Good Weather? You're Crazy.

“Sunday” Writing Journal — May 18th, 2026

Happy Victoria Day!

Or Patriot’s Day, if I remember what the American version is called.

A day to celebrate a long-dead monarch, and/or the New England Patriots I guess. (I couldn’t help myself.)

Either way, it’s an extra day off and it is beautiful up here in Toronto. The week had some wonky weather but this weekend has shown up. Mid 20s, sunny. Toronto has a lot of flaws, but god damn is it wonderful in good weather.

I spent last night lounging in the park with a few drinks. I spent the day before lounging in a different park with a few other drinks. The day before that… well… wait… Do I have a problem?

Nah.

Anyways, my streak of writing a weekly recap journal continues with week 2! (A day late. It’s a holiday!)

Let’s chat about stuff.

And here’s the little sir in the sink.

Writing Update

Ahh, writing.

It was not my finest week of work. I was very distracted anytime I sat down to write. My mind wandered and instead of writing I did anything else.

I have two projects ongoing.

The first is editing the second book of my Jimmy James series. It’s a whopper at 81,000 words in the first draft. I do have it down to 76,000!

I’m rounding the corner and seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I have about 10 chapters left to edit. However…. I ran into a pretty big structural issue late in the book so I’ll need to rewrite a few bits.

This definitely slowed my progress. It was a bit disheartening. I remember writing this particular section and thinking it was a great twist. Now, reading it in context I realize it is not at all. It’s less twist and more random wrench to the face.

Sure, maybe plotting in advance would have saved me some headaches. I don’t have a counter to that. I should’ve done that, lol. I used lol in a journal. Sue me!

Anyways, I’m learning the hard way that editing is a big part of the process. This is the first longer novel I’ve attempted. Editing is taking as long as writing. It’s just not nearly as fun.

In terms of writing… I’m about 25,000 words into the LitRPG story I’ve been writing and releasing a chapter at a time on Royal Road. (Link here!)

It’s alright. I’ve sort of hit the mucky middle and I’m trying to decide where to take the story. (Both of my ongoing projects hit a bit of a lag.)

I’m getting views on the story, but not many comments or ratings. Being new to the platform, I have no idea if that’s good, bad, or indifferent.

If I’m being totally honest, I don’t love writing in the genre. I feel like I have to rely on the game-mechanics too much. It almost feels like using cliches multiple times a chapter. It’s sort of a different type of writing. I’m adding in video game descriptions of things and actions, instead of a normal novel writing.

It’s a fun experiment, but I’m not sure how far I’ll continue. I miss normal writing.

In another fun experiment, I’m going to be putting my first book — Jimmy James and the Circus of Wonders — into Amazon KDP. Sort of a test to see how it does. I’ll report back. (Waiting on Hoopla to delist it and it’ll be up!)

Life Update

I got new running shoes.

For you runners out there, you know how exciting that can be. I bought Asics and they are awesome. I now have a long-distance and slow pair, and a run-fast pair.

Running has become my go-to workout. It gets me outside. We’re lucky enough to live near nature trails that make it more fun. You can also do a great workout in a short amount of time. I feel better afterwards.

I find as I get older, I’m really transitioning how I exercise. I’ve stopped lifting heavy weights all together. At most, I’ll squat 225 or so. (I’m a big dude, I know the weight changes for everyone.) I do a lot more cardio and mobility-based exercise. My knees feel better than they have in years. Yay to mobility and healthy joints!

I also went to see Pavlo in concert. What an electric show!

He’s one of my mother’s favorite acts to see. (Strangely, he lives very close to me.) Whenever he does a local show, we go. I think this is the fourth time. He’s a Greek-Canadian guitarist who has the most infectious music. You can’t help but toe-tap.

Tickets are always reasonable and he’s got some of the best stage presence in the business. Check him out!

Weird aside, but my girlfriend and I were talking about how the over 40 musical acts seem to have much better stage presence than anyone under 40. The older stars are so good up there, while most young musicians we see just don’t quite have it. (Nothing to add here, just an interesting thing…)

In reading news, I picked up Fonda Lee’s new book. (Did not realize until just now that it came out months ago… I thought it was new new.)

Fonda is most famous for the excellent Green Bone saga, which is truly one of the finest trilogies I’ve ever read. Her new book is a brand new everything. So far, it’s okay. Bit slow in the first 100 pages. The writing is still excellent. I trust her more than enough to continue on.

It does have one of the best opening lines I’ve seen.

Writing Exercise

As per usual (once before), let’s end this week’s journal with a quick writing exercise.

I saw an interesting one the other day. Writing a dialogue-only scene between two characters with no tags or adverbs or anything, nothing but the dialogue. Very Cormac McCarthy. For time’s sake, I’m going to limit it to 100 words or so.

I can’t do this again. Not now.

Babe, it’s not, it’s not like that.

It’s late. I’m tired. I just, can we do this in the morning?

Sure.

Fine, go ahead. What is it?

The colour change doesn’t make sense. Kirk wore green to signify he was the captain. All of a sudden, these new writers come in and make red the command. Why do we bother with having lore if they can just come in and change it?

I don’t know.

Red was for operations. Gold for helm and officers. It makes way more sense that way.

Picard looked sexy in red.

He would look better in gold! It’s the universal colour for goodness. Gold makes so much more sense for the top officers. It’s frustrating. Now everything is all wonky. They have white for support now!

Yeah. Crazy.

Based on a real conversation I overhead on the subway. Except both gentlemen were quite upset about the changes taking place in Star Trek. (Well, the changes that took place 30 years ago.)

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Thanks for being here with me.

Another week gone byyyyyyy. (Is that a song?)

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My first book is out! Find it here.