A Little Brain Storm

Recently, I've been helping my brother (whom I shall refer to as Sally - purely in the interest of protecting the innocent, I assure you) construct a veneer stone chimney at his house. It is a rather challenging process (much like publishing a cookbook). It involves covering a wood-framed chimney with a dreadfully hand-scratching wire mesh. Then, a thick “crumb coating” of mortar is smeared over the wall before the faux stone bricks are glued in place with additional mortar. In fact, perhaps the best way to describe the process is to compare it to cake decorating. Only in this case, envision yourself frosting a wall rather than a round of Devil's Food. It can be a lot of fun, but sadly it's not nearly as tasty. But... let's not go into that story right now, ok?

This afternoon, while I was dangling off the edge of the scissor lift handing mortar frosted rocks to Sally, I thought – I need business cards! It always amazes me the ideas that pop into my head, and how they show up at the most random of times. What aspect of building a chimney reminded me to print out some business cards, I'll never know. But I suppose that is just how my brain has always worked.

I must say, my brain is rather like that one cousin we all have. You know the one I mean - that distant cousin that comes to all the family get-togethers and is quiet for the most part. But then he decides to interrupt the conversation and tell everyone about how much his cross-eyed turtle enjoys sitting on warm rocks and eating cubes of SPAM. Yeah, my brain is like that.

Luckily, in the case of today's little brain storm, I came up with a useful idea. Business cards are a great way to network. And as a wannabe author, I need to network with as many people as possible in the hopes of finding some connection to the wide world of publishing. And so now I set off, ready for a weekend of business card production, as well as additional mortar work with Sally, of course. But before I go, let me just say thank you for reading this week, and I'll see you back here on Monday.