Well, I didn’t completely finish the Side Arc story. I didn’t set my timer for the plot-writing and lost track of time. But I did eventually realize it was after 11PM and went to work on the story for the time remaining to me.
Advice to other writers: when you have multiple projects and are obsessive, set time limits for them when you’re going to write. Otherwise, you get the above result.
I have a feeling that the mail will be “light” today, however. By that, I’m referring to the mail we keep in the front of our trucks on a loading table. The truck designers did not intend for this (having made the LLVs back before home computers were a thing), but those tables are at the perfect height for typing out fiction on a tablet. With a little finagling, I can set up a corner of the table to hold the tablet and whittle away at the story in between streets and during lunch.
That story is getting finished today, by thunder.
But the morning came, and the kids were bundled into the car for school drop-offs. There was a moment while we sat atop a bridge in the morning traffic that Ben gave a shout.
“Dad! The sky looks nice! Take a picture!”
After getting a rear-view mirror dad-stare and amending his demand with ‘please’, and checking to make sure we weren’t about to be moving again, I snagged a shot of what he was talking about.
Gotta admit, he was right.
The kids have also discovered two things: that Dad has “Sherlock Holmes for Kids” audiobooks, and what it means to have an encyclopedia named ‘Dad’.
They’ve always thought my collection of Holmes interesting, and Han has a youth version of the stories in her bookshelf, but I prefer audiobooks while driving and I let them pick the book for the ride. The “Red-Headed League” is easily their favorite, especially since it brings up questions.
“What’s an encyclopedia?” Han asked. I gave her a simplified answer and told her about the nearly 100-year-old Encyclopedia Britannica we have on our bookshelves, as an inheritance from my grandfather. Of course, the “Red-Headed League” also gave multiple examples of what to find in Section A of the Britannica, and both kids wanted to know everything about those words.
I knew when we started having children that I’d be tasked with answering questions for the rest of my life, but now I feel justified in my nerdy reading of encyclopedias, as I’ve apparently become one for these two.
With that, the kids are off to school, and I’m off to handle mail and whatever management is going to try for the morning drama.
Stay safe out there, readers.
-JB Swift
Swift's Corner 