Yesterday I had my first cup of coffee in over a week. And I drank it at 5pm.

It was delicious. And my brain did not shut down until about 2am last night.

The good news is that I was in the grips of an idea I’ve been trying to flesh out for weeks, and that particular project finally has a working model and can get started soonish. The bad news is that, to turn off those whirling gears, I hopped on Twitter and was assaulted by commentary on the bizarre interview Trump gave on tv last night.

He is a scared, confused old man, and now I’m fantasizing about him just resigning. Of course, full blown dementia didn’t stop Ronald Reagan.

I made a mushroom omelette for breakfast, still overwhelmed with gratitude at my renewed ability to eat solid food. I have a rather healthy to-do list to dive into after this blog is published, which I’m writing while listening to The Self Publishing Podcast. Client work, client prospecting, wedding tasks, and more. What I’d like to do is curl up on the couch with a cup of coffee, a blanket, and a book.

I started reading C. Robert Cargill’s fantasy novel Queen of the Dark Things yesterday, and it is fun, and very dark, like most of Cargill’s work. I love well-done urban fantasy. In some ways I find it more escapist than epic fantasy or big space operas. I think it’s the shift of the familiar into the strange, like my brain is doing a specific type of suspension-of-disbelief, turning the regular world into a more magical place. Like how I love hard science fiction that is at once ridiculous in scope but totally believable.

I like dystopian fiction as well, but that doesn’t feel as fun right now. Dystopia as a genre is probably going to explode this year; I’m curious to see how that shakes out in the indie book market. Apocalypse fiction has been saturated for a while, but I still prefer zombies or robots or alien invasions over oppressive fascist regimes and scrappy rebels. Of course, The Walking Dead is about to do a full-on cross over of zombie apocalypse and dystopian government stories. I really hope it works.

It’s cold again in Texas, after several days of 80+ degree afternoons. No real weather to accompany it, though. I’ve been scrolling through pictures up north of that snow storm’s aftermath, and I have so many feelings when I look at them. There is a part of my brain that craves a little real winter. But I moved away long ago from the part of Texas that actually gets winter, and I’m pretty okay with that. There is, however, something truly satisfying about bundling up and going for a walk while it’s snowing. I don’t get that down here in Austin and it leaves a sense of longing every year.

Whatever is going on outside, in here there is coffee to drink and there are projects to conquer.