Hey readers. Not much to say here. Just sort of a news update. With very little news.

See, Monday started out strong. Solid Being a Better Writer post, planning and catching back up with the Shadow of an Empire paperback to see what had to be done there so the rest of the week could be spent writing and working on that, plus this faint tickle in the back of the throat that was probably just from lack of sleep or something, right?

Yeah, it was not. Instead, that was the first, very early sign of what I would awake to find Tuesday morning: That I was the latest to catch a cold that had swept through a solid chunk of my family already, one that’s expected to be part of this fall’s more nasty cold and flu season. I guess on the bright side I’m getting it out of the way early (and no, it’s not Covid, took the test, so no worries there). But on the other hand … Well, this week saw nothing done Tuesday through Thursday. And I’m not certain I’m going to do any today, though my mind feels a little sharper than the fog it’s carried the last few days.

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Now, to answer the early question that I get almost every time I take a sick break: Why don’t I write while I’m sick? After all, according to people who don’t write for a living, writing is effortless and doesn’t require that much effort, so why would being sick matter?

Because writing does take mental effort, and more importantly a clear head. And I’ve made the mistake—yes, mistake—of writing while my head is fogged and my body sick before. I’ve also come back to that writing after I’ve recovered and realized how absolutely awful it is since my brain was exhausted. All I’ve accomplished writing while sick is tiring myself out, extending the duration of my sickness and with nothing to show for it but trash writing that all gets deleted and rewritten when I recover.

So no, I don’t work while sick. It works about as well as trying to do most other jobs while sick.

Most. A desk dynamo could do the job of most middle management in US, and better, sick or hale.

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Anyway, this week was a wash. Very little got done. Which … is kind of a fit for the month, really. This month marks the lowest book sales I’ve seen in oh, probably about five-six years. We’re talking from hundreds of dollars a month to under that.

Yeah, going to Alaska for a few weeks had a steep cost. Being off the grid, unable to promote books and do the usual day-to-day left a hard negative impact. Which means the challenge for October (and the rest of this month) is going to be to crawl out of that crater and get books moving again.

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Speaking of getting things moving again, there will be another short up on the Patreon soon, most likely sometime next week. It’s one of the more experimental ones, so we’ll see how it goes. As usual, it’ll be in More Unusual Events at some point in the future,

Also, here’s a question for some of you: How would you feel about “Bank of Axtara” t-shirts?