June 2022 News
Happy June to you. This month's most poignant updates are on the yakkery. Long story short: It's going quite well.
Kayaks
 |
| our very first waiver, written on a McD's bag |
In May of 2021 we did a total of one rental and made $90 income (not to be confused with profit). Since then we've made some improvements. I won't bore you with the details but in May of 2022 we made almost $3,000 income. It was our best month by a thousand dollars. As my buddy Peter would say, "Yippy kayak mother****er!"
I'm excited, but also nervous. We're venturing into uncharted waters. This business will sink or swim based on decisions made exclusively by us. Storms will come along to try and steer us off course. Worst of all: I may run out of water metaphors.
Writing
Edits are still underway for book 1. Meanwhile book 2 is coming together. I'm drafting and compiling the notes I've been collecting. I think all told it's about 30k words worth out outlines, quotes, notes, etc.
 |
| Captain Jeret leading Promontory soldiers art by Felix Ortiz |
It's kind of intimidating to write the follow up to this novel. Book 1 is 285k words, epic, and was written during unusual circumstances. Book 2 promises to have more epic scenes, more tragedy, more magic and monsters and weather-manipulating monks.
"But," said that wee inner voice, "What if I can't deliver?"
I suppose that same question can be asked by anyone, at any time, about any endeavor, including making lunch for the kids or going to work. Well, I have to at least try.
Zeal
The Kingdom of Zeal is coming along. Most of the trickier parts--fountains, hoses, filtration, draining--are done, or at least plotted. Some might argue that the truly tricker parts will entail a non-biologist plebian maintaining a living, closed environment with as few extinction events as possible.
 |
| Zeal in progress (it doesn't look like much, I know) |
Don't worry, I'll start small. Plants, moss, algae. Once it is thriving, we'll see about adding more mobile heterotrophs.
Watching
I love and hate finding good shows. They tend to inhale me and prevent me doing anything besides vegetating until they've run their course with my attention and emotions. Thanks, Ozark.
The latest season of Love Death + Robots did that and more. It inspired me. There's so much imagination going on in those short episodes. I highly recommend it. It's like Black Mirror, but more sci fi, more violent, and animated.
Next Month
My hopes for next month are that I'll be reporting Hartwell Kayak's most successful month again, and announcing the completion of V&V Book 1.
I'll see you then
dtl