Generic Blog Update

July 22, 2025

So far, with the latest incarnation of this blog, I've been pretty consistent with posting at least once per month. This is the first time that I've missed that goal since I started Version 4.0. Obviously, I've shared some of what has been going on with my personal life... that being said, I am still writing, even if it isn't going up on the blog. Right now I'm staring at 17 different “ideas” and 17 different “drafts” (or a total of 34 different pieces of writing) in my Personal Knowledge Management system (“PKM”), and those do not include the stories that I've finished.

SO, “why the silence on the blog?” you might ask. Well, I can't publish the stories that I submitted to the competitions that I've entered. Most of the contests have a moratorium as to when you can publish a piece submitted as an entry. It takes a long time to hear back on whether or not you were selected or booted. Of the two competitions I'm in right now, only one of them is “in-process,” meaning someone is actually reading it.

There are other things I've written about; some new recipes, my thoughts and reflections on the much needed vacation that we just took... That stuff should be up sooner rather than later, so you'll get to read about my experience down in Mexico before too long.

In a way this post HERE is as much of a re-calibration for me as it is just a generic blog update. We've been back in the country for a couple of weeks now, but with my wife's birthday and other things going on, it seems like we've kind of been going non-stop and have been busy since before we left. So I haven't really been motivated to write.

Not going to lie, it was a little jarring to leave the country, but it was something that we planned around the end of last year. We even put the money down for the tip back in January. I was actually looking forward to being able to share all of our pictures and everything with my Dad, but that obviously didn't happen. There was a part of me that didn't want to go, regardless, I felt like I had an obligation to take the time off. It wasn't just my wife and I going, it was also her sisters and their significant others. My vacation request had also already been in for a several months leading up to the trip... More on that later though! It should hopefully be an entertaining read on its own.

Anyway...

Both the short stories that I wrote and submitted are in the same shared universe. I would call it speculative fiction, but the stories also take place far enough into the future to still be considered science fiction. While getting published by someone else would be awesome, in the event that doesn't happen, I'm working myself up to be able to compile all my short stories as a collection to simply publish myself, or maybe try shopping it around to an agent.

There are also a couple of other competitions I have my eye on, with deadlines coming in the next couple of weeks and throughout the rest of the year. Worst case scenario, I've got a bunch of short stories that should be coming back to me by the beginning of next year (at the latest) that I can periodically post and could probably put the blog on autopilot for a few months if I stayed with the same posting schedule.