Keith's January Newsletter

“Hey Keith, isn’t this newsletter two days late?”

“No, it’s not. You’re confused. You think it’s February but it’s January still. It has alwasy been January, and it will always be January.”

Welcome my friends to 2025, and the month that never ends. Settle in, it’s going to be a long (four) year(s). At some point it will turn into Easter or something, but for now enjoy your everlasting January.

Plugging Away

I’ve been taking ultra strong vitamin D every day now for a few months, to try to combat the yearly SADs. The lack of sunlight during winter is especially tough on me. It gets me down, and I end up dull and lethargic. That coupled with the new job, which is a real struggle at the moment, has made life very tough for me. But you keep going don’t you, because really what else can you do?

One of the things I want to do with this new city/new job is to get out and about more. When I moved to Leeds during covid I got used to staying in all the time, and as a result I ended up with one local friend. I don’t want to do the same in Manchester. So when someone from work suddenly invited me to go to a jazz club I said yes.

We had a good night, and I had one of the best Fiorentina pizzas I’ve ever had, which came as a complete surprise. Hopefully we can do it again.

I also met up with a friend of a friend the other week, which was really nice. Unfortunately I was so tired and out of sorts (see above) that I babbled and was not present in the moment. It didn’t help that I still had/have a lingering cough from new year’s. I hate that these things take so long to go for me.

News From The Steam Factory

Writing-wise I’m still plugging away on Odds Bodkin And The Night Mayor Of London. I’m up to 26,000 words and it’s going really well. In fact the stuff I wrote yesterday was so good it’s made me lose confidence in the rest of the book, which is a pain. Anyway I’m sure I’ll get over it. It can’t all be fried gold after all.

There’s not much more to say on it for now, this is the long boring phase of writing where you just have to get the words down (boring for everyone else, fun for me), so to keep things interesting here are a few out of context quotes that I’ve shared online over the past month.

NB: These are unedited, as written on the day.

Any of the Brits out there recognise anyone? 😏

When I’m Not Writing

I don’t have a specific recommendation for you this month, I’m sorry. This is a get through it month, so I’m just doing whatever I need to do to get through.

I’m dipping in and out of my To Be Read pile (above), I’ve been watching Vox Machina S3 and Secret Level on Prime because I got a couple of months cheap at Christmas for deliveries, I’m watching my usual Cracking The Cryptic on YouTube, and I’ve been playing a lot of Assassin’s Creed Origins, sometimes staying up until 4am (not by choice) which isn’t doing anyone any favours.

The point is, if there even is a point, is sometimes it all gets a bit much. Sometimes it’s dark outside, you’re tired, you’re lonely, you don’t know what to do with yourself, and you can barely manage to deal with your own life, let alone other people’s. And when that happens you’ve just got to do what you need to do to get by. Maybe it’s sleep a lot, maybe it’s let the dishes pile up for a while, maybe it’s play Assassin’s Creed until the wee small hours of the morning. Whatever you need to do to get by just do it, and don’t worry about what anyone else thinks. They don’t know you, they don’t know your life, they’ve never walked in your shoes, because if they did they’d understand. We’re all doing the best we can with what we have. If we could do any better we would, and so long as we’re not doing hram to others what does it matter what it looks like to the outside world? You do you, and know that I’m right there with you (even though I’m somewhere else doing me in a completely different way).

Toodle-pip for now.

Keith