Category: Television

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 9

I’d like to say I have a cunning plan, but I don’t.

I’m happily working on the final part of part two, and have just completed two of the three chapters. It was going to be two only, but I’ve found that I need one more. The section is still on the revised plan, though a little longer from fleshing out the plotline.

It reads well, but by the time it’s finished, it will change the start of the third section, which I was outlining, and going back to it, the pages now have lots of scribbles on scribbles and crossings out.

Editing the first and second sections as separate parts had crystallised how the start of the third will proceed, and I find myself going over the outline for later chapters and discovering holes I missed the first time through that can now be filled.

And surprisingly, I have a very clear idea of what will be in the last section, and, in fact, I’ve almost worked it through in my head. I think one night I’ll probably sit up and edit what I have already before it all disappears. I’m sure you all know that feeling when the words are there in your head, and you can almost see them.

Until you wake up and it’s all gone.

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 9

I’d like to say I have a cunning plan, but I don’t.

I’m happily working on the final part of part two, and have just completed two of the three chapters. It was going to be two only, but I’ve found that I need one more. The section is still on the revised plan, though a little longer from fleshing out the plotline.

It reads well, but by the time it’s finished, it will change the start of the third section, which I was outlining, and going back to it, the pages now have lots of scribbles on scribbles and crossings out.

Editing the first and second sections as separate parts had crystallised how the start of the third will proceed, and I find myself going over the outline for later chapters and discovering holes I missed the first time through that can now be filled.

And surprisingly, I have a very clear idea of what will be in the last section, and, in fact, I’ve almost worked it through in my head. I think one night I’ll probably sit up and edit what I have already before it all disappears. I’m sure you all know that feeling when the words are there in your head, and you can almost see them.

Until you wake up and it’s all gone.

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 8

I’m in the middle of writing a new chapter, one that goes back a little in time, but helps set up events that occur later towards the end.

And true to form, it’s going a little off track.

There is scope for it to be a pivotal point in the story, but it’s not quite working out that way.

I’m doing this while I’m waiting for my usual Friday grandchild collection from school. Here I have to get here a half hour before pick up time to get a favourable position in the queue.

So it’s a good time to do some editing.

And it’s where I work on one of my stories, matched to a photo as inspiration.

Not today.

There are pressures in getting the NaNoWriMo project finished, and it’s getting away from me.

This part was not as easy as I hoped, so back to the job. Hopefully, there will be better news tomorrow

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 8

I’m in the middle of writing a new chapter, one that goes back a little in time, but helps set up events that occur later towards the end.

And true to form, it’s going a little off track.

There is scope for it to be a pivotal point in the story, but it’s not quite working out that way.

I’m doing this while I’m waiting for my usual Friday grandchild collection from school. Here I have to get here a half hour before pick up time to get a favourable position in the queue.

So it’s a good time to do some editing.

And it’s where I work on one of my stories, matched to a photo as inspiration.

Not today.

There are pressures in getting the NaNoWriMo project finished, and it’s getting away from me.

This part was not as easy as I hoped, so back to the job. Hopefully, there will be better news tomorrow

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 6

The Maple Leafs are playing, and so I thought I would juggle watching them play and work on my NaNoWriMo project at the same time.

It seemed like a good way to get in 3 hours of work and a little entertainment on the side.

But…

First period down, and the Maple Leafs are 2 goals down.

What I first thought was going to be easy is now becoming mission impossible.

After the second Philadelphia goal, Chester, my stalwart anti-everything cat, comes down to see what the commotion is.  By that I mean, almost yelling at the TV screen.

A lot of good that’s going to do when they’re 12,000 miles away on the other side of the world.

And by the look on Chester’s face, I think he thinks it’s a waste of time too.  Or maybe that’s his usual, I don’t give a $%^^%$ expression he has most of the time.

We have the Philadelphia feed, so we’re getting the joy from the intermission analysts at their team’s lead, but it does take me back to Philadelphia when we were there a few years back, when America was worth visiting, when they cut to shots of the city.

And, of course, instead of having my eyes on the story, I’m now thinking of a subplot, yes, you guessed it, in Philadelphia, which is not very far from New York, where the main action takes place.

Then…

We score.  It’s now a more respectable scoreline, but Anderson has his work cut out for him, and I’m thinking of turning off the sound because I don’t want to hear any more praise for their young stars.

The story proceeds, taking out the outline pages and looking to see where it can fit in.  Yes, I see a gap where I can fit in an interlude and scribble a few notes.

End of the second period.  Still 2 goals to 1 down.

Start of the third period.  Chester decided to jump up on the table and, seeing the pencil sitting there, started to push it around with his paw. I snatch it away, and he gives me a chastising swipe.

Blast him, while my attention was diverted, we score again, and I missed it.  Thank heavens for the replay.  Over and over.

I finish the notes for the interlude, and the game ends in a draw.  We now move to overtime.

I get the first few lines of the chapter I began working on at the start of the game, and just as the words are flowing, overtime ends with no score, and we go into a shootout.  And before you know it, the game’s over, and we’ve lost.

I swear, Chester is smirking, so I pick him up and put him on the floor with a very stern admonishment.

No, I’m not taking the loss badly, but there are a few bad guys about to die horribly.

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 6

The Maple Leafs are playing, and so I thought I would juggle watching them play and work on my NaNoWriMo project at the same time.

It seemed like a good way to get in 3 hours of work and a little entertainment on the side.

But…

First period down, and the Maple Leafs are 2 goals down.

What I first thought was going to be easy is now becoming mission impossible.

After the second Philadelphia goal, Chester, my stalwart anti-everything cat, comes down to see what the commotion is.  By that I mean, almost yelling at the TV screen.

A lot of good that’s going to do when they’re 12,000 miles away on the other side of the world.

And by the look on Chester’s face, I think he thinks it’s a waste of time too.  Or maybe that’s his usual, I don’t give a $%^^%$ expression he has most of the time.

We have the Philadelphia feed, so we’re getting the joy from the intermission analysts at their team’s lead, but it does take me back to Philadelphia when we were there a few years back, when America was worth visiting, when they cut to shots of the city.

And, of course, instead of having my eyes on the story, I’m now thinking of a subplot, yes, you guessed it, in Philadelphia, which is not very far from New York, where the main action takes place.

Then…

We score.  It’s now a more respectable scoreline, but Anderson has his work cut out for him, and I’m thinking of turning off the sound because I don’t want to hear any more praise for their young stars.

The story proceeds, taking out the outline pages and looking to see where it can fit in.  Yes, I see a gap where I can fit in an interlude and scribble a few notes.

End of the second period.  Still 2 goals to 1 down.

Start of the third period.  Chester decided to jump up on the table and, seeing the pencil sitting there, started to push it around with his paw. I snatch it away, and he gives me a chastising swipe.

Blast him, while my attention was diverted, we score again, and I missed it.  Thank heavens for the replay.  Over and over.

I finish the notes for the interlude, and the game ends in a draw.  We now move to overtime.

I get the first few lines of the chapter I began working on at the start of the game, and just as the words are flowing, overtime ends with no score, and we go into a shootout.  And before you know it, the game’s over, and we’ve lost.

I swear, Chester is smirking, so I pick him up and put him on the floor with a very stern admonishment.

No, I’m not taking the loss badly, but there are a few bad guys about to die horribly.

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 4

It’s an unusual topic, but I was looking for a distraction from the rigours of NaNoWriMo, and this fitted the bill perfectly.

For someone who doesn’t really care about sport in general and is rarely able to find the time in between all the writing to actually sit down for several hours, and, in some cases, all day, today seems to have been an exception.

I got through my NaNoWriMo exercise earlier this morning, and since the Maple Leafs were playing today, I thought I’d fire up the computer and take a look at how they’re going.

By the time I’d found the streaming site, the game had started, but it was nil-all, so it was much the same as not missing the start.

I thought it odd that an Australian would be interested in ice hockey, but it seems I’m not alone.  Nor that others barracked for Toronto, Ottawa, and Edmonton, and all seem to dislike the New York Islanders with varying degrees of intensity.

Maybe because they’ve won ten straight games.

So, it takes a long time, almost halfway through the third period, for the first goal, and it’s the opposition, the Vegas Golden Knights.

Damn them.

And now I have this sinking feeling the game might slip away.  Their form can hardly be labelled stellar, and I thought I heard the home crowd booing them, but that must have been my imagination.

No, my dismay is misplaced, there it is, Mathews comes to life and evens up the scoreline.

And for the rest of the period, the goalie keeps the Golden Knights out.  As only the new, is he, goalie can when he’s on his game. Goalies all seem to look the same.

Once again, we’re in overtime, with more heart-in-mouth stuff, and, of course, the man we’ve been missing, Tavares, finally pulls the rabbit out of the hat.

It’s a pity we couldn’t be there in person to see it.

Maybe I could incorporate a hockey game into the spy story…

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 4

It’s an unusual topic, but I was looking for a distraction from the rigours of NaNoWriMo, and this fitted the bill perfectly.

For someone who doesn’t really care about sport in general and is rarely able to find the time in between all the writing to actually sit down for several hours, and, in some cases, all day, today seems to have been an exception.

I got through my NaNoWriMo exercise earlier this morning, and since the Maple Leafs were playing today, I thought I’d fire up the computer and take a look at how they’re going.

By the time I’d found the streaming site, the game had started, but it was nil-all, so it was much the same as not missing the start.

I thought it odd that an Australian would be interested in ice hockey, but it seems I’m not alone.  Nor that others barracked for Toronto, Ottawa, and Edmonton, and all seem to dislike the New York Islanders with varying degrees of intensity.

Maybe because they’ve won ten straight games.

So, it takes a long time, almost halfway through the third period, for the first goal, and it’s the opposition, the Vegas Golden Knights.

Damn them.

And now I have this sinking feeling the game might slip away.  Their form can hardly be labelled stellar, and I thought I heard the home crowd booing them, but that must have been my imagination.

No, my dismay is misplaced, there it is, Mathews comes to life and evens up the scoreline.

And for the rest of the period, the goalie keeps the Golden Knights out.  As only the new, is he, goalie can when he’s on his game. Goalies all seem to look the same.

Once again, we’re in overtime, with more heart-in-mouth stuff, and, of course, the man we’ve been missing, Tavares, finally pulls the rabbit out of the hat.

It’s a pity we couldn’t be there in person to see it.

Maybe I could incorporate a hockey game into the spy story…

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 1

I’m supposed to be writing my quota of words for NaNoWriMo, but there’s a problem.

After a late night, the Maple Leafs are playing the Philadelphia Flyers at 9 am our time, Brisbane, so I’ve got to get up and put it on.

And yes, the usual problem crops up: the internet is running slowly, and connecting to the live feed is traumatic. It starts working, just in time for the national anthems, and once again, we can hear that of our adopted country, Canada.

Then we get to see the first few minutes before the internet dies. What can you expect when the government takes on a huge infrastructure project? Delays, cost overruns, and compromises are expected as it looks to rein in costs. Result: an internet that’s utter crap.

We get to see parts of the first period, none of the second. I call my daughter, who’s as invested in ice hockey as we are, and she tells us she’s using a different host. We change, and it all comes good, so much so we get to see the last period, the overtime, and then an exemplary bout of goalkeeping from Frederick Anderson, opps, sorry, he’s moved on, and it’s someone else, to win us the game in the shootout.

By that time it’s afternoon.

Time for writing? No. I have to make some meatball pasta with spaghetti for tonight.

That consumes the next couple of hours.

Perhaps it’s for the best. I’ve got a title and a few scribbled notes about a tired spy, and never being let off the hook. Getting that start, sometimes, is harder than the next 400 pages. As for words written, maybe later.

NaNoWriMo – April – 2026 – Day 1

I’m supposed to be writing my quota of words for NaNoWriMo, but there’s a problem.

After a late night, the Maple Leafs are playing the Philadelphia Flyers at 9 am our time, Brisbane, so I’ve got to get up and put it on.

And yes, the usual problem crops up: the internet is running slowly, and connecting to the live feed is traumatic. It starts working, just in time for the national anthems, and once again, we can hear that of our adopted country, Canada.

Then we get to see the first few minutes before the internet dies. What can you expect when the government takes on a huge infrastructure project? Delays, cost overruns, and compromises are expected as it looks to rein in costs. Result: an internet that’s utter crap.

We get to see parts of the first period, none of the second. I call my daughter, who’s as invested in ice hockey as we are, and she tells us she’s using a different host. We change, and it all comes good, so much so we get to see the last period, the overtime, and then an exemplary bout of goalkeeping from Frederick Anderson, opps, sorry, he’s moved on, and it’s someone else, to win us the game in the shootout.

By that time it’s afternoon.

Time for writing? No. I have to make some meatball pasta with spaghetti for tonight.

That consumes the next couple of hours.

Perhaps it’s for the best. I’ve got a title and a few scribbled notes about a tired spy, and never being let off the hook. Getting that start, sometimes, is harder than the next 400 pages. As for words written, maybe later.