Cigarfest Weekend and a Lack of Original Post

Since many of my visitors know me from Stogie Review, you are probably well aware of the annual Cigarfest event put on by Cigars International. Just like the last year, I was fortunate enough to attend as a member of the press and report on the event. With Jerry and Brian busy, it was just Mike and I this year. As you can imagine, having spent a weekend in the Poconos working diligently as a member of the press, smoking cigar after cigar, I was a bit short on time for writing something original on my personal blog.

With that said, I thought I would use this opportunity to touch on a couple of things I had in the back of my mind.

Fiction Friday:

I have been participating in Fiction Friday for the past month and have to say, I’m enjoying it immensely. Some weeks are much harder than others when it comes to formulating a story but I manage to learn something new with every passing week. In addition to being fun to write, I also seem to be getting the most comments on those articles, which tells me they are becoming more engaging than other things I’ve written. Because of this phenomenon, I’m going to try and work more creative writing into the mix. I may even increase the post schedule to four days per week instead of three, but that all will come down to how much time I have.

I’m sure when the baby arrives in July things are going to get super-hectic. On the plus side, I’m sure I’ll have loads and loads of amusing stories to tell (which won’t be creative fiction, but it will be fun). For instance, I had no idea how a diaper genie worked. i thought you place the dirty diaper inside and it wrapped the diaper in an air-tight bag so that it could be placed in the garbage and not stink up the place. As it was so colorfully pointed out to me on Twitter, it would seem the device does wrap the diaper to prevent odor from spilling into the house, but it also contains the waste. I’m told that when full you have to remove what looks like a sausage link of foulness. Sounds like fun….. lol

The Baby:

Speaking of the baby, things have been going really well. In fact, I hope all of my wife’s future pregnancies are this easy. She never experienced morning sickness, she doesn’t get weird and crazy cravings that send me running to the local convenience store in the middle of the night, and her mood swings aren’t bad at all. From time to time she will get a bit emotional but it generally lasts for a few minutes and she is back to her normal self.

All of this stuff being easy on her translates to this pregnancy being easy on me as well. With any luck the baby will be just as easy (in terms of sleeping half-decent and what-not). This may be the calm before the storm but I’ve got my fingers crossed.

Reading:

Over the last couple of weeks my reading has slowed down a bit. As a result, my book reviews are naturally coming more few and far between. I just finished Mad Ship, by Robin Hobb, last night. If I can find a little spare time tonight I’d like to record a ten-minute video discussing the book so that i can post the review on Wednesday. I enjoy Hobb’s writing very much but I think I may take a quick side-trip to break up my reading. Jumping right into Ship of Destiny would be fun (I am enjoying the series) but it would be the sixth Hobb book in a row. With that said, I’m going to take a one book break from Hobb, at which point I will return with the final book in the Liveship Traders Trilogy.