Weekly Round Up - October 2
A week of travel and presentation prep kept me busy, while just the right amount of tough love kept me honest and progress going!
My Writing Week
The goal had been about 500 words a day this week but in reality, it came out to just over a thousand total. After a burst of energy on Monday morning, close to 700 words written, the week got away from me with multiple 8:00 AM calls with the team I meeting in Belgium next week taking precedent. By Thursday morning, I was beating myself up a bit and told my wife as much. With some much needed words of encouragement (and that right amount of tough love I was talking about), I realized that she was right. I had called it out in my original post, that sometimes life would get in the way and that I needed to break the old habit of letting that just become the norm. So, I was able to shift a couple of things and finish the week getting another 400 words written this morning. Are they the greatest in the world? No. Are they words I didn't have at the beginning of the week. 100%
Life will Life
Being gone for a week next week, while exciting, means that this week was filled with long days of work calls, trying to fit two weeks worth of meetings into one while also trying to help get as many things done this week around the house so that my wife doesn't have to worry about it while she's watching the boys. I am excited to visit Belgium for the first time but will miss the hell out of my family. We've talked already about how, with a bit more lead time (as far as international travel goes, this one came up somewhat last minute), we will try to figure out a way for her and boys to join me next time and extend the trip on the front or the back end.
What I'm Enjoying
I started and finished Lucy Foley's newest, MURDER AT THE GRAND ALPINE HOTEL, in about 2-days (and as my wife pointed out, if I have time to read a 300 page book in 2 days via early mornings and late nights, I can find fifteen minutes each day to write and she is not wrong!). I have never read any of Agatha Christie's original Miss Marple books but I have read all of Lucy Foley's mysteries starting with THE HUNTING PARTY and it was so much fun to see her take on a period piece. Even not having read the originals, I could feel the love for the character in her writing and her approach to themes of classism, sexism, and societal "norms" of the time was very intriguing. There is a reason why she is the reigning queen of the "locked-room"/isolated mystery and in my opinion, this one keeps her streak of great reads going. While I hope her next is a Lucy Foley original, I also hope this isn't the last time we see her take on Marple (and I look forward to reading some of the originals in the future, too).
What's Next
Belgium! I plan on using Monday afternoon after I land to explore Bruges before spending Tuesday-Thursday heads down in work. But come 5 PM Thursday, I'll be "off the clock" until Monday and plan on using the flight home Friday (almost 8 hours) to write and read. While I'm not trying to put pressure on myself on how much I write (though I won't lie that anything less than 2000 words will be a bit disappointing), I know it's rare to get that kind of time to be disconnected and plan on using it accordingly. And because of the travel, this write-up will be a day late. So, with that said...