Hello my survivor friends. How are we doing?
Everybody surviving?
If you are listening to this you have made it to Valentines Day 2025. So carve the still-beating hearts out of a couple zombies and give them to your Sweetie-pie!
I’m working hard to get this episode out. Last week I took a trip down to Phoenix to run the Mesa Marathon and then took a couple days to go wander around Joshua Tree with my wife.
Drop dead scenery there. I would recommend it.
I didn’t do any writing or work really for 5 days.
Not a problem, I managed to stay ahead of the production schedule – so we’re still on track.
I had an ideation call with my podcast advisory team before leaving and I think we have some good ideas on how to ride this season 5 bus to the finish line with appropriate gusto.
For today’s comments let me talk a little bit about how travel and recharging impact the creative process.
Then I’ll catch you up on some reading I’ve been doing.
And give you a book publishing update.
So, as the winter sun sets low against the pastels of painted mountains, and saguaro cacti stretch their shadows across the sandy wash, creep cautiously through the abandoned ghost towns filled with wrecked cars and faded graffiti looking to scratch up a few drops of life-sustaining water and avoid the alien menace that chased you from the city and into the desert and mountains.
Breathe…
I think, for me anyhow, it is always good to juice your creativity by getting out of your office and out of your habitual life and going somewhere and doing something. I’ve always been a traveler. I like being on the move. I like being able to sit somewhere and observe the people. To just let the experiences flow over and around me and absorb them through the pores of my traveler’s skin.
My best ideas come when I’m not looking for them. You need to create space in your brain and give those good ideas room to move around and germinate.
It’s probably different for others, but when I bare down and try to work through deadlines and deliverables it takes me out of flow state, and I lose creativity – I can still get stuff done but the good stuff bleeds off when constricted by the automation of habit and routine.
I’m not saying you need to sit around and wait for inspiration. On the contrary this is usually the artist’s biggest blunder. You get nothing done without doing the work.
But there’s a balance, and you have to be self-aware enough to know when you need to recharge the batteries – or as Steven Covey said – “Sharpen the saw”.
Anyhow – that’s how I work – it’s a balance between knuckling down and doing the work on schedule and giving my muses some fresh air every once in a while. Drive to a deserted lot, open the doors and let them muses run around a bit.
As a somewhat limited alternative, reading books is a great proxy for direct experience. If you’re a reader, like I am, you can drop into other worlds and other times and other people’s brains for a short safari and find inspiration there.
I read a book every couple of weeks. I listen to one or two audio books a week too. I usually have 2-5 pieces of content going at any point in time.
I won’t trouble you with all of them but will give you a few noteworthy recent examples.
I have been working my way through the 9 books of the Expanse series for a Sci-Fi book club at the library. I’m currently 50 pages or so away from finishing the last book.
It’s been a long ride. I first watched the 6 seasons and 62 episodes of the show, which premiered in 2015 and lasted through 2021. I really liked it. I think those six seasons are still out on Prime if you want to watch them. Really good characters and casting.
The original book series is 9 books. They roughly follow a 3-book cadence, where each 3 books tend to build to a thematic conclusion.
I started reading the books after watching the show and wasn’t disappointed. It’s always a risk consuming one version of a thing, whether it’s books or movies or shows and then hoping to enjoy another version.
But, in this case, the books are good and very complimentary to the show. The authors designed them to be very digestible. Each chapter is told from the viewpoint of a character and each chapter is a tight 2,000-ish words with the books consistently coming in around 500 pages in hard copy.
I’m super interested to see how they close the story arc, because I’m in the same place with our story arc. It’s a challenge to bring a universe to an end-point.
The show version stopped at, roughly, the end of book 6. Which is a decent stopping place. Book 7 picks up with a 30-year time jump for the universe.
As far as I can tell there are lots of rumors but nothing concrete around new seasons or potential movies. A movie with the same character actors would work because of the time-jump – the actors could be older without any discontinuity.
So – yeah – The Expanse – well done and many hours of enjoyment.
Another significant book I listened to on audio recently was Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. I know what you’re thinking - this is totally out of genre for me, but, not really, I historically read ‘classic’ literature however it’s defined.
One of my definitions is that these are books someone was forced to read in school.
Pride and Prejudice lurks on those ‘top books to read’ lists perennially. And I hate to have holes in my lists!
I had been avoiding it because it is so far outside my interest. A Georgian novel about women - uggh. But, I saw it in my Libby app and said to myself ‘Chris, you need to be open minded and make an effort to read outside your comfort zone.’ So I did.
And, I have to tell you it is very well written and funny as hell. There’s a reason this novel has done so well over time. As a bonus the version I listened to was read by a English woman who nailed all the accents and affectations and slyness.
So – yeah – Pride and Prejudice, give it a listen.
Lastly, on this trip, I read a novel called “How it all began.” By Penelope Lively, which is a great name for an English author, isn’t it? Apparently she is quite famous and won the Booker prize. Who knew?
I literally found this book. And again, it might not be something I’d usually read.
The copy I found had been annotated by someone with a pencil. Not heavily. Just some notes here and there. Which is always interesting. To see what someone else was reading and processing.
The novel itself is based in 2011 London. Its premise is the Butterfly Effect. It starts with an older woman being mugged and how that incident is the catalyst that causes ripples across the lives of others.
I had some trouble at first because it is written in a London dialect which has a different beat to it. Took me a while to catchup to it. But, all in all, it was a satisfactory read and an interesting case of using a device to construct a narrative.
Next up for me in “Where the Crawdads Sing” – which so far has some fantastic prose.
But next up for you should be the first book in the After the Apocalypse series – Book One – The old man, that you can purchase at any of your favorite book sellers. My ask this week is to log onto Amazon and leave a 5-star review. I don’t care if you like it or not. This is about naked commercialism.
Leave a review!
We need to get the AI overlords attention!
If anyone would like a signed copy, reach out to me on FaceBook or shoot me an email at cyktrussell at Gmail dot com
And I am hard at work on the follow up. I am about to sign a contract with BookLocker for Book 2. I’m hopeful I can turn that manuscript around in a couple months.
And as the long shadows climb the jumbled desert rocks you need to scramble to find a cave to huddle in for warmth and keep away from the alien drones that sweep the desert for the remaining scraps of humanity. Burrow deeply my friends. Watch out for scorpions and diamond backs and…
Keep surviving.
Comentarios