Sunday 5th March 2017

I definitely think I’m starting to feel better as is evidenced by the insane amount of work I got done today.
I woke up actually not feeling tired for the first time in ages, despite going to bed totally exhausted.  I did a bit of editing on the latest version of The Climb before heading out to swordfighting.
I’d hoped to do some work on the swordfight I’m thinking about, but there was a number of people in a small room so it felt like it would take up valuable space so I may wait until next weekend when we are in a bigger hall.
I fought both rapier & dagger as well as sidesword & buckler, and surprisingly I felt better with how I fought with the latter.  I’m good at exploiting half-tempo when people do big moves but I noticed today that I was chaining attacks together for good effect.  Rapier & dagger was still good.  I don’t think I was as offensive as I have been in recent weeks and I put this partially down to having only a small bowl of porridge for breakfast because I forgot to get more when I went shopping on Friday.  I didn’t do bad, I just felt other people were having better weeks than me.  I’m not too bother about it.
Because my diet is going a lot stricter from next week, today was my last day to enjoy myself.  I’d found this amazing burger place in Reading but friends said they went there during the week and there was nearly a 2 hour queue.  So we went to the local pub instead and I had carvery.  I was still full from yesterday and so I probably shouldn’t have gone for the large.  I still found some room for some chocolate later in the day.
Got home late afternoon and really got to work.  I did some work on the School of the Sword website, processing images to post one blog entry and schedule another for tomorrow.    A friend also sent me some images of him and another friend reading Summer’s End in the alps.  The foreground was very dark so I did some photoshop work to brighten it with a view to using it for social media this week.  It’s not the best photoshop work I’ve done but I don’t think most people will notice.
I’m really liking how The Climb has a graphical identity on the website.  However, I’ve not been happy with how the graphics for The Year of the Offensive monthly posts look.  In previous years I’ve used a geocaching picture taken in the month the post is for (i.e. a picture taken in January for the January report).  So I looked at a few Photoshop templates to come up with a logo (very different in style to The Climb).   As we move into different years in 2018 and beyond the logo design will still work, so I’m happy about that.
I decided that selfies is very much The Climb’s style so wanted to go with something completely different.  I found out a diorama I got free with an order and have decided that I will do a different action figure each month against it as the image backdrop.  I recreated January’s and did February’s as well.
While I was at it I did the image for this edition of The Climb.
One of the writers that I’ve been discussing career strategy with posted an update.  She’s had a load of fantastic news in the last month.  As much as I would like to take credit for pushing her forward the simple fact is that the reason I’m working with her was because she was doing that already.  But I do feel that her recent success is a validation of everything we’ve been talking about in terms of what we need to be doing in terms of our careers.  As I said, luck didn’t make these things happen, it only decided WHEN it was going to happen.
It’s funny because friends have been joking that they’ve been waiting years for my writing career to take off (I quip that perfection takes time) and I have a funny feeling that when it does, it’ll be very sudden.  I’ve been content to stay in the shadows working hard, and if tBlack as Knight doesn’t get picked up, I’ll continue to do that.  I can be very patient when I want to.
I sorted out my  visas and flights for my storm chasing trip this year.  With news of changes to US immigration due in the next day or so, I thought it wise to get my visa sorted now, because whilst I don’t think I’ll be affected, with the current state of the US, who knows!  On the plus side, flying to Winnipeg instead of Oklahoma has saved me about half what I paid for flights last year.  At that price I reckon I could make a second trip later this year to do the Northern Lights.
I still have plenty to do ahead of this trip but that’s a major thing out the way.  It’s definitely happening now.
Whilst prepping dinner I listened to another Beneath Ceaseless Skies short story.  I liked this one more.  Do you think I should review them here?  Let me know in the comments.  It reminded me a lot of a story idea I had that I think might work.  That together with a disability story I’ve had kicking around in my head for the last few months means I have two stories to draft for this project.  I just need to find time.
I followed this up with writing a blog post on the Year of the Offensive.  There’s a lot of cross-over with The Climb (one is daily, one is monthly) but my idea (at least for now) is that the Year of the Offensive posts are a good jumping on point for The Climb.  We’ll see.  Like a lot of things, I’m playing and iterating.  I got that posted up, along with the new style graphic and I think it looks good on the page having a visual differentiation from The Climb.
As if that wasn’t enough I worked into the early hours on the novel.  I finished off the scene I was working on.  As always it will probably need some polish and more description come the next draft but as a first draft I think it works.
What’s exciting is that I now get to write the big action scene, although I suspect I won’t get to that until Tuesday or Thursday night given how much planning it needs.  Whilst I know the scene pretty well, it still needs to be all written down and planned out.  That way any inconsistancies can get ironed out before I come to write it.  Even though my mind has wandered onto the swordfight later in the novel, I’m super-excited to write this next chapter and hoping it turns out as good on the page as it does in my head.  I think it’ll be up there with the level of action from book 1 and people will love it.
Despite this huge amount of work done, I’m still disappointed that I didn’t get another article I need to write drafted.  That said, I’m glad I seem to be over my recent fatigue, atlthough I suspect given how hard I’ve worked today, I’m going to feel very tired tomorrow.
If you want to follow more of my journey, then be sure to check me on my social channels.  Likewise, if you’d like me to expand on any point mentioned above, please say so in the comments.
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