I think I’ve overdosed on Ricolas.

Do you know what Ricolas are? They’re cough drops. You can buy them at a health food store or pharmacy. All day long, I’ve been sucking the kind called Honey-Herb. I thought my cold was gone, but it came back, and I’ve been coughing all day. Also tired, also achy, all the things that go along with having a cold.

And on top of that, I’ve had a great deal of work to get through. This is me today, sick and trying to get work done anyway.

I know, not particularly attractive.  I was going for pale and wan, and I think I nailed it, don’t you? But this is what was going on with me today.

So you’re not getting much of a blog post from me today, I’m afraid. But the title of this blog post refers to one nice thing that happened over the weekend, which was that the total hits on this site went over 40,000. Now, I know, there are bloggers out there who receive over 40,000 hits a day. I’m not one of them, and I’m most grateful for my 40,000 hits total. This site has been up only about four months, and to me that feels like a lot: a lot of people reading what I write, hopefully finding something in it they can relate to, some reason to come back.

One thing I think about, as I work on this writing career of mine, is that anything worth building takes time. Consistent action over time, specifically. And I hope I am building something, brick by brick, story by blog post by tweet. And by novel soon, I hope. I have friends who are working on their own writing careers, some of them building spectacular things. And some of them sometimes stalling, not working on it. That happened to me once, so I understand why one stalls, what it feels like to be there. And when that happens to a friend of mine, I ask these questions:

1. What do you want? Because you have to know what you want to get it.

2. Why do you want it? Because you have to understand your own motivation. If you’re motivated, if you know why you want it, you’ll work on it. And not otherwise.

3. Are you working on it every day? Because that’s what it takes, consistent action. Which, by the way, is a signal to the universe: Look, I’m working on it. So help me out here.

4. If not, why not? Because if you want something and you’re not working on it, there’s something wrong, and you need to understand what that is. What’s gone awry.

Today I’m sick, and so you’re getting a not particularly scintillating blog post, but you are also getting a thank you, for reading what I write and coming back to read it again. And commenting, or retweeting, or liking on facebook.

Tomorrow I’ll have something to say about reading protocols and James Thurber’s story “The Macbeth Murder Mystery,” and maybe about Mario Vargas Llosa’s image of literature as a tapeworm (I know, ick, right?), and maybe something else, I don’t yet know. But I’ll be working and building, brick by brick, post by post. Maybe my cold will even have gone away by then.

In the meantime, a reminder: If you want to find out what I’m up to, there are many ways to do so.

There’s my Amazon author page. There’s my facebook page. Anyone on facebook can see my wall posts, although of course you’re welcome to send me a friend request as well. There’s my twitter feed. I even have a Goodreads author page, although to be honest I haven’t been very active there. That’s something I need to work on, because I think sites like Goodreads are important for both writers and readers.

That’s it for this blog post. It’s not much of one, I know. But I do hope that those of you who are also working on things, building careers, doing whatever it is you most care about, will find some inspiration here, something to help you with your particular goals and journeys.

And me – I’m getting back to work.