ALWAYS POSTED A WEEK EARLIER ON PATREON

Podcast Updates

This was a good week of some returning guest favorites for the show.  Caleb Palmquist came back on for a fourth time to chat about his latest Kickstarter Vampire Detective in Space #1.  It is a detective story about a vampire living in space with his snarky A.I. companion.

On Thursday, Tony McMillen came on for a third time to talk about his new book, The Bleeding Tree Trilogy.  Tony was also the inspiration for me to create the ‘Friend of the Show’ category.

Tony McMillen came on the show for a second time back in Episode 89.  He made the innocuous comment that he wanted to come on for the third time to be considered ‘Friend of the Show’.   That sparked for me the delightful commitment to actually create the title ‘Friend of the Show’ for all of my guests who have appeared as a guest at least three times.

Check it out at: https://www.storycomic.com/friend

Project Updates

I did more Toilet Paper Head outlines with Inklewriter.  It’s pretty fun to see how much of a mess the map is for this branching novel outline.

I also did more proofreading of my Dad Joke book.  Mostly making sure there are no duplication jokes.

What I’m reading

This past week I read ‘Garbage Night’ by Jen Lee. 

This was a situation where I interpreted the book’s cover differently than the actual book.  I see the old adage of ‘Don’t Judge a book by its cover’ was perfect here.  My assumption is that the book would be about a fun young adult anthropomorphic coming-of-age story.

The story turned out to be a melancholy post-apocalyptic world where the three protagonists wandered around a destroyed world for food.

For me, it read like an episode of the show instead of a self-contained story. 

At the end of the book, there is a snippet of the book ‘Vacancy’ which was a prequel of sorts to ‘Garbage Night’ which showed how the main characters met, but now I’m really curious of how the story will continue.  The book seems to end suddenly.

Personal Updates

Case counts of COVID are still dropping.  My county is now at 45 active cases over the last two weeks.  A month ago, we were at 381.  Very excited about this change. 

We also got the news that our school will be going to mask optional.  I honestly think this is fine.  Our kids will still be wearing masks because we still have a youngster at home who is not eligible for a vaccine.

In health news, I finally hit my 190-pound mark this week.  I am very excited about it and now will work on my next milestone of getting to 180 pounds.

This past weekend the wife and I took a quick nostalgia trip to our first town we lived together in, Concord New Hampshire.  It was a nice and quiet way to spend some time for the Valentine’s Day weekend.