Spring is in Alberta! We’re at record high covid cases! Lockdown again! The weather is nice though, that’s a plus, right? Yes, it is. We’re out of winter, and I’m celebrating a four-month crunch goodbye! 2021 has given me plenty of time to reflect on the writing craft, business, and even my own design career. For both writing and design, it’s been about a decade of growth, change, and learning. Sometimes it has been good, while other times . . . not so much. Either way, it has all brought me to where I am now, launching my tenth book in May.
Welcome to Another Edition of Unprocessed Thoughts
A four-month crunch goodbye is currently being celebrated with a good beer. As per usual, I bite off more than I can chew – or close to it. Audiobooks, book releases, online marketing, business overhaul, Patreon launch, among other significant projects, have created a turbo time warp fast-forwarding my conscious state to here, now, at the end of April. Where did those four months go?
Keeping Busy
Keeping yourself occupied is a great way to maintain mental wellbeing and nurture curiosity. It’s also good to give yourself projects during a winter pandemic, for there isn’t much else you can do. Otherwise, you’ll stare at a wall for excessively long periods, confused as to why you’re doing it, reflecting on the concept of life, wondering if you’re even real and if the confusion even matters.
So, keep busy. I’ve talked about the various projects I’ve been working on in previous Unprocessed Thoughts, social media, and the newsletter. We won’t get into those . . . except I will mention that Rave is now complete and launching May 20th, with the online book launch happing May 19th. Sign up, grab a copy, and join me at this fun book reading and digital gallery!
But Not Too Busy
Okay, now that we’ve got the plug out of the way, let’s get back to celebrating the four-month crunch goodbye with two words: time off. I do believe that leisure time is a primary force with creativity. You give yourself the freedom to let your mind wander, explore, and reignite that curiosity many of us lose when we become adults. The trick is not to give yourself too much leeway, as you can fall into procrastination. If you work all the time, you’ll get the classic burnout or just create half-assed art that has no substance. Creativity is a delicate balance of knowing when to call it quits and when to light the fire.
Four-Month Crunch Goodbye! Thanks for the fast forward.
You can do a lot of stuff in one decade. Or four months. Plus, a lot of stuff can happen to you for better or worse. Either way, we’re off to a strange start for the 20s. Isn’t it just strange calling this decade the 20s? At some point in your life, you have to ask yourself if you want to keep doing what you’re doing forever or change. You know, big picture stuff. The kind of thinking that isn’t possible when you’re in a hardcore project crunch. Now that we’re in full-on spring and I’ve wrapped up these goliath projects with a time machine, I feel a sense of long-lost freedom. It’s the same freedom I felt when I first started freelancing in 2014. It’s a sense of possibilities, weightlessness, and flexibility. As the saying goes . . . freedom comes at a price. In this case, no wars were fought, and no one died. All the constraints had been self-inflicted and stubbornness to commitment, seeing them through.
Beer Note: Analog Brewing It Always Starts In A Tavern
Pub Style Amber Ale
For this month, I tried a beer that was on sale because I’m cheap thrifty. Plus, the eight-bit artwork is a fun nod at old-school RPG video games. If you didn’t know, RPGs are one of the original inspirations that got me into writing. Cheers to that!
The beer is as described – a pub-style amber ale. It’s a got a slightly heavy body, so don’t have a meal during it. Either way, this beer goes down smooth. Between the artwork and taste, it makes me wish I was writing this at a noisy Irish-styled pub with a chilled pint glass full of beer. Perhaps when bars open up again and we’re clear of this pandemic, the wish will become a reality.
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