It’s that time of year in Oregon’s Willamette Valley when it’s mostly rainy and dreary. Will we get snow? Some years we do, some we don’t, but when we do it usually isn’t much and it almost never sticks for long. I usually don’t mind the rain, of course, being a writer and a reader, but usually by March I’m ready to see more blue sky. My hunch is that feeling will come even sooner this year, considering how trying 2020 was. But then, every place you live has its pros and cons.
As grim as the pandemic has been this winter, and it’s been plenty grim, the vaccines are rolling out, though, so life feels like it’s getting better. While it will take quite a while to vaccinate the entire world, the most vulnerable, and most likely to be hospitalized, should get vaccinated much faster, which means both the death toll and the strain on our hospitals should start to lessen more more rapidly, I should think. We shall see.
My immediate family is all in good health. For me personally? Just working away, on two books at the same time, actually. Not something I usually like to do, but it just worked out that way. Kids are approaching the halfway mark of the school year, and we’re all hoping that by Fall 2021 that face-to-face classes will be the norm again.
Hoping. I find myself using that word a lot lately. While it rained all day on Christmas for us, the sun came out in earnest the next day, which seemed symbolic.
A Bit of Whimsy: A Very Rosie Christmas
Here’s Rosie at 7.5 months, looking adorable as usual. Of course, her cuteness hides the fact that she’s often known around these parts as THE TERRIBLE RED BEASTY, for her propensity to steal socks, chew up shoes, and destroy tree ornaments.
Scott Recommends
Uncle Frank. This Amazon Studios production is just the sort of movie that makes me so optimistic about the future of filmmaking, despite the fairly grim future I foresee for movie theaters in particular. It’s doubtful this poignant drama about a gay man from South Carolina, and his relationship with his family as he returns from New York City in 1973, would have seen much time in a theater—especially now, but probably not ten years ago either. And yet, it’s one of the best films I’ve seen this year. Great writing, great acting, highly recommended.
Sunset Express by Robert Crais. Another great entry in the Elvis Cole series, a Los Angeles-based private investigator with a wry wit. What I admire about Crais, just as I admire about writers like Robert B. Parker and John D. MacDonald, is how easy it all goes down. I don’t mean the story, which in this case involves an extremely rich restaurateur accused of murdering his wife, a police detective accused of tampering with evidence, and a powerful celebrity attorney, but the writing itself. The voice is strong and bold and grabs you from page one. It’s always a pleasant few hours I spend with Cole and his assorted friends and associates.
M*A*S*H.This has been one of my go-to shows during the pandemic lately, something I can watch for thirty minutes while folding laundry or just a short escape before bed, and I’m amazed at how well it still holds up more than thirty years after the final episode aired (1983). Sadly, it might have something to do with how evergreen the subject matter is (war). Lasting eleven seasons (and eight years longer than the Korean War in which it was set), it has just the right balance of pathos and humor. I could do without the laugh track, of course, but that’s my one small nit. The whole series is available on Hulu.
It’s been twelve months since I gave up the day job to give full-time writing a go. And boy, what a year. A global pandemic that we still haven’t climbed our way out of yet. One of the most divisive Presidential elections in the United States of my lifetime. And here in Oregon, devastating forest fires that ravaged many of the small cities east of my hometown, starting just a thirty minute drive from my house.
But with the fires put down, encouraging news on the vaccine front, and an imperfect but at least decent and empathetic human being soon to be in the White House (sorry folks — if you still don’t know what a threat Trump was to our country, please go read about what happened to Hungary, as just one recent example of how a democracy dies) hopefully 2021 will be a better year. Still, it was another reminder that life happens, and sometimes life happens in a big way, and when it does often all you can do is hold onto the raft until you get to smoother waters.
Still, I kept at it throughout it all, and I’ve learned a few things along the way:
1. I’m more at peace being an Internet Minimalist.
A couple months ago, I decided to recommit to being what I call an Internet Minimalist. Unless unavoidable, I don’t get on the Internet or check email until 5 p.m. every day. And yes, I really do mean I don’t go online at all unless there is some specific task that can’t wait; and it turns out that the vast majority of time, it truly can wait. I get my news from NPR via Alexa as I’m brushing my teeth in the morning, so at least I’m aware of any major events, but otherwise I’m completely off-line until 5 p.m. This not only made me a lot more productive, it made me happier, too. I’m still free to do whatever I want online after 5 p.m., and I certainly don’t want to be totally disengaged, partly because I need the Internet for my business, but in practice this translates into me being a lot more efficient online. I’ve read more books, produced a lot more practice drawings, and also started doing the Run of the House cartoon again—so that energy is going where I’d rather it go.
Why 5 p.m.? It’s a “habit stacking” technique I picked up from James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. The basic idea is you connect or stack a new habit on top of an existing one. I already have a pretty firm rule that I don’t watch TV or drink alcohol before 5 p.m. It’s so entrenched I don’t think about it much, so adding the “no Internet” rule to it was pretty easy. It also ensures that I’m using my freshest, most productive hours of the day for my creative work. I’d tried using 4 pm in the past, but 5 pm does seem to be working better, so I do think there is something about pairing existing habits that reinforces both of them.
2. Having an easy production quota I followed every day, which I could exceed if I wanted, was better than having a more ambitious quota I only followed five days a week.
When I tailed up my word counts for the last twelve months, I did about 20% more than my best year. It’s not bad, but since I don’t have a day job anymore, I was expecting better— certainly not double, I’ve been doing this too long to expect that, but perhaps 50% more. And then I noticed something else odd: my second best twelve month stretch, the one I’d beaten only by 20%, was actually the first year I got very serious about being a writer. In all those years, I’d never topped that year until now.
Here’s what baffles me. I had a very simple rule I followed that year: write at least 500 words, or for 30 minutes, whatever comes last. I’d gotten fed up with my low productivity and I bought a little digital kitchen timer. I told myself that no matter what, I could always write two pages of fiction. I made it my goal to stay completely focused for the thirty minutes, only checking the word count when the timer went off. (Having the timer actually paradoxically freed me up not to think about the time.) I’ve written about this before, recommended the technique to lots of others, and I’ve come back to it lots of times over the years as a way to jump start myself, but it seemed far too low a production quota for a full-time writer. So I decided to write 10 pages a day instead.
And while that resulted in some big word count months, there were other months where I …wasn’t as productive. Here’s the thing about that first year long ago when I got truly serious: While there were many days I squeaked by with 500 words, there were many, many other days I kept on writing because I was in the flow. Since it was only 30 minutes, I could always find the time for it. No excuses.
I recently went back to the 30/500 rule a couple months ago, and while the jury is still out on whether I’ll produce more, so far I am, while also having more fun. I can quit if I want, after all, and that feeling is very freeing. When I ran into a jam with the bigger book I’m working on, I just started a new story while I was figuring out what to do. I’ve already gotten three short stories that I wouldn’t have written otherwise, and I love the variety, too. Which leads me to …
3. When I stopped thinking of writing as a job, I was not only happier, I worked harder too.
That was the third major lesson I learned in the last year. When I tried to make writing into a 8 to 5, Monday through Friday sort of job, it became exactly that … a job. This added a bunch of emotional baggage that’s not helpful. The only way I could go back to writing every day (as well as cartooning and other creative efforts) was to not to see it as a job, because a job is usually something you do so you can do other things in your spare time. I don’t work a job any more. This is just what I do. It’s what I am. Along those lines, I also decided to just trust myself with the time and not worry too much about the schedule. The production quota has always been the key anyway.
Some weekdays I mow the lawn in the afternoon. Run an errand. Read a book. Walk the dog. Help the kids with their homework. Many Saturdays I write all day long. The point is, there was no reason to give up the day job if I was just going to make this into another day job, and the way I broke free of that mentality was to at least write a little something (two pages) every day. It allowed the joy to flow back in a big way. Rosie is now six months old, and already starting to grow out of some of her puppy behavior that took so much of my energy, but breaking free from the 8-5/M-F mentality also made it easier with her as well. Now, like the 30/500 rule, the jury is still out on whether this is sustainable, but I think it is. When I told writer friend of mine about this, he said, “You mean you never give yourself a day off? My God!” But that misses the point. Why would you need a day “off” from something you love?
While I certainly have to push myself to the keyboard some days, this is no different than, say, a professional basketball player who loves their sport but still has to push themselves now and then to get in the gym and shoot five hundred free throws. You push yourself not because you don’t love what you do, but because you love it so much you want to get really good at it.
A Bit of Whimsy: Me at the Pumpkin Patch
This one was from a little over a month ago, when we visited a nearby pumpkin patch with the kids and Heidi took a few photos. And yes, except for when she took this photo, we were all wearing masks and engaging in good social distancing practices.
Scott Recommends
Defending Jacob by William Landay. As usual, I’m late to the party on Landay’s excellent novel about an assistant district attorney whose own son is accused of a horrific crime: stabbing a classmate to death and leaving his body in a nearby park. Is his son innocent or guilty? And how far would you go to protect your own child? Those are the questions Landay tackles in this riveting legal thriller, which was recently made into a miniseries for Apple TV. I haven’t seen the miniseries, so I can’t vouch for it, but I can say that the narrative voice grabbed me from page one and didn’t let me go.
You’re It! by Alan Watts (the audio book). My daughter described me the other day as nonreligious but still somewhat spiritual. That’s close, but I’d clarify that I’m generally repulsed by religious dogma but open to spiritual thinking — as long as you describe “spiritual thinking” as being intellectually curious about the nature of reality and what it truly means to be human. I stumbled upon the recorded lectures of Alan Watts on YouTube a year ago, a man who described himself as a “philosopher-entertainer,” and was adamant he was not a guru even though many of his ardent fans in the sixties who attended his lectures at college campuses and other venues might have thought of him that way. You’re It! gathers many of his best lectures, and while the format means there’s a little bit of repetition, I found that actually helps drive home some of his main points. If you want just one book, I’d recommend this one, but you can certainly listen to many of his lectures for free on YouTube as I did.
The Mandalorian. Just to prove that I’m not completely out of step with what’s popular right now, let me echo everyone who’s said that the Mandalorian, a show set in the Star Wars universe on Disney Plus about a mercenary (in the same vein as Bobba Fett) and a Yoda-like child, lives up to its billing. Now in its second season, it’s one of those rare shows that our whole family watches together, and there hasn’t been one dud yet. Just pure wide-eyed fun … which is something we all sorely need right now.
I’m starting a new feature, News & Muse, to be published on this site the first of every month. As most of my readers know, I’ve been a very irregular blogger over the years, and my social media activity can be described as erratic at best, but I thought it would be fun to try more of magazine-style approach to this blog that combines lots of “features” rather than spreading them over many individual posts — the piecemeal method certainly being more the norm, and what most SEO gurus recommend in this age of supposed short attention spans. But hey, if the Internet has taught us anything, it’s that you should try to find a way to do things your way. (Cue Frank Sinatra singing “I Did It May Way.”) I also don’t think attention spans are all that short, really. Otherwise, who are all these people buying my books? So I can at least say that my readers have longer attention spans, and those are the people I’m most interested in anyway.
I’m going to let News & Muse evolve over time, but for now this is the basic structure: 1) Ashort news update or “muse” on a topic; 2) A Bit of Whimsy: Usually pictures or random drawings, occasionally a second cartoon, but be prepared for lots of gratuitous photos of my pets or other random stuff; 3) Scott Recommends: At least three, and possibly more, books, videos, lectures, comics, websites, or anything else I’ve really enjoyed recently that I think you might enjoy too, usually with a few sentences of commentary. You’re about to find out exactly how eclectic my taste is, and how out of step I usually am with whatever is popular at the moment; 4) A new Run of the House comic. This is the cartoon strip I started last year that went on hiatus because, while I was enjoying it, I’d become disenchanted with the way I was distributing it (on a separate site or via social media, giving it all away for free). I’m glad to bring it back here at least once a month, kind of like the comic section in a newspaper. I’ve got some other ideas regarding the strip, but I’ll save those for later. I want to mull it over a bit more.
Other news? Nothing big, just working on a new book, of course. Can’t say much more than that, which is usually the case. Just got back from a quick getaway to Sunriver, Oregon with my daughter and Rosie, where we visited with my father, went on some nice walks in the woods, rode our bikes, and binge-watched Netflix’s The Haunting of Bly Manor. Both of us like the scary stuff, which isn’t the case for other members of the household. A fun time, though driving through the devastation from the Santiam Canyon fires was very sobering.
A Bit of Whimsy
Rosie, at five and half months now, has discovered the joys of a warm fire as the weather in the Willamette Valley turns a bit cooler.
Scott Recommends
GRANT by Ron Chernow. I think the best compliment I can give this mammoth, mesmerizing biography is that I truly hope someone makes it into a miniseries, much like HBO did with David Mccullough’s John Adams, another presidential biography I really enjoyed. He was not without his flaws, but I don’t think anyone would be tearing down statues of Grant if more people knew the kind of character this man had, and how ahead of his time he was in his treatment of African Americans, even compared to Lincoln.
SQUIRREL SEEKS CHIPMUNK by David Sedaris. When he’s at his best, Sedaris is both witty and poignant, and he is certainly both in spades with this “bestiary” of fable-like tales involving very anthropomorphized animals. Funny enough, even though I’ve been a fan of Sedaris’s writing for years, having read pretty much all of his collections, I missed this one when it was published and stumbled across it in a Little Library in our neighborhood. Hooray for Little Libraries!
LUANN by Greg Evans. I came to this comic strip pretty late (considering it’s been around 35 years), but I stumbled across it one day and ended up getting hooked on the slowly unfolding dramas of the titular character, her brother, parents, and everyone else connected to Luann’s life. You can read the latest strip online at gocomics.com/luann, or do what I did and get into the strip through one of the major storylines, which you can find at http://luannfan.com/. Or even better, buy one of the print collections. To me, it served as a reminder of how easy it is to become emotionally invested in a bunch of squiggly lines, if there are characters you care about.
As if dealing with a global pandemic wasn’t enough, here in Oregon we’re also suffering from a series of wildfires wreaking havoc across the state. While my hometown of Salem is not in any danger, the air for the last few days has been so toxic that it’s not safe to be outside without a mask for long. We’ve literally had some of the worst air quality in the entire world. (Fortunately, as my kids pointed out, we already have plenty of masks lying around!) The fires have blanketed the city in an ash-fog that’s lowered the temperature at least twenty degrees. But cooler temperatures, shifting winds, and a coming rainstorm should hopefully bring an end to the worst of this over the next few days.
But despite what a crazy year 2020 has turned out to be, I go on writing. It’s now my full-time job, after all, but I also find it helps me not focus on everything in the world outside my control. Disappearing into a book as a reader also helps, of course, which brings me to my latest offering: A DEEP AND DEADLY UNDERTOW. This is the seventh book featuring Garrison Gage, and it’s a doozy, one that will leave both Gage and others in Barnacle Bluffs forever changed. More information about the book, including links to retailers, is below.
As usual, the book is available in paperback and ebook first. The audio version will hopefully follow before too long. Thanks for reading!
A Deep and Deadly Undertow
A Garrison Gage Mystery
What kind of treasure is worth dying for?
Years after his wife dies in a mafia hit gone wrong, Garrison Gage finally pieces together a life for himself in the Oregon coastal town of Barnacle Bluffs. Some days the cranky private investigator with the bum knee and the caustic wit could even call himself content. Maybe even happy. But marrying again? Never.
Yet not long after quirky Rita Rodriguez enters the scene, Gage can’t imagine life without her. Unfortunately, when dark secrets violently emerge–involving first loves, tragic loss, and, strangest of all, a Spanish galleon that sunk in 1642 loaded with treasure–their relationship enters turbulent waters.
Worse, the same deadly undertow that drags Gage into the darkness also threatens everyone around him. His friends. His enemies. Even the town itself . . .
