A Good Night's Sleep

***A GOOD NIGHT’S SLEEP***

I talk about my sleeping habits a lot in these journals because I’m always in search of a reason why my low energy level is interfering with my creative projects. Sleep apnea will certainly suck the strength out of anybody. Being overweight does that all the time. But there are other contributing factors that all of us can pay attention to when it comes to our own lives.

My most recent solution was to wake up at 11:00 in the morning every day regardless of how tired I am. I was able to do it yesterday, but that was only because I actually had the energy to pull that off. I turns out I had a lot of extra time in my day and I used it to finish reading “Love Me Today, Kill Me Tomorrow” by Marie Krepps before writing a review for it and eventually going to my dental appointment. Today, on the other hand, was a much different story. My mom came in and raised the blinds to help me wake up at 11:00 again, but this time I was too zonked out to do it. And then I go back to all the times I woke up early in the day only to take a nap in the afternoon and go back to my usual sleeping cycle.

Yet another solution was to drink milk before going to bed. Milk has a narcotic effect on the human mind and puts said human to sleep in no time at all. Sometimes this has worked for me, sometimes it hasn’t. Maybe the failure rate has to do with me grabbing a midnight snack before going to bed. I’d love to give that habit up, but because I wake up late every day, I’m not around for breakfast. They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day for a reason: because it will determine your energy for the rest of the day and it will leave you full enough so that you’re not hungry before bedtime. I could easily combine the solutions of waking up at 11:00 and eating breakfast and I’d be on my way to perfect health.

But then there’s something else I learned about recently. Did you know that staring at a computer screen has the same optical effect as flashing a light in your own eyes? Blue is a common color in computer screens and it’s the same one that makes your eyes tired when you’ve been sitting in front of the screen for a long time. Starting tonight, I’m going to try something new and you all are welcome to try this if you’re having trouble sleeping. Before going to bed, stay awake for at least another our while trying to avoid looking at computer or TV screens. If you need sleeping music like I do, but you use your computer for that, turn off the monitor and leave the speakers turned on. If you need an activity that trumps dinking around on your social media accounts, read a paperback novel or write in a paper journal. I would advise against listening to your MP3 player since that has a digital screen like TV’s and computers do.

November is a month of challenges. It’s a challenge for writers to produce something every single day, but for me personally, it’s also going to be a challenge to alter my sleeping habits so that I can wake up with enough energy to blow through my creative projects and hopefully lose some weight in the process. Wish me luck! You can also wish me goodnight if you want!

　

***POISON TONGUE TALES***

My plans to write “Born to Die” have not changed, although it’s getting a little difficult trying to plot this story from beginning to end. I’m going to try and stay disciplined so that I don’t have to choose another story to write in its place. The writing can be easily figured out. The editing, on the other hand, has taken a slightly different direction. As you all know, Marie Krepps is my beta reader and she’s been doing a stellar job of critiquing my work and getting it ready for the marketplace. Recently, she’s been sending me back her notes a rapid fire pace and I applaud her for that. Because I have a lot of stories to work on, I’m no longer going to randomly choose one story at a time to work on. I’m instead going to bulldoze these stories like I did with American Darkness not too long ago. By that, I mean edit the stories in alphabetical order and do three per day with no excuses. You hear that, Death Blade? You too are getting the bulldozing treatment no matter how scary you are! Have I told you all lately how awesome and wonderful Marie is? ^_^

　

***LUNACHO***

Do you all remember me talking about suspending Blood Brawl because I had writer’s block? It’s the whole reason why I’m trying to finish up Poison Tongue Tales. But what happens after Poison Tongue Tales? I’ll have both an editing and writing job to do. I plan getting Marie’s critiques on my most recent first draft novel “Watch You Burn”. For the writing itself, I’m going all in with LuNacho, the animal fantasy story about two kitties I used to have, Luna and Nacho. Unlike Blood Brawl, I planned out LuNacho the right way and I actually have the intention of following through with it. And this time, though the chapter count of 20 will stay the same, I will start shooting for 40,000 words or more, which means each chapter has to be at least 2,000 words long. Can I do it? You’re damn right I can! It means I’ll have to push myself beyond my comfort zone, but goddamn it, I can do it!

　

***READING***

Now that “January First” and “Love Me Today, Kill Me Tomorrow” are in my rearview mirror, I need two more books to read and review. My choice for a digital book was easy: “Box of Chocolates” by the ultra-lovely and tough-as-nails Marie Krepps. Since the book is in the neighborhood of fifty and sixty pages long, I could probably read it in one day and review it right away. For the paperback book, as in the one I will read in lieu of dinking around on the computer tonight, I’ve got “A Street Cat Named Bob” by James Bowen. I was browsing Barnes & Noble one day and since this book had a picture of a cute, cuddly kitty on it, I purchased it without hesitation. The kitty on the cover actually reminds me a little bit of Nacho. Aww!

　

***DARK FANTASY WARRIORS***

In the past few days, I’ve drawn pictures of two different people with Brock in their names: Ryan Brock (barbarian from “Streetwalker”) and Brock Dempsey (monk from “Maggie’s Wisdom”). That’s a Brock of shit. (Audience boos and throws vegetables at me.) Okay, okay, bad pun, I get it. There won’t be anything funny about the next character I’m going to draw: Corey Darkside, yet another barbarian. Maybe my family is right about me: I AM obsessed with barbarians. Hehe!

　

***WRESTLING QUOTE OF THE DAY***

“What do I think of Seth Rollins? I think he’s a weasel and a thief. He didn’t earn that championship; he stole it from me. At Battleground, it’s over.”

-Brock Lesnar-

　

***POST-SCRIPT***

And now that makes THREE people with the name Brock.