Edmund Lloyd Fletcher's Blog

 Hey everybody!

Just wanted to check in.  It is November, which, you may know means NaNoWriMo, aka National Novel Writing Month, aka "write an entire book in one month", aka "interrupt me, and YOU DIE month".

Usually I blog on the experience, but this year, as of yet, I have not.  The reason for that is simple:  I decided to go ahead and catch the coronavirus in the start of November.  Yeah, that's right, I'm doing the craziness of NaNo, WHILE sick with the pandemic.  Ain't that nice!

To be honest, I don't even know where or how I caught it.  We hadn't been going out hardly at all.  I'm still trying to scrape together a living from home (programmer for hire, if you happen to know anybody!) meanwhile the kids are all homeschooled.

But yeah, all that and it hit us just the same.

 

So what was COVID like?

Those of you who have blessedly avoided catching it, may be wondering what having the disease was actually like.  Personally, I didn't think it was *all that* horrible.  Just like a bad flu, really.

Now, back when we caught H1N1, that dude was really bad!  It was less like the flu and more like being whacked with a gunny sack full of bricks.  Oh, and at the time we had a newborn in the house we were trying to keep from getting sick, so... apparently we like to do these things at the worst possible time.

Even though the virus wasn't as much a horror movie as the media might lead you to believe, it does hit the lungs especially hard.  I suppose in that regard I can see how it could be especially dangerous to the elderly and those with breathing problems.  Not that I recommend it in general, you understand.

All in all, I think my NaNoWriMo progress graph also serves as a great graph of how you feel with the virus.

Ignoring the little bump at the start (I slammed out some ideas in Oct to get a feel for whether I would like doing this story or not).

Other than that, notice the complete flatline up until Nov 9.  Then a little boost...  A little virus biting back... then a gradual recovery.  Yep.  That's about what it was like health-wise (as well as writing-wise).

The main thing I can say for those diagnosed with COVID is:  You know how one of the symptoms they list is "lack of taste".  (I'm an engineer, so it's like, "What?  I didn't have any taste to start with!"

First off, how 'bout that image, eh?

Context - My personal story:

Okay, this isn't a fitness blog, but here's the deal.  Lately I've been trying to think of ways to get in better shape.  This spring I've been going on a 5-mile walk every day, which has been good, but now it's time for something more.

Just for a frame of reference, back in highscool/college when I used to work out, I weighed a pretty consistent 180.  A few years ago when I was a software engineer, sucking exhaust fumes for two hours a day and sitting behind a desk for the rest, take-out lunch meetings, snacks in the breakroom... you get the picture.  In short, I was up to 215 with some serious muffin-top going on. That's a good way to have your heart explode and keel over dead. (I think my obituary would simply be a picture of Twinkie the Kid, and that would explain that.)

Since coming home and chasing kids and chasing around the homestead every day, I'd dropped to 190.  That is, 189.6 to be precise, which I was on last Friday morning when I began the FMD fast.  (Stay tuned for results...)

FMD?  What's that?

Now, back up a little.  What is FMD?  Well, I explain it this way:  Think about most of the diets currently circulating out there -- Keto, Vegetarian/Vegan, Calorie Counter (such as Weight Watchers), and of course there's also an emphasis on "intermittent fasting".  Well, which do you choose?

An Italian dude named Dr. Valter Longo came along and decided to smoosh them all into one, called the FMD (Fast Mimicking Diet).  How he arrived at this, is he is actually a Gerontologist studying how humans age, and therefore, how they can keep their bodies young.  A big part of his plan is to do an FMD, approximately every other month, claiming that it can act as a "reset button" for your whole system.

Naturally, being a 40's-something, this appeals to me.  The weight loss aspect appeals to me as well.  But most importantly, the "system reset" appeals to me.  Without being overly graphic about it, let's just say I've developed "digestive issues" later in life.  (I apologize for the TMI, but it's hard to accurately talk about one's personal biology without getting... biological... about it.)

And just as an FYI, here are some of the most useful resources I found to implement this:
Prolon - worth mentioning, this is Dr Longo's official packaged meals system.Cronometer - good online tool for planning meals. It adds up calories as well as the amount of each nutrient you're getting (which is emphasized as very important to the diet)ageingadvice.org - has some great recipes for things you can make for this dietforeverfreedom.com - created and shared a great google docs spreadsheet that helps you plan thigs out day-by-dayQuantified Bob - has an alternative google docs spreadsheet you may also like instead

Finally, here is my spreadsheet of the exact diet plan that I used (based on the foreverfreedom spreadsheet above).

Anyway, after all that research I decided to bite the proverbial low-calorie bullet give it a whirl.  Here's the...

Day-by-day summary:

Day 1 - (Fri, April 24, 2020):
Is actually a higher-calorie day than the rest of the diet.  I can't say anything was much different at all.

My daily walk did just fine as well.

Day 2 - (Sat, April 25, 2020):Though the portions were greatly reduced, I did not feel hungry in the slightest, but right away some serious stuff started happening.

I  don't know if you guys have heard of the "Keto Flu" - basically flu-like symptoms can occur when your body is entering a state of ketoisis (that is, burning fats instead of carbohydrates for energy).  That's a pretty dry & mild definition though.  Suffice it to say I had the granddaddy of all headaches.  On top of that, I also had diarrhea which, as aforementioned, is not uncommon.  I also had a fever.

Day 3 - (Sun, April 26, 2020):
Woke up without a  headache, which after last night, made me feel like Maria Von Trapp out twirling in a meadow somewhere.  I thought I had a sore throat, but may have been the power of suggestion.  Anyway, I wasn't going to argue with a good thing.

Felt mildly hungry at times, but not like, "Ooh!  I'm staaarving...!".  More like taking a late lunch kind of hungry.

The hard part is the temptation.  My son decided to make a peach pie.  That was TORTURE.

That night I had a bout of insomnia and stayed up all night coding.  0% tired, and 0% tired the next day.  This is extremely peculiar for me since I tend to have the opposite problem.  Normally when my body says "sleep", I'm out, and nothing short of heavy artillery fire can wake me.

Day 4 - (Mon, April 27, 2020):
 The day was mostly like yesterday.  Not much to report.

The night, however...
Monday is mommy+daddy date night, and, how should I put this mildly...?  On the FMD, they say mild exercise only and avoid strenuous activity. Well, Mommy and daddy enjoyed a great deal of, *ahem*, "strenuous activity".  (Again, apoligies for the TMI.  I just don't know any more tactful way of saying that, and it is relevant to the diet.)

The thing is, with the FMD, you are depleted of calories and only have so much energy.  To put it bluntly, engaging in an all-nighter at this point completely wipes you of all energy you have left and leaves you unable to function the next day. 

Day 5 - (Tue, April 28, 2020):
 Spent most of the day in bed for lack of energy.  I started streaming "Mutant X", which, despite being a flagrant X-men knock-off by the Canadians, was pretty good...  Well, from what I could tell, anyway.  Kept falling asleep... during the daytime!

I tried to get up a couple of times, but felt immediately woozy.  Not cool.

In fact, I discovered a new way that coffee can keep you awake. True story! How it works is:
1) you're barely conscious, so you beg your daughter to bring in some java
2) she heats some up but gets it blisteringly hot
3) you hang onto it waiting for it to cool whilst watching a show about mutants (last part, optional)
4) you fall asleep
5) you wake up to pain and screaming!

 Well, since I was awake, I went on my walk.  Totally and completely without energy after that, but managed to make it till bedtime without total collapse.

Day 6 - (Wed, April 29, 2020):
Today is the "transition" day.  It technically isn't part of the diet because you can eat whatever you want.  They recommend treating it a little special and avoiding meats, dairy, etc. just because they don't want your stomach to revolt.

Since it's officially over now, this brings us to...

The Results:

I weighed in this morning at 184.2 pounds.  Which gives us a total weight loss of... drumroll, please... 5.4 pounds!!!

Wait.  All that rigmarole for just 5 pounds?  Well, I *guess* that's good, but meh.  I'm looking back at all these websites and youtubes I saw in preparation for this, which claim 15 or more pounds.  Granted, maybe their metabolism is different than mine, but the situation makes me feel like a referee about to throw the B.S. flag on the field.

Meager results, but I suppose it's good.  As Bob would say, "baby steps".

As far as what it was doing health-wise?  Hard to say for sure.  My body definitely went on a wild rollercoaster of different feelings, so something was definitely going on there.  Was this the famed "reset button" of myth and legend?  I guess I can't say.  I'll come back and update this with status later whether this makes a noticeable difference in my everyday metabolism.

Conclusion:

The fast wasn't all that bad, nor as extreme as the interwebs led me to believe.  Again, any hunger experienced was a rare occurrence and pretty mild at that.  I was able to stick to the diet verbatim without cheats, and maintained my usual daily walks without much trouble.

Was it worth it?/Would I recommend it to you?  Yeah, maybe.  There was certainly some progress, and I think that just seeing what would happen was a good experience.  Who knows, maybe your results would come out even better than mine!  I also learned a lot of great new recipes, including cucumber gazpacho soup (again, that's from agingadvice.org), so the time was not wasted.

Am I, personally, going to do it again in two months as prescribed?   Don't know for sure, but probably not.  I've decided on a wild new personal fitness goal, which is probably incompatible, and which I will be unveiling soon.  Follow me on social media for the deets as they unfold. ;)

Also, feel free to hurl some questions/comments my way if there's something I missed.

Till next time,
Live YOUR adventure!
-E.L. Fletcher

SARS, Bird Flu, West Nile Virus... It seems like every few years there is some new dread disease that is going to kill us all. Yet as of the time of this article none has had the same level of cultural impact as the latest plague du jour, coronavirus. (One might even say it has gone... viral.

One of my major writing inspirations died this week. :_(

His story:Multiple bestselling action/adventure author Clive Cussler died on Monday in his Arizona home. The facts surrounding that can be easily found on your mainsleaze news media of choice or wikipedia, but I wanted to chime into the conversation with my take on his work and how it has influenced my own.
  First, if you're not familiar with his work, his books are very action-packed and have often been described as "a cross between James Bond and Indiana Jones". That is, he is always out to save the world from megalomaniac baddies like Bond, but on the other hand, there is always a historical mystery element to piece together like Indy. (Sound familiar to anybody we know?)
That was the fiction he wrote, but what the casual reader might not know this: Cussler didn't only write about uncovering history, but actually did so, himself! He was an antique automobile collector and underwater explorer who went on several amazing adventures. (His autobiography is one of my favorites.) 
He even founded his own exploration group named NUMA, after the fictional (albeit better funded) one from his stories. 
One thing that will always stick with me is how he talks about a little speech he had with his crew. 
My rendition: So he had hired a large oceangoing vessel and crew and was supposed to meet up with them. The water was choppy that day as he approached the exploration vessel in his little motorboat. With the rolling waves and rope ladder he had a hard time getting aboard. 
Rather than lend a hand, the rough sailors only laughed at his attempts to climb up. 
Livid, he gathered the entire crew together for a meeting. 
He held up his right hand and said to them, "See this hand? I don't care what you do on this boat. I don't care what you do to the ship, to eachother, even to me. But whatever you do... you want to save this hand right here." 
Sure enough one of the sailors bit. "And why the [explicitve] would we save that hand?" 
He looked them in the eye and said, "Because that's the hand that writes the checks!"After that they took a lot better care of him. :)
And speaking of an author living his adventure... 
My story:As for me I finally decided to become an author when I was commuting back and forth into the city every day (an hour each direction on a good day). 
Needless to say, I had a lot of time to kill. Evenings were no problem as I had Brant Hanson to listen to on the radio -- my favorite DJ of all time, hands down. But in the mornings I needed something to occupy my mind other than talk radio (which had a way of wrecking my attitude). 
Inevitably, being an avid reader, I finally turned to books on tape. Round-about way of saying, I wound up listening to most of Clive Cussler's repitore while staring at the taillights of the car in front of me. 
While going through the books I often thought, "Wow! My boys would love these!" But then there was always that "one scene"... you know, where Dirk Pitt winds up sleeping with a married woman in a Titanic stateroom or somesuch other horrible thing. 
Then, in stepped a Christian filmmaker colleague who posted a meme, "Create the things you wish existed." 
That was it. Over the next several months I sat in the "hot box" (my car in the parking lot at lunch times) banging away on what would become my first release, "Queen of Atlantis". 
In short: all the adventure with none of the cringe. 
Even though I went an all new direction with the stories, there were three characters in the series which were based around Cussler's world, as a silent omage to the books' inspiration.

Two of these were Michael and Melinda Moast, themselves. They were based in part on Sam and Remi Fargo from one of Cussler's serieses. 
I liked the idea of a married couple who "do adventure" together. It completely dovetails into the Christian view of marriage. What's more, I think that living through the ups-and-downs of the adventure of life together is really what a healthy marriage is all about.
The third character adaptation is... well... I can't tell you. It's kind of an "easter egg" in the books, so I don't want to spoil it. I'll leave it to you guys to speculate. (Heh, heh, heh!) ;)
In conclusion:We lost a very talented author and dynamic personality, without whom, most likely, my own works would not even exist.  Mr Cussler, we salute you!

Now it is up to you and I to...
Live your adventure,
- E.L. Fletcher

The main purpose of this post is not only to check in but also to provide a little more information around what "Edmund Lloyd Fletcher" is about as an author.

Backing up a step, I was recently reading an ebook that said, "the reason why most authors fail is that they do not treat their writing career like a business".  The book went on to explain how most authors don't have a business plan. 

...Which I also didn't! *Ghasp!*

Therefore I freaked out, dropped everything, and wrote one up.  Even being only a few hours old, I feel like it has already helped to provide some guidance and direction.

I thought it would be a great idea to share the business plan here on the website so my readers can get to know me and what I'm about.  Also, I think that other authors can benefit as far as inspiration in making up their own plan.

(Naturally there are some portions I've held back from posting online, but I've left the headings in place for you authors out there.)

Business plan - Edmund Lloyd FletcherMission statementTo fill the under-served niche of Christian-based novels with high levels of action and excitement.  Moreover, to encourage Christians to live the adventure of following God's call. Tag line / MottoLive YOUR adventure!Core values
Compelling stories that make the reader think about life.Flawed, but faithful heroes that the reader can identify personally with.Villains so "reasonable" in their thought processes that the reader can identify with.Clean from sexual content and perverse speech. (Even including pseudo-cusswords.)Portray worlds in keeping with the Christian worldview. (eg. Magic is always evil, etc)Encourage the reader to get out there and live the adventure of life!Message should flow in a non-preachy way such that a complete atheist could read the bookTarget audience
Faithful ChristiansAvid readersprimarily young adult eager for adventures of lifealso older people "stuck in a rut" and desiring adventureAvailable assets
programming skillswife with people skills + facebook skillskids with vivid imaginationkids who are readersold christian film contactschurch familyShort-term goals
Release a book every three monthsTeach classes (how to publish your own book in today's world)Speaking events?Long-term goals
20 novelsUltimate goal
To be able to make a living from my writing.Syndicate "Edmund Lloyd Fletcher"Action plan
Get The Third Crown out ASAP!... [other items redacted] ...Support teamPotential writing partners[redacted]
Beta readers[redacted]
Editors[redacted]
Reviewers (send advanced-reader copies)[redacted]
Promotion Locations[redacted]
Advertising Locations[redacted]

Okay, that title may or may not have been written by my inner cheerleader. 

And, I'm going to need her, because NaNoWriMo is in full-swing!  To compound matters, this is the most pantster I have ever gone.  I literally started out with nothing but an idea -- no characters, no scene ideas, no nothing!

Day 1 is down, and despite starting out at absolute zero
I actually made (and exceeded) my word count today!

Also, you may be curious, "Hey, what idea is he doing, anyway?  Last I heard he was still deciding".

Too true.  Thank you everybody who voted!  Unfortunately the votes were pretty much neck-and-neck, so it literally came down to a coin toss.  As I told DW as she was flipping, "Wouldn't it be wild if this book totally takes off and people want to know 'how did you decide...' "  That would be a fun story.

Anyway, without further vindaloo, the idea that won both the votes and the toss was #2, the war between fantasy realms.  Here's the working cover I hacked together last night.

Strangely, it turned out having the "feel" of an indie CD cover to me.  Oh well.  Works for now.

Plus, if you're good at reading the clues, you can figure out which fantasy realms are at war here. ;) ;)

So, hopefully somewhere in the mishmash lies a story you'll one day enjoy reading!  Till then, if you're also a NaNoWriMo participant, feel free to "buddy" me on there.  My account is, of course, "Edmund Lloyd Fletcher".


Thanks, and Live YOUR Adventure,
-E.L. Fletcher

 Uh oh! It's that time of year again!
 Yep NaNoWriMo, the legendary "National Novel Writing Month" is upon us once again.  Of course, I still haven't finished editing and publishing the 3 books from the past NaNo experiences, but I prefer not to dwell on the... present. :D
And like last year I'm going to open it up to you, my friends and fans, to vote on what story you most want to see!
Here are our options:1) Giant rock beasts with villagers living on their back. Goal of the beasts is to fight one another in a Highlander-esque “In the end, there can be only one” scenario.  This would be a trilogy, progressively insane in scale of the beasts and the stakes for the people involved.
2) A fantasy war story between two fairytale realms — that is told as an actual war story.  What I mean by that is less “battle of the 5 armies” and more “saving private ryan”.  Like an in-the-trenches viewpoint.

3) I have an entire file cabinet full of sci-fi stuff from way back in highschool when I was into that.  Someday I need to sort that out, clean it up (it was written in my BC days), and do something with it.  Not looking forward to this mess, but it needs to be done.


I think the easiest way to tabulate results would be to head on over to the poll on my facebook page.

 
Get it?  Because it's a Beta fish...

Books, marketing, and a Bible lesson (that should scare you a little)
If you're like me, it means you love to create; build things; innovate; put the pieces together and come up with something great.  I mean, that's what drives us, right?

The trouble is at some point or another, we have to make money to, you know, eat.  That means selling/marketing our work.  It means *distant shriek* actually talking to people.

If we've gone the traditional publisher route, we can (but probably shouldn't) assume that they'll take care of some of that.  And, of course, if we self-publish we're all on our own.

Either way, our marketing approach usually remains the same:  Ignore it and hope it goes away.  After all, our book is so awesome people will find it and buy it.  Riiight...