The 31 day countdown began on December 1, 2023. I thought I could do it…write my next blog post before the holidays. After all, twelve years ago I began blogging once a week. A few years later it reduced to bi-weekly and finally a couple of years ago it dwindled down to once a month. Sounds easy enough. Right? Except the clock’s ticking again…

this time it’s been nearly two months since my last post even though there were sixty-two days between December 1st and January 31st – plenty of time for an idea to funnel from the heavens into my brain thru my fingers and onto the keyboard. That’s 1,488 hours! Minus an average of 434 hours spent sleeping, that would leave me with 1,054 to bang out a post or two to fulfil my commitment to you, my intrepid follower, and myself.

Yet, with 8.5 hours to go until the calendar page turns to February, here I sit…not reading a book, as I am in my cameo appearance in my daughter-in-law’s debut early reader “My Day With Dad”, but checking out a few bloggers that I follow to distract me from my conundrum.

I’ve barely begun reading when an idea beckons from Michael Fedison’s post today on THE EYE-DANCERS. It addresses editing and revision (I suggest you check him out), and holds the tiny golden nugget of inspiration I’ve been panning for all morning. Small in size, literally, it stands out like a Meyer lemon bobbing in a sea of Hass avocados.

It’s not a word, but a symbol,
^
a caret, not to be confused with carat, karat,
or the pronunciation of the root vegetable. This caret is the mark
placed below the line to indicate a 
proposed insertion in a printed or written text.

Whew…thank you Mark!

Now that I’ve finally gotten something down on proverbial paper, my gaze is drawn to tile work we’re having done in our kitchen. I’m reminded of the new word I learned yesterday. Schluter! Go ahead, say it a few times fast. Schluter! Schluter! Schluter! That was fun, right? If you’re like me and have no clue what that is…the schluter finishes off the edge of tile work when you’re not using a bullnose. It looks like this

not this

Okay…I might have gone a bit too far with that one, but it proves some idea threads are better buried…in a shallow grave, in case you need to dig them up at a later date. It also shows that it took a lot of courage to share my attempt at relieving the guilt I’m feeling for not coming up with something better today.

I suppose I could have waxed on about visiting the Frankfurt Book Fair last October where Carla Haslbauer, the illustrator for my debut picture book THERE ARE NO DRAGONS IN THIS BOOK, was awarded the Serafina Illustrators Award for Young Talent…

Serafina Award

Pre-Fair Days for Industry Professionnals

Photographer Patrick Reyman sets up prize

Dr. Stefan Hauck announces Carla is the winner

Days when open to the public

but that felt too much like shameless self-promotion. Oh, did I mention that Carla was chosen for the 2024 Bologna Illustrators Exhibition where DRAGON will be on display in April? KUDOS to CARLA!

I promise to do better next month. For now though, besides the holidays and reminding people the english version of THERE ARE NO DRAGONS IN THIS BOOK published by NorthSouth Books is available here for pre-order until its release on March 5th, have a look at what’s really been time consuming these last two months…

Thank you Dear Reader
for your support and for stopping by today.
Be Well
and
❤️ Happy New Year ❤️