REAL-LIFE FICTION – A Conundrum Publishing Podcast is interviewing me.

I get to be interviewed for a new podcast next week which shall later be uploaded both on Youtube and where ever Podcasts are played.

Kind of nervous.

But also really excited.

And honestly, the biggest dilemma I’m having now is whether I use my sons awesome ‘wall of dinosaur filled shelves’ as my background or the walls of my very masculine writing nook in the basement…

Deep thoughts to be considered.

Anyways, back to writing Book IV. (I’m a little ahead right now and want to stay that way.)

21 Years left.

I’m 39 and at 60 everything is going to change when I lose the majority of my sight.

It’s called LORD (Late Onset Retinal Degeneration).

What is that?

Something kind of sucky and super rare. (Lucky me!)

***

https://rarediseases.info.nih.gov/diseases/4357/late-onset-retinal-degeneration

Disease at a Glance

Summary

Late-onset retinal degeneration is an inherited retinal dystrophy characterized by delayed dark adaptation and nyctalopia and drusen deposits presenting in adulthood, followed by cone and rod degeneration that presents in the sixth decade of life, which leads to central vision loss. Anterior segment features such as peripupillary iris transillumination defects and abnormally long anterior zonular insertions are also observed. Choroidal neovascularization and glaucoma may occur in the late stages of the disease.

Estimated Number of People with this Disease

This section is currently in development.

***

Well, my mom’s side of the family is in the ‘Number of People with this Disease’.

(Which, as an aside, is why it was so awesome when I got my books turned to AUDIO! Now they could listen to them!)

So, sixth decade of life.

I’m picking 60 as my ‘eyeballs gonna expire by’ date.

And I feel sort of bad about this… that while knowing I may very likely be legally blind in the future, I haven’t prepared well for it.

First is the boring stuff. Mainly aimed at helping my family out. By 2043 I want to have the house paid for, our 401K stocked up well enough for my planned forced retirement at 60, and debt free.

This is doable. With the help of Dave Ramsey’s calculator I worked out the math on how to pay the house off by then. And it’s gonna save us $88,000 in interest! As for debt, we’re pretty debt free. Except for our vehicles and I’ve started really considering at trading my beautiful, wonderful, immaculate, and gorgeous 2022 Ram Rebel for something used that I can pay off quicker. I’m on the fence about it. But it makes a lot of financial sense. So… we’ll see. (It’s such an awesome truck!)

The 401k… ugh. I worked the numbers and I’m not THAT happy with them. But I’m also partially banking on a total collapse of the US Dollar and our economy by then and living off the land by growing meat and veggies in the backyard.

That’s about 50% true. But I’m planning for both scenarios. Thus, more money goes into the 401k to make us more monies down the road.

And Social Security? -snort- Yeah, I ain’t banking on that.

So that’s the boring stuff.

The really, really important stuff?

Writing.

🙂

Gone are my daydreams of spending my golden twilight years in front of a computer, endlessly pounding away at the keyboard, churning out best selling novels filled with masculinity and adventure.

I mean, I can probably still do it. But it’s gonna be pretty different depending on how my eyeballs go. There are options to keep writing, but none that I’m excited about. Dictating? Ugh. Writing on a monster computer screen using my surviving peripheral vision? Ugh. But I also can’t imagine NOT creating verbal entertainment for the rest of my life, so we’ll see.

But there is a new found, “Holy Smokes I’ve got to get moving!”, on my writing passion.

21 years.

At my current rate, that’s 21 books before things start getting difficult at one book a year.

And to be honest, that’s not good enough. I can’t settle for only writing 21 more books the traditional way.

So.

It’s time to kick it up a notch. It’s time to perform. Time to put out. Time to produce.

It ain’t over yet.

Time to aim HARD for that 1 book every six month goal.

Let’s go for 42 instead of 21.

“Good.”

Absolutely time for an update with random pictures.

It’s August 7th and holy smokes, where’d the year go?

More importantly… how is Book IV going?

Good. I’m on a writing roll, to the point where I’m forcing myself to stop and do a blog update instead of writing about someone getting eaten during a prehistoric river crossing. But words are going on computer screen at a nice rate, I’m excited, I’m vibrant, and I’m ready to get this sucker into the reader’s calloused and gun powder scented hands.

(Who am I kidding? I have soft keyboard and cubicle hands these days… nary a callous or sparkle of gunpowder on either one.)

Some randomness.

First, on the sharper side of things – I discovered Scallywag Tactical. They make awesome pointy things for poking people with AND they are located a few hours away from me in NC.

scallywagtactical.com

I had to order the wife something… in Tiffany blue. (And a couple little push blades that go on your key ring.)

They make gorgeous blades, check them out. Arm your ladies, gents!

Second, on the boom boom side of things… I came across a SCREAMING deal of a Savage Stance without safety. Not a bad little piece. For the $300 it’ll make a nice truck gun… but meh. I can barely push the mag release in and I have YET to be able to get the slide release to work with my big mitts. (I’ve got to slingshot the slide to reload)

Neat, but… This thing will probably go down the road to another owner. I may make $50 on it, also.

What else.

Stuff I’ve read recently that didn’t suck. Drop Trooper series by Rick Partlow. We bumped into each other online in a FB group, friended each other, and exchanged signed books.

https://amzn.to/3dddN5N