and now. Enjoy!

 

'Shrooms

When I was out walking on Sunday, I came across this area that was filled with mushrooms. I decided I should take some pictures of them, because...well, mushrooms are kind of cool, and also, Rish Outfield is always using them in his Lara & The Witch story covers. I figured I could get some good shots, possibly, and he could use them if he decides that he wants them. So, here they are, my mushroom shots.

Any you like?

Halfway Update

Yesterday was the 15th of November, and November is one of the months that has thirty days. So, we are officially halfway to the end.

At the start of this month, I told y'all about my plans for what's left of 2024. I adjusted my schedule from a birthday-to-birthday year to a calendar year. I had 316,095 words for the year so far, and I challenged myself to take it above and beyond anything I'd ever done before and make it to 400,000 by the time we were all singing "Auld Lang Syne."

That was going to take some Deadpool-style maximum effort on my part to achieve. I was a little more than 80,000 words short of that mark. With only two months left, I'd have to get 40,000 words in both of those months. I was determined, though, so I pulled on my boots and got to work.

First of all, I finished out the last four days of October with 4,934 words, taking me over the 320,000 mark. 80,000 would therefore be enough. I'd done 40,000 words a few times in the past year. In January, March, April, May, and June I'd achieved the 40,000 mark. It wasn't beyond my grasp. However, I was going to have to up my goal. In each of those months, my writing goal was at least 1,250 words. I had originally planned for my November goal to be just 1,000 words a day, but I was going to have to go beyond that.

So, I grabbed my lunch pail, and got to work. We're halfway through that month now...am I keeping up? Well, here's my chart for November so far.

Yup, I went above and beyond 1,250 every day...except one. That was the day I finished writing Lazerfist Saves Christmas and I didn't have anywhere to go with my writing to get the other 75 words I needed, so I just let it ride, and figured I'd make it up on other days.

And, at  the 50% mark for the month, I'm at 21,091 words. Double that, and I'll be at 42,000 by the end of the month. So, I'm in good shape to make it to my required level for this month. That's pretty exciting. 400,000 here I come!

Physical Media

When I talked about my goals for October, I lamented that I was only able to get the eBook version of Wizards and Angels published before the month ended. The paperback and hardcovers still hadn't come to fruition. Well, I'm here to report that they are now ready. I worked my butt off, and the hardcovers are ready for you lovely people.

If you've ever wanted a collection of paperback or hardcover books from B.D. Anklevich, now is your chance. Head over to Amazon and grab your copy! This is going to be the last volume of the short fiction collection for a while. It's time to move on to publishing novels. Coming up next is Sunny & Gray, Book One: Sunny. As long as I can manage to keep my act together, that should also come out this month. See you then.

Fat Squirrel Week

Have you ever heard of Fat Bear Week? It's this thing they've been doing for a few years, where the bears of Katmai National Park in Alaska get photographed as they're in the process of packing on pounds for their winter hibernation. They put photos of the bears up against each other, and people vote on which bear has done the best job getting fat to prepare for the winter.

Well, I've been out walking on our greenbelt trails recently, and I've noticed that the squirrels are trying to participate in this game as well. Each and every squirrel is really doing its best to prepare for winter. I see them all the time, and they're not usually this huge. These guys are all ready for winter to come.

I tried to get a picture of one to demonstrate, but the squirrels don't really want to sit still around a human, so this is the best I could get.

It's not a great angle to demonstrate the chub. You may be able to see some at the upper arms there, but that's the best it gets.

I think it's kind of funny, because most animals have this fatten up for winter instinct. We humans have it too. We used to need a big belly full of fat to make it through the winter, so we would pig out every fall to fatten up. Ever wonder why all the food holidays are lined up one after another in the fall?

Of course, these days, seasons don't mean anything to us. You can eat a banana in America...a country where bananas don't really grow...at any time of the year, fall, spring, winter, or summer. No need to fatten up for the winter, since food is readily available any time. Sadly, we all still have that instinct, so we usually fatten up in the fall anyway...then keep fattening in the winter and so forth.

I'm excited about this winter, because it's the first time I've had two winters in a row that I can fit the sweaters that I bought back when I was skinny, but never wore much, because I got fat. Wish me luck that I can keep that going, and avoid the instinct to fatten myself for winter, and I'll wish you luck as well.