L.J. McLean

Hello, all.

So it’s been about four weeks since I got back from vacation. Ten days on the Pacific Ocean with no land in sight. Just me, the cruise ship, clouds, and deep, blue ocean waters. Five days on land with four days at each Hawaii port: Hilo, Honolulu, Lahaina, and Nawilliwilli, with a stop in Ensenada before embarking at Los Angeles.

No wifi. No social media.

Refreshing.

God, I needed that.

Oh, and I’m now 36. Happy birthday to me.

Being on that ship, familiar routines kicked in. Get up, have three meals a day (two when I felt like not wanting to eat a meal to rest my gut), she the evening show with Mom, be in the gym almost every morning. Meet new people. I think this is the 18th cruise in my life. There were times it was almost ruined, like on the third day, rolling my right ankle on the stairs while wearing new flip-flops. Didn’t break bones but the muscle sprain was a bitch to deal with. Thank goodness it didn’t cripple my foot entirely.

Wait. Back that up. I had no internet connection on the ship (too expensive), but whenever the ship docked, cell service was there. Had to keep track of some financials and see how the WGA strike was progressing, which was nowhere (I’ll have to talk about that eventually). And… yeah. Had to check social media, but briefly. Really briefly. There were more interesting things to do besides doom-scrolling the day away.

After the cruise, and a couple weeks dealing with post-travel depression, stuff is happening. Like diving into Python programming again. And writing.

Hope you read the latest chapter of The Ghost Factor. A long time coming for this particular chapter. A never-ending movie in my head, finally on paper. Or text editor.

But it’s one scene short. I didn’t have much time to write it with the first two done. The draft is written. Just need to rewrite it to the level I’m happy with.

Now, lately, I’ve been looking into website options. Changing WordPress themes, or just managing it, is beginning to make me tired of it. I’ve recently looked into Substack as an option, created one just to park my name there. Nothing at all… yet. Or not. I don’t know. Within me, I want to simplify things. But that can lead to losing current followers, rebuild it.

There’s also the paid subscriber side. Patreon is already my tip jar these days. $1 is a start, but it just irks me that $5 a month is the minimum for Substack—paid content only—that I don’t post enough to justify the price. An annoying trade-off, even for an amateur like me, can’t seem to get past the negative and see the positive. Not to mention the heat Substack got in recent weeks, stuff I don’t want to link to or feel comfortable discussing. And how infrequent I submit writing.

Who else thinks Substack for writers is the way to go these days?

Anyway, back to writing fiction. This weekend is going to be the hottest to date. Hugging the A/C anywhere I go is high on my list for mental comfort.

Later.