Only five more days, and I get hit 200 days in a row, which of course, means another badge here on 750words.com. Not sure, which is more significant though the badge or the accomplishment. It’s pretty easy to do these words, but lately the journals seem harder to get started on. It’s like, I’m running out of meaningful things to say, but maybe I’m just over thinking the whole thing. Maybe I’ll just get back to the basics of what the whole thing is about. Yesterday, I did something new for the first time, and that was paddle boarding on the lake. Used the new paddle board that I got for my birthday and went up and down the lake. Everybody gave it a try. It was much easier then the one that I tried out last summer at Brenda and Als place, which was surprising. The one I tried out west was a cheap inflateable one, that wasn’t very stable. I think the one I have, is much wider, and of course, it’s solid plastic. Wayne gave me a few tips on proper paddling, but that’s going to take a while to get used to. It was the J sroke, which seemed a bit awkard, but I think if I do it for a week, I should get the handle on it pretty good. Think, I will start to do it every day while I’m up at the beach. That should be enough practice to get the hang of the J stroke. I was thinking, there are some things I can do to make the balance tougher as I do more of it. Moving my feet closer together would of course be the obvious thing. But, I could even do some simple yoga balance moves on it as well. It would be interesting to see if you can incorporate the paddle into the moves. I’ll have to look up some moves online. Even, something so simple as standing on one leg would be trickier. Of course, we should wait till the lake water warms up a bit. It was so friggin cold yesterday. I was pretty glad not to fall in at all. Just standing ankle deep to launch the board was numbing enough on the ankles. Everybody gave the board a try pretty much, except for Karen. Sam, Tom, Andy, Colleen, and Brian all did it. The boys of course found it pretty easy, and so did Sam. It has a certain relaxing quality to it. So, we’ll see, if this week that my editor has my novel finished. Although, she did say, it would take till the 23rd. That’s actually next Monday. Really looking forward to spending more time up at the boat, and working from up there. The change of scenery is always good for me. I should probably look at getting some covers done up this week as well. Either I do them myself … which is what I think I will do initially to start. I can get some good ones out there. Something like what Jeff Olah did with the Dead Years cover. There are good looking covers, but just using basic editing and some stock images. I think, it’s easier doing it for the apocalyptic genre then others, where you need like real people on the cover. I should just do one myself today, and see what it looks like. That one cover you did for “If I Had A Boat” looked pretty good. The trick, is just picking the right stock photo. I think, I have a good eye for that. We’ll give it a go. I should see if I can find the original image I did for that cover. I think, it may be on the laptop. Find a good stock image, and go from there. That may take a bit of looking around, but it shouldn’t be all that hard. Maybe, even just searching for free images on Google wouldn’t be a bad idea. There have been some interesting posts in the Kindling FaceBook page as of late. Lot’s of good information, with a few more successful writers. The group is becoming pretty mature. I need to get the next novel going as well. I think, the new structure I have laid out in Scrivener is going to help a bunch, and using the idea of brainstorming events (Islands) for fitting into the structure would be cool as well. It should certainly give you a better (more interesting) story for your readers this time.

TIGERBLOOD: yep DAILYMOOD: good LOCATION: home office WORDSWRITTEN: none PUSHUPS: none TODO: write, covers, outlining TV: none BOOK: none GAME: none EXERCISE: walking, stand up paddling WEIGHT: 170 BREAKFAST: bacon & eggs LUNCH: avacado, bell pepper DINNER: chili, bite of pork SNACKS: too many grapes, orange, almonds ALCOHOL: none BEDTIME: 12:30 AWAKE: 6:15