A Splintered Mind

7:21 PM: Hello, Tuesday! It’s time to write before you turn into Wensday. Just for your information, I won’t be writing these posts on Sundays. And yesterday’s excuse for not writing was an umbilical hernia. I’m patiently awaiting surgery for next month and moved a heavy box absentmindedly. How could I forget that I had a hernia? Well, I certainly remembered in a hurry once I injured myself. You know those core exercises done on exercise balls? The kind that were all the rage in the aughts? I always found them rather lightweight. I had no idea how much I used my abs to sit and type until I couldn’t do it yesterday. Very painful. But who cares about my pain, right? You’re here to read about how I manage writing a book while dealing with depression or ADHD. Tonight I write a hoary tale of how one moment of ADHD can come back to haunt us months later. I discovered to my horror that I had no idea where all my graphics were for my latest book...

8:26 PM: Today was a day of recuperation. After my all-nighter Thursday night, I needed it. I slept until eleven. I didn’t dress until noon. I had pizza for breakfast. I played video games with my daughter. I got a haircut. I had a very laid back day. After periods of intense hyperfocus, I find I need to let my brain spin. I set a limit, then proceed to unwind. We can’t fight ADHD all the time . Breaks are OK, I promise. By the time my daughter left, I had two hours before my friends came over, so I thought “Enough rest!” and I got to work. I thought I was wicked productive! You can probably imagine me with a smug smirk of accomplishment. The very first thing I wanted to do was delete my book project ToDo list. I had no need of it now, and I had already begun book three yesterday. I opened the list up to see if any stray tasks needed to be moved to another list before I chucked it into the void, when I noticed something: I hadn’t done anything on the ...

5:22 PM: Success! I published Trading Up to Legendaries in Seven Easy Steps: A Pokémon Trading Guide for Parents & Gamers early this morning. Then I crashed harder than Dow Jones after America made Brexit great again. I woke up just as my daughter arrived home from school. I am waiting for the book to appear on the various ebook stores. Then I’ll post two new landing pages: one for the book, and one for all my books. Hey! I have two of them now. They go together like peanut butter and jelly fish, but it’s uniquely me. I began my freelance writing career by reviewing video games, so this isn’t so far off topic for me. Next, I will work on rebranding my mental health book to be written by “D.R. Cootey”, upload a new cover, maybe spruce up the descriptions, then get busy working on the hard copy version. My goal is to have that ready by the time I turn 50. But for NOW, we have Pokémon in Alola to capture. I’ll be going. ♪ Listening to: Space a...

Mental Health & Self-Help Gaming Fiction Benjamin Fudge is coming soon…

A Pokémon Trading Guide for Parents & Gamers! Do you wish you understood Pokemon better, but don’t know where to look? Maybe you already know how to play the game, but want to understand better how to utilize the in-game online trading systems. POKÉMON LEGENDARIES IN 7 EASY STEPS will get you up to speed quickly. It discusses in-game trading from a parent’s perspective, then teaches you how to trade for Legendaries! Here’s what you’ll find inside: Game the in-game trading systems! Exclusive trading tips that will score you Legendary Pokémon in seven easy steps! The first half of the book is for parents & beginners The last half of the book is for advanced gamers Works with Pokémon X & Y as well as Pokémon Omega Ruby & Alpha Sapphire! Tutorials on Wonder Trade and the Global Trade System for parents Tips on how to help your children trade safely in-game Explanations of key Pokémon game mechanics to help parents play along with their children Tables t...

3:39 PM: One of the reasons I don’t attempt NaNoWriMo anymore is because of family. I’m a stay-at-home dad, so I’m on duty all day long. If I’m not ticking, it’s family drama. There’s always something pulling me away from my work. Finding focus is so stupendously difficult. This afternoon was no different. My iPhone jangled, and I saw that my daughter’s school was calling. Every time they call, a momentary panic surges through my body as I worry if my daughter is having another seizure. Today, her teacher called to ask if I could pick her up from school instead of letting her take the bus. She was sick and in pain. So off to school I went! But not before helping my dad move a car in his driveway while fielding a call from my daughter’s therapist. I arrived on time, but then traffic…life…more talking…taking care of my daughter…taking care of my daughter…taking care of…you get the idea. I’m finally sitting down to finish laying ou...

3:07 AM: It’s time to begin anew my writing in a fishbowl project. The last time was a disaster. I simply couldn’t pack to move, deal with my daughter’s issues, deal with my own disabilities, and write. One aspect of these writing experiments is to set big goals to learn what my limits are. I shot for the stars and hit a ceiling just as I left the launchpad. Kinda discouraging. However, my first efforts to hold myself publicly accountable on this blog worked out so well. I truly believe lightning can strike twice. Blog Milestone My blog will cross over 500,000 unique visitors next month. This is an amazing milestone to reach. I have all of you to thank. Please keep sharing your favorite articles and spreading the word. In this day of Facebook and their filtering, the little guys need all the help they can get to be noticed. Blog Comments I disabled Disqus because people complained they couldn’t use it. Then I discovered that I couldn’t restore Bl...

I want to explore the latest video the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put up online. I am not usually a fan of the Mormon Channel videos. They are often shot in a way that grates on my nerves because of their affected nature. Perhaps the heavy-handed sentimentality feels mawkish to me, as if the subject is delivered on the pages of a scrapbook photo album, turned in slow motion to stirring background music. I will tell you that I am very much alone in this regard. I know many people who absolutely adore this style of religious communication. I was prepared to bail on this latest video as white, anti-depressant pills artfully cascaded across a white background striped with soft shadows, accompanied by dramatically swelling music, but the story of Heather and her thoughts on depression clung to me. I couldn’t easily shake them off. Heather spoke of a conversation she had with her doctor where she was resistant to the idea of being medicated. She felt that her fai...