This is a post I’ve been meaning to make for a while.
Three years ago, as I was about to thirty-four, I was in bad shape. I don’t know what my weight was, exactly, but I’d say it was around 215 lbs. Maybe more. Add in a was working a job where I had regular access to donuts, and I was on a bad track. And here’s the other thing: my writing was totally shot. I would, on a regular basis, not even have the drive to open the file of what I was “working” on, let alone actually write. For weeks at a time, I would write absolutely nothing.
Shortly after that, I got my act together. Tomorrow I turn thirty-seven, and I can honestly say I’m probably in the best shape of my life. I’m weighing 188, and far more of that is muscle than used to be. I eat far less red meat, far more vegetables and fiber, and very few refined sugars. Junk food is right out. I spent the spring break vacation hiking in Big Bend.
And in these three years, I finished Crown of Druthal, which was the thing I had been working on, in some way or another, for years. I wrote Thorn of Dentonhill and Holver Alley Crew, and outlined out further installments of both series. Maradaine Constabulary is a work in progress. Vanguard and USS Banshee both have strong outlines. I have a piece in an upcoming Norton Anthology. I’ve been invited to submit to another anthology. Things are moving forward in the business of my writing.
Are these two things connected? I think so. I feel better about myself, as well as having more energy and vitality, which all gets translated into creativity. Plus, once you start to change your life, it’s easier to make all the rest of the dominoes fall.