The Monday Challenge
No it isn’t something idiotic on TikTok
The Monday challenge is something that I have struggled with since I dedicated myself to having a new substack post/blog come out every Monday. You may have noticed that despite the challenge to myself to accomplish this, it sometimes doesn’t happen. Like last week, for example. Now, as some of you know, I either do not go into the Day Job at all on Mondays, or I go in after noon, so it’s not like there isn’t time to do one. Like this one. This one is being written at 0525 hours on Monday, February 2nd, and I am already pressed for time because I have a follow up Doc appointment because I’ve managed to do something awful to my already bad knee. (I started a new exercise program in December of last year, and over did it on the squats, if you must know. Wasn’t even using weight. Man, I’m old.)
I like to get things done ahead of time as much as possible, especially when I know I can get it done, set it up to auto publish or post, and then forget it and move on back to whatever has my ADHD addled brain captive at the moment. I have been involved in more video production lately getting author profiles up and ready for the Ruins Anthology kickstarter campaign which goes live this month, and that takes a bit out of me, plus, I’ve got two short stories that needed to be done for a couple of different anthologies that I need to submit to, and then I am swearing off short stories for the rest of the year and focusing on Long Form stories.
I promise.
No really.
I’m not even visiting the open call sections of my favorite Discord servers.
And you can’t make me.
One of the problems with being a writer with an ADHD addled brain is that sometimes even though it is fun to write (believe me I would NOT put myself through all this unless it was), there are times when my brain is tired of whatever story I am working on and wants to do something new and exciting. This is the largest reason I even do short stories at all to begin with, because, as I’ve mentioned before, the short format and I do NOT always get along. They are good to hammer out a basic premise though, and even to introduce characters (or in my case reuse them) that I plan on doing something in long form with later.
The problem with this is that it makes long form projects like SARCOM book 2 take longer to finish, much to the frustration of my Co-Author who has been patiently NOT sending ICBMs to my address to hurry me along. (Thanks, Pete).
The Monday challenge becomes itself a looming distraction, that I can’t always do ahead of time, because to do a blog you have to have something to write about that you think the folks reading said blog might be interested in. That’s harder than you think, because judging from how some of my blogs are read and others are not, I never know what is gonna catch y’all’s fancy.
And this time I really have no excuse because I spent the largest amount of time last week snowed in at home, not going anywhere, and never lost power (thanks be to God!), so I had lots of time to do a blog…except…there were these two short stories that needed to be done, and I got one of them finished and out to Beta readers, and the other one is almost ready for that, so, once again, SARCOM suffered at the hands of the short form marauders. As did this blog.
But I promise it will all be worth it when you read the shorts that are coming out this year. No contracts yet, so can’t talk about them yet, but as soon as I can, I will.
In the meantime, I highly recommend that you pop over to MGherron.com/ruins (Ruins-A Space Opera Anthology) and sign up for updates to the Kickstarter campaign, because there are some really nice extras there depending on the tier you choose to support and an absolute GORGEOUS HARDCOVER coming in addition to the Ebook, and paperback tiers. You DO NOT want to miss out on this if you’re a space opera fan, and/or a fan of xenoarcheology stories and exploring dead alien civilizations…or even some that are (to quote a famous miracle worker) only mostly dead!
Also, if you have not done so, please consider checking out the RacPress anthology, INSERT COIN edited by my pal David Badurina, if you’re a fan of 80s style video game arcades, and general mayhem. I have a story in that one called “The Excalibur Test,” that I am rather proud of.
Another one to check out is the Dingbat Press release of REIGN OF STORMS, a Romantasy Anthology in which I continue the building of the fantasy universe started in No Hero, (published in the Where Giants Fall Anthology), and continued in “The Heretic,” (published in the Brighter shades of Gray Anthology, ON SALE NOW!) with a story entitled “Nocturne.” That Antho is for charity, and all proceeds go to the Gary Sinise Foundation.
So, now I have to go and get ready to get poked and prodded by the doc about my knee (which is doing okay, because it’s never gonna be FINE again…we’re well past that point), so until next time, try not to let an alien face hugger implant you with their spawn, okay?
Michael