EARLY MORNING CLEO / July 29, '25 - 4:55 AM

So yeah I put the time on there because it's a ridiculous time of the day. 

But, also, I wanted to say, too, that my cat, my beautiful Cleopatra -

Woke me about an hour ago and wanted to cuddle. I cuddled, my friends. And now I'm awake and I've already written on my novel and short story last night, so I thought I'd stay sharp and hit the old blog a bit.

As I've said here, I think, I'm working on a novel called The Old Invisible right now. I'm 275 pages into the first draft (though I only ever put a book through more than two drafts, usually) and should be reaching the endish soon. 

I had planned for the book to likely come in around 600 pages, but it's wrapping up a lot sooner than I expected. I never know. I just write the sentences and they add up.

It has been the fastest draft I've written, though, by far. My other novels have taken an average of about five years each (I work on more than one at a time mostly). I started this one about four months ago.

I'm also working on several short stories right now. I love titles, so here's what they're called:

The Greenpoint Test

Return Ticket

Fallujah Boy

Dirt Worshippers

Writer friends have told me over the years I should talk more about my personal life instead of just talking about writing and reading all the time. Well, look up there at Cleo again :)

Truth is, I don't think about much else when I'm not at work (I'm Asst. News Director now, after spending many years as a reporter). But free time for me is reading and writing only. I cut the grass time to time, but that's about it. Oh, and go to the movies with my daughter. I explained this oddity to her like this, "I devote time to reading and writing at about the same level most other people devote to social media." It's true, I promise. I'm scared of social media.

I did have to delete YouTube from my phone, though. I did it after sitting on the porch for six hours without realizing I'd been there watching YouTube videos. Six hours gone. Poof. It felt like half an hour.

But that's not what scares me about social media. I can't say what scares me, what pushed me away from it forever, but trust me, it would you, too.

That's it.