Welcome back, to Thursday Blog Day here at the creatively named space known as “Bob’s Blog.” Okay, we didn’t want to overthink it. I’m not sure how long this one will be, because so much happened in the last week I got back home to Spokane on Tuesday and felt so tired I actually told Greg, my editor, that I might take the week off. Barbara and I had met in Minnesota on Friday, then her brother Tim and his wife Kelly arrived on Saturday. We spent a few days being tourists with them, having a great time, and then on Monday night we got to see Bruce Springsteen for the second time in about a month, with this show being performed at the Xcel Energy Arena in St. Paul.
Welcome to Thursday Blog Day! I’ve discovered that picking Thursday as my day to blog is one of the best decisions ever. Like, ever! Like, totally! For the last 10 and a half years I’ve just written blogs whenever the feeling hit me, but for those last 10 and a half years I wasn’t also writing a book. I was writing all sorts of press releases and PR updates, but those also tend to fall into a specific pattern and in total they might add all the way up to 2,000 words in a week. This week, so far, I’ve written about 8,000 words but that’s nothing compared to last week, when Chapter 7 stretched 33 pages and 18,000 words. Chapter 8, this week, is a more standard length for the flow and pace I’ve been using, checking in at about 15 pages.
I bet you never considered the physical side of long-form writing. I know I never did, before I casually walked up to the edge of the deep end of this pool and dove in, taking on “Bats, Balls, and Burnouts” like just another writing assignment. After all, I’d just spent 20 years writing many thousands of words per week as a PR person in the NHRA world, so how could this be any different?
Greetings from snowy and single-digit Minnesota! It’s great to be here for almost an entire week, and now it’s time for the fun stuff. Kickstarter is over, all of my backers have paid, and it’s time to get to work shipping these rewards out to people. Since all of the rewards were kept here, instead of bringing the mountain to me I’ve come to the mountain to pack them up and ship them out. I should be continuing that right now, actually, but this particular Thursday is getting away from me so blogging comes first.