OnyxTowers: My Author Journey So Far; January 18th, 2017

First off, Happy New 2017!

Walking my dog in my little ghetto town

And what have I been doing since the madness of welcoming the refurbished computer into my home?

What has happened since last summer? Oh, you know. The usual crap.

'New' refurbished computer makes debut > laptop gets buried, R.I.P. (but hardrive is recovered)

The offending HD, what I could recover.

> Spring cleaning! during Autumn-Winter > Furniture moving (yes, many a knee-throbbing heavy piece) > cleaning gutters (damn birds clogged them up with nesting materials) > raking leaves (we have a large yard, 21 bags worth! Ughnn...) > throwing out many bags of paper trash (by many, I mean YEARS AND YEARS) > minor medical emergencies > purchasing a flat screen TV.

This flat screen tv. 32", because our tv stand was only 36".

That last one is muy importante.
You see, it is exceedingly difficult to convince the old folks to adapt to modern tech. But this past Fall, I have made many great strides in that dept.
I happily introduced my 80yr old father to the wonders of the flat screen tv. He can be skeptical, and mighty stingy, especially if he cannot rationalize such a purchase as useful, but I made this convinging argument:

Me: "Hey, remember that $600 large Sony TV you bought in 1989 that lasted 19yrs?"
Him: "Yea?"
Me: "Well this one's $120, also Japanese, and much lighter and WIDER than that heavy-ass Sony."

And so we took advantage of a standard week-long Thanksgiving sale. Lighter wasn't a joke. That thing felt like carbon-fiber when I carried it around the store. I usually do not accompany them to stores, especially crowded places like CostCo's, but I had to make sure they got a fandangled HDMI cable:

Him: "What's an HDMI cable?"

Exactly.

Also, I ordered him online a 16gb card for his phone.

Him: "What's that for?"

I digitized part of his music library, all in CD's, and saved it to the card I put into his phone. I also ordered a $60 set of quality headphones for $22 and hooked it up to the phone. He was mesmerized, hook, like, & sinker.
Gotcha.
Like a new invention had revolutionized his non-tech world...I must imagine this is how he probably reacted to the first television set. Yes, he is that old. And this is called progress, kids!

Last time I tried to teach him how to use CD's it was the first failed attempt took place in 1998, the second in 1999. Third time was the winner, in 2003, when his buddies were making mix CD's for him and got his curiosity going. It really is hard to win old folks over to the compute age. Ever try? Good luck!

Now you may think at this point, what in the hell, does this have anything to do with writing? Well, I'm not a parent yet, so I don't have those experiences at this time in my life. But I do care for the old folks full time. This, is the kind of stuff that does take up a good amount of my time when I am not writing.

My ADHD also takes up a good amount of time, as does my lingering depression. But, I am an optimistic person. It's in my DNA. So! I use my limitations to my advantage:
Every time I cannot finish something, I finish up a much needed chore.
Suffice to say, I get a lot of cleaning/cooking/organizing done! (explains the latent Spring cleaning)

So Onyx, Did You Actually Get Any Writing Done?

Why yes! Yes I dids.
I started 3 more books since the last post.
1 comedy YA, 1 children's book, 1 suspense thriller. A holiday short story as well, though I will release that one on Wattpad in the future.

I've learned it's important not to beat yourself up over what you cannot get done, but tally up your score over what you HAVE accomplished.
Shamelessly pat yourself on the back there, champ! You deserve it!😆
Because encouragement is IMMENSELY important in this journey! It is a tough one, after all. Let's not kid ourselves, writing is something that many of us do in secret anyway. At least, until we finally get published.

So Onyx, What's Next In Your Writing Journey?

In upcoming posts, I will cover a lot of broad topics about writing. Resources, free ebooks, book promotion, pitching for content mills, etc. But first, I must do a massive renovation of this site, and also monetize it.
That's gonna be a major overhaul. And Rome wasn't built in a day. I'll carve it into smaller pieces so I don't do too much all at once. It's all I can handle, given that my attention span is prone to short-circuiting. Recognizing your limitations and working with them is key!

Meanwhile, I'm including a pictorial below of the many positive ways I've been combatting depression and loneliness. Positivity, people! Also, vitamins! Specifically Vitamin D for the Winter time, because sun is limited this time of year.
So many brilliant creative writers have been branded as consumers of narcotics. Wasn't Hemingway a heavy drinker? Ayn Rand was supposed to be big on amphetamines? Well, i do not recommend such things. Ah, the ugly side of this profession! Let's lambaste it with some pretty now:


Weak attempt at a potted vegetable garden.


Squash blossoms are quite pretty, and ladybugs love them! Perfect for companion planting.

Morning Glories. Bumble bees and butterflies love them, helping to pollinate other plants.


Butterflies love thistle. I planted a tiny packet that rained seeds everywhere in 3 short years.

Cosmos plants. They're awesome.

Cooking from scratch is something I do for fun and the yummies. I no longer trust ready-made store bought foods. Keep your palm kernel oils, hi-fructose syrup nightmares, and your non-hydrogenated swill! Anyhow, I like controlling what ingredients go into my diet. Cooking from scratch keeps my chef skills sharp, and keeps my weight low.
Behold, examples of my culinary delights: