Bitter Cold, Bitter Thoughts

The temperature here is -4. That's Fahrenheit not that stupid metric system the Euros use.

That means it's feckin cold. Blow a bubble through a straw and it will freeze. It's so cold the mice all flee inside your home.

For you folks in the southern climes the air today is still, which means outside wont bite too much. But when the wind goes...man, stay in.

These are the days when the fireplace is more than just a pleasant affectation. The last three mornings we've gotten up and gotten a fire going.

And so it goes, just to do it all again.

When our grandfather did the same up in our mountain home in Western Massachusetts, our Mississippi born grandmother remarked to her Yankee husband, 'Now you all know why we had slaves.'

The temp fits our mood.

2017 was the year we cleared the decks. World War 1990: ANZACs came out, The Austrian Painter went into production, the 2nd draft of World War 1990: The Final Storm is complete, and the first draft of Blooms is done.

Last year we pushed ourselves harder than ever.

To be frank, we're tired. Every day for a year we've woken up at 4 or 5 worked on this blog, written, edited, gotten the kids off to school, written and edited some more, etc. etc. By the time the kids get home we're exhausted. Then we get up at 4 or 5 and do it all over again. 

We're 5,000 words into Pershing's War 1919 and we see what lays ahead. 

Having gotten Blooms written, we'll go forth and do it all again. Hours of sitting around and thinking, 'How can A get to D when B doesn't fit C but A has to lead to B and C has to set the stage for D?....followed by 20 minutes of frenetic writing all while wondering when we're going to have time to steam mop the floor.

Then there's editing. We're talking about hundreds of hours of work. Having gotten The Austrian Painter edited and fleshed out we'll do it all over again with Pershing's War 1919.

We come also to fact checking. Already a couple of commentators in Australia are helpfully pointing out errors of detail, RAAF Hornets couldn't fire HARMs...really? You took to Amazon to point that out? We look forward to people picking over The Austrian Painter.

Bloody hell, mate.

And so we go again.