Weekly Round Up (+ a trip to Bruges) - Oct 16
Two weeks have gone by but I'm not letting this drop. I'm honestly having too much fun writing these posts. If nothing else, it will be a fun way to look back at the end of the year and reflect on all the things I've done. With that, let's dive in.
My Writing Week(s)
The writing has been hit and miss. On the plane ride home post-Belgium, I had hoped to get about 2,000+ words written but when all was said and done, after a whirlwind work trip where my days started on the production floor (I work in manufacturing software) at 7 am and lasted well into the night with client dinners, presentations being finalized at the hotel bar until 1 AM (there is only so much you can build before going on site vs after seeing all the things you're there to see live), my brain was just fried. I managed to get about ~1,200 words that at the time were big stinkers, but after re-reading, are not complete trash and can be worked with later. The rest of this week I have gotten a few quick sessions in but with a medical procedure I had to prep for on Wednesday plus planning for another trip to Phoenix next week, I'm ready for November to get here. I have no travel in my future and many of the work projects will be wrapped up. While I know there is know perfect time to write, getting back to some sort of normality will at least let me be able to mentally better compartmentalize. I'm also just going to be glad that I have not let the whole two weeks go without writing and take that for the win it is.
Life will Life
Belgium has my heart. Plain and simple. After arriving at the airport, I spent the morning walking around central Brussels while I waited for my colleague to get through customs (almost 4 hours). I had a delicious Americano with a Chocolate and Hazelnut Croissant, opened up my notes app on my phone and wrote a scene that came to me.
After walking around, my colleague finally arrived and we trained to Bruges where we met the rest of our team who flew in over the weekend and we spent the rest of the week with our customer team. One of our customer team who I have had the pleasure of becoming good friends with through this project joined us for dinner one night (where I got to try some of the most amazing and interesting beers I've ever had) and then took us on a two hour walking tour around the city. Bruges is one of the most insanely beautiful places I've ever visited. It looks like it was actually transported direct from a fairy tell. The other very interesting thing about Bruges is that by 9 most places are closed, restaurants included, so it was as if we had the city all to ourselves.
But at the end of the day, it was such a long week away from my family and I couldn't wait to get home. When I landed Friday, my wife and boys were waiting in the driveway and seeing my 4-year-old son jumping up and down yelling "Daddy's home!" is a memory that will stay with me for life. My heart was so full and I am so thankful for this life I get to live and having a spouse who supports me and is so strong. 2027 will have a bit more international travel as this project grows and we're already working through logistics to make sure that they are able to join me for at least one, if not more, of the trips.
What I'm Enjoying
Because I hate checking a bag, I was limited in the space I had, especially having to bring so many electronics with me for site testing, so I had to pause David Goodman's latest, SOLITARY AGENTS, and brought my kindle and read the latest entry in M.W. Cravens Poe and Bradshaw series, THE KILLERS MARK. I started this series at the beginning of the year, reading the entire series over the month of January and February. On its face, these series are a bit predictable, and after reading them so quickly, as a reader I can guess what the characters are going to say before they say it and where the twists are going to come. Here's the thing though... that's not a criticism. That's a master who has complete control of his characters, knows their voices so well that readers can distinctly answer for the characters even before they themselves do. That's an understanding of the structure of his novels, of what his readers want and who, at the end of the day, is here to entertain while maybe forcing the reader to ask a couple of questions without beating them over the head. And that, my friend, is hard work. A good friend of mine, Casey Stegman, and I were having coffee a few months back and we started talking about how a lot of those airport shoot-em-up thrillers (the Brad Thors, Mark Graeney's, etc.) leave you often thinking, "Oh, I can do that," until you sit down to try and do that and realize that it is damn hard work to make it look so damn easy, and those writers should be applauded for knowing their craft.
Now that I am back home, I have gotten right back into SOLITARY AGENTS (about 100 pages in and loving it) with David McCloskey's LONDON STATION on deck.
What's Next
I head to Phoenix next week and that is thankfully the last planned travel I have for the year (though I am sure a day trip or two will pop up between now and January) so looking forward to getting back into bit of routine. One thing I am thinking about is approaching November with the old mentality of the now defunct NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and each day of November trying to get to 750+ words come hell or high water. But you know, best laid plans and all.