In this work-in-progress update, I explore the impact of writing routines on creativity and navigation of the publishing journey (indie vs. traditional routes). I ask how long it should take to write a middle-grade novel and the benefit of taking time with the writing process.

I love Dwayne Johnson movies. It took a forced sabbatical to watch one that’s been out for ten years.

I’m going to explain what happens to our brains in very simple and easy to understand terms. I’m also going to express why I think understanding this is crucial to parents.

My podcast, Henry’s Cabin, is now live. A safe haven hidden in a vast wilderness. Some may stumble across it and choose to continue wandering the endless forest. Others may open the door and decide they prefer a hotel. But I hope those seeking what’s offered inside will come in, find a chair by the fire, and feel at home as I talk about my own life philosophy, parenting, books, and habits of growth. I will share shortcuts and truths I find along the way.

I say yes when my child crawls in my lap with a book, even when the timing may seem inconvenient. The payoffs from this habit have been more than I imagined.

Getting yelled at is stressful. Stress causes our cortisol levels, a stress hormone, to go up. This has a negative effect on memory and our ability to think clearly.

It turns out that yelling at someone does not get the message out any clearer. It just muddies it up and hurts the relationship.

At times, when we say the wrong things, this mental exercise can help us slow down a little and choose our words.

In my series of books, the community of characters demonstrates healthy ways of communicating, how to work with others to fix problems, letting go of anger and control, and dealing with things that go terribly wrong. This is done with adventure and silliness in a way that helps to show life skills in a way that was so important to me – fun without preaching.

The challenge is twofold. First, recognize outbursts, tantrums, complaints, meltdowns, untimely requests, and dramatic catastrophizing by people of all ages in my life as a need for reassurance. Second, understand a need for reassurance as confidence in my ability to give it, and take that as a compliment. Remembering that they’re really saying, I – love - you.

I don’t just include to-do list items when I prioritize. Why would I? If that’s all I took into account, then that means my life is a to-do list.

There may be a relationship that is negatively affecting all others—your relationship with your phone.

I often find a life orientation or a spiritual posture reflected in an unexpected place. It may be that I am seeing what I want to see, but one of these places is in an article of clothing that personifies how I wish to approach the world.

Eyeballs are an internet commodity, and our attention is currency. I can easily find myself overspending my limited supply of time. And like Pavlov’s dog learning to associate the sound of a bell with a meal, I become accustomed to looking for happiness somewhere outside myself.

At those times of spontaneous happiness, there is often times a little message that comes alongside the feeling. A message from within. A nudge in a direction.

There have been many times in my life when I needed that type of mentor. Only on a scarce occasion did I get one in a strait forward sense like that. Now I’m the one handing someone a knife.

Everything I do is teaching. Who I am is teaching. We are teaching even when no one seems to be paying attention. If I want someone to absorb a lesson on a deep level, I have to live whatever I am trying to teach actively.

Author Henry Coen explains another level of nonverbal communication.

. If most communication is nonverbal, and writing is words only, writers must inspire the reader to fill in the rest with a piece of themselves.