27 February 2021

 Song mood: Fox on the Run by Sweet.

This week, I have been having issues breathing.  My breathing is more shallow, which shows that I haven’t been working on belly breathing.  Even two months after COVID, I have issues with my breathing.  Some days it feels like someone is standing on my chest.  It will be something to talk with my doctor about.  

I get texts from the clinic saying that I’m due for a check up.  I canceled my eye exam the day before I got tested for COVID.  I will need to make another appointment, it’s just I get busy doing things and forget about it.  At some point I will need to make an appointment to get my hearing checked so I can get my tinnitus looked at.

I weighed myself once this week.  I’m down to 196.4.  Goal weight is 170.  I want to be able to wear my slim-fit shirts again.  Then I will buy a suit and get my picture taken in the suit for the author photo on the mystery novel.  Try to look like the gentleman detective.

I’ve made progress on the mystery novel.  The first couple of scenes are written.  I wrote out a time line for the murder.  For this novel, the murder happens off stage.

For the current fantasy I’m writing, I’m doing pulp fiction rules: write as fast as you can, edit the best you can and move on to the next scene.  I’m changing that story up a bit.  I had an idea a while back but decided against it.  And now I decided to go with it and thrown in Milo de Ford at the end of the story.

I want to learn graphic design, but I talk myself out of it.  I talk with my mystery-thriller writer friend and he helps talking me out of it as well.  He says the technology changes so quickly, it may be better to hire someone to do the covers.  I’m not sure what to do there.

So maybe later in the year I might be doing a Graphic Design bootcamp.  The only problem is that Indesign, Illustrator and Photoshop are $21/mo subscriptions for each program.  The real question there is, which programs would I actually use to make book covers.  The other more important question is, do I actually have the time.  The main focus for me should be the writing.

I finished listening to The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie.  This one was closer to a Hallmark mystery.  My scales to measure quality on a mystery is the Hallmark mystery is on the low end and more cheesy while Masterpiece Theatre is on the high end.  I hope that my mystery novel will be on the Masterpiece side of the spectrum.

Next up for listening: Whose Body by Dorothy L Sayers and The Jewel that was Ours by Collin Dexter.