My 2020: Just a normal day -- a writer's life

As a professional writer, I lead an externally uneventful life. I work from home and so the only place I go to, with any regularity, is my imagination :)

A typical morning, I will start my day (around 8:30 am) with warm lemon water and a handful of almonds; on a good day, I'll make a smoothie, like the one below,
with frozen berries and maybe some spinach.

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I'm a slow riser, and take a good hour or so to fully wake up and sit at my desk to work -- which is to say, caffeine is needed. I hardly have coffee, nowadays, and, usually, prefer to sip a strong black tea with mint and honey.

By around 9:30 am, having checked my email and shaken my (typically vivid) dreams from my head, I'm behind my computer screen, dressed and ready.
Here, I am, with my bookshelf behind me for inspiration:

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If I'm lucky, I'll get a visit from my feathered friends, aka pigeons. We live on the top floor of our building and winged things often stop by to catch their breath or hide from circling predators (hawks). Below is a photo of my beloved pigeons monopolizing my writing space (and waving hello to my online friends :)

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Okay, without further ado, it's time to work! If I do not have a paying writing assignment (my last one was a week-long article about Bitcoin mining) I have the luxury to work on my creative writing.

On the eve of 2020, as I was getting ready to head out to a party to flush out the old and ring in the new, I received some excellent news.

A fine publisher has accepted my
latest manuscript, and eighth book —- a collection of essays, fiction & conversations —- for publication!

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This was a very lucky way to start the New Year and Decade and to honor my good fortune, I've been spending a fair amount of time, these past three weeks, polishing my manuscript and readying it for publication. (In fact, if I were not writing this post, that's what I'd be working on, right now ;)

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By around 12:30/1pm, it's time to break for lunch. My wife, who is a financial analyst and also works from home, does not cook -- so, that's my duty.

Typically, we will have leftovers, from last night, or sandwiches for lunch. Since I attempted going vegan, recently, I try to keep our meals healthy, as well as tasty. Here's our lunch, today, salmon with pesto and pasta. (I try to include a nice salad next to it, with spinach, etc... but today we're going simple :)

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I will add in the interest of full disclosure that, if I've not slept well (which is not uncommon) I'll take a 20-minute power nap, after lunch.

By around 2 pm, it's back to work on my manuscript/writing through 5:30 pm or so.
Preferably, I like to work in silence (and require great pools of stillness if I'm really concentrating). Sometimes, if I'm proofing something and don't need intense focus, classical music will help. British-German composer, Max Richter's dreamy, atmospheric music is a recent discovery, for me.

I'm listening to his Blue Notebooks as I write, which I just learned was included, impressively, in The Guardian's list of "The Best Classical Music Works of the 21st century". Have a listen, for yourself to my favorite piece, the exquisite 'On the Nature of Daylight':

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This type of music (without distracting lyrics), works well if I have to do promotional work, for example, to push my books out into the world:

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This might involve reading poetry outloud, making videos for my books, or even writing/publishing new material in journals and magazines to raise the profile of my work.

Here's an example of a book trailer that I co-created with my publishers (Unbound) which I'm fairly pleased with:

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You can find many more readings and short films on my YouTube channel not all literary as you will see -- there's family and animals -- and some videos I created, specifically, for you, Steemians :)
pool

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Okay, so by around 5:30 pm, we're pooped and, desperately, want to look away from our respective computer screens. At which point, my wife emerges from her room/office space and we try to keep one of our 2020 New Year Resolutions: to do more exercise.

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My wife prefers to go the gym and, sometimes, I will join her. But, my workout of choice is swimming and, fortunately, we have a pool in the building. I'll head over there for half an hour or so doing laps and, since this is Florida, possibly, get to hang out with iguanas:

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Check out this video of a larger specimen, a kind of baby dinosaur, that I got to spend time with the other day:

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Energized after my workout, I might try to work on my writing a little longer (might sound boring, but it's serious play for me) and then I begin to prepare dinner around 7:30 pm.

If it's the weekend, we might substitute the pool for the beach. Don't hate me when I say this, but we live 5 minutes away from the ocean!

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Okay, so we've had dinner and it's around 8:30 pm or so, now, what? Well, usually, we are in bed by 10:30 pm, which means we have a couple of hours.

The missus and I are not big TV people, and can do without it for long stretches. But if we don't have company, she's not busy and I'm not in the mood to read or write, we'll watch a movie. Netflix, as you might have heard, is addictive.

The quality of the films, like so much other art, is uneven. And, while I prefer a good book to a crap film, I've watched quite a few compelling documentaries, lately.

For example, I quite enjoyed The Great Hack, about the loss of privacy online and how our data (which is more valuable than oil) is being sold.

It's the latest documentary from award-winning husband and wife duo, and my dear friends, Karim Amer & Jehane Noujaim, and it made the 92nd Oscars Shortlist, weeks ago!

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Part public service announcement, cautionary tale, and rallying cry to know our data rights, ‘Hack’ spells out, starkly, what we darkly suspect about the way we live, now.

If the creepy commodification of your online existence and how private information might be weaponized/used against us concerns you, I urge you to watch this important documentary. Here's a peek:

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But, wait, I cannot (as a reader/writer) recommend a film, without also sharing with you the book that I am reading, now. It's a hefty tome, on a weighty subject -- how to find sustenance and inspiration in the holy books -- and I try to make time for it in the evenings, before I sleep.

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And, now, that I'm mentioned this book, some background about the author. Referred to as "a master explainer of comparative religion" writer Karen Armstrong, is needed more than ever, in our divisive and volatile times.

Armstrong is also the author of fascinating titles, such as The Battle for God: Fundamentalism in Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Buddha, Faith After 11 September and A Short History of Myth.

In her books, and public speaking, Armstrong makes a compelling case for why the fault is in us, not our faith--especially, on the subject of Islam, which she has written about with much sensitivity. You can watch her stirring TED Talk on compassion, here:

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Alright, that's all I got & it's bedtime, now... Yawn Thank you, for sharing my day. I hope that it's been of some interest to you and I look forward to learning about yours :)

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For information on how to enter this contest, please, read this post by @anomadsoul & many thanks, to @ocd-witness and @blocktrades for making it possible!