Rob's Update: 18th Century Admiral

Not my best week ever, but looking up.

I had a very poor week, in fact. Thursday night into Friday morning, I had the worst gout attack I’ve ever suffered.

Yes, I’m an 18th-Century Admiral who drinks too much port and madeira.

It meant I was basically bedridden Friday through Tuesday. I’m up and mobile now, sort of, but it’s really hard to work that way. I did manage to complete an editing project, do the podcast with Kacey Ezell (more on that later), and I started watching my way through all of Night Court, which I’ll talk about on a podcast down the road.

Before I get into that, here are my questions of the week. I’m going to start asking these at the start of each post.

1. Who are you rooting for in the Super Bowl? The advertisements is a perfect answer. What’s your favorite Super Bowl party snack? Read below for my answers.

2. Also, how’s this Substack transition going for you? Anything I especially need to work on?

Next, here’s a commercial break with my two kitties being adorable.

As I said, my most cool thing of the week was the time I spent with Kacey Ezell on Tuesday. This was my first time running a podcast, and let me tell you, it was a mess on my end! I’d intended to get every duck in a row over the weekend, but the gout said “NO!”

Still, we managed to figure out a way to do a live podcast using the Android app. Strangely, I’m not sure I can do it on a PC, at least directly on Substack. I’m looking into that. If I can’t, I’ll probably learn OBS Studio and see if I can do it on Twitter. Or maybe there’ll be a better Discord option than I’ve found.

I’ve entered a strange new world! It’s fun! It’s exciting! It’s confusing as hell! And it apparently needs lots of exclamation points!!!

But honestly, if all the podcasts I make going forward are as fun, we’ll all have a great time. Kacey is wonderful to chat with anyway, and we only went off the rails a half dozen or so times. Not bad for us.

We talked about the writing process, of course, especially since she’s created a new course for creative types. She wants to help us get our brains out of the way, and for me, that’s an issue.

If you want a free taste, here’s her Free Downloadable PDF.

5 Ways To Defeat Creative Resistance
https://kacey-ezell.mykajabi.com/pl/2148734231
Opt-in

We talked about one of those tips on the show, specifically the concept that sometimes you just don’t have it in you. Start with writing 100 words, just 100 words, only that. After you’ve done that, you may realize that’s all you have in you on a given day, so give yourself the grace to say, “I’m 100 words closer to my goal and that’s good enough.”

For her, and me for that matter, it will often happen that you don’t even notice the 100 word mark as you end up with 2500 or 3000.

The key part is the giving yourself grace part. You’ve made a good faith effort for yourself. You don’t have it today. Find a way to take care of yourself, your family, or some other thing in your life, and then get back to it tomorrow.

I like that one.

If you like the whole PDF, here’s her full 5-lesson Starter Course.

Light Your Creative Spark
https://kacey-ezell.mykajabi.com/offers/AwosyMvU/checkout

It’s been my experience that I’m the hardest hurdle I have to jump to get work done. Procrasticleaning is my specialty. Or maybe worldbuilding sounds like soooo much fun. Or maybe I’m grumpy. Or maybe I’m scared the publisher’s gonna reject it. My brain will find any excuse not to work.

I won’t say we all have to fight this fight, but we all have to figure out what helps our brains work and Kacey’s really good at helping us do that.

I talk about reasons and excuses. Gout was a reason all weekend. Tuesday, it would’ve been an excuse if I’d have canceled the podcast. Reasons are things that justifiably hinder our writing. Excuses are those things we look for so we don’t have to write. This can be a conscious thing, and Kacey’s pushed me past stupid stuff before.

This weekend I’ll be watching the Super Bowl, of course. I’m rooting for the Seahawks because of DeMarcus Lawrence, who was a great player for the Cowboys for a number of years. He did a bunch of the dirty work, and was really a foundational piece of the defense, but he didn’t post gaudy sack numbers so idiots said he sucked.

He don’t suck. Not one little bit. And I’ll be pleased if he gets a ring.

My favorite snack is my spicy queso and tortilla chips. Velveeta, Rotel, and peppers. Yum.

Here’s the upcoming Podcast Schedule, by the way. It’s not filled out, but it’s what I’ve got at the moment.

February 10th: Me riffing on the Super Bowl and the 2025 season.

February 17th: Me and Jonna Hayden rambling wherever the discussion takes us, but mostly on Raconteur Press and FenCon, I suspect.

February 21st: Special broadcast from FenCon! No clue how this will go, we’ll figure it out together.

February 24th: Not sure. Probably something historical.

March 3rd: Interview with Caleb Jordan Schulz. He’s a great artist and a crazy man building his own house on his own in the wilds of Maine. He’s a fascinating dude and I’m looking forward to hearing about his creative processes.

March 10th: Not sure. Sports related.

March 17th: St. Patrick’s Day at Gulf Wars! Not sure, but it’ll be whimsical. Maybe I’ll have watched all of Night Court by then.

March 24th: Not sure. Historical.

March 31st: Chris Kennedy will join me and I think we’ll talk about writing and publishing, but we’re reaching the end of the Four Horsemen Universe and that deserves a lot of time. It’s been a great ride, that’s for sure.

April 7th: D.J. Butler to talk about the writing process.

Not a bad little list, if I do say so myself.

Have a great week everyone!