Louise and I are taking the day off today (and through Monday). Since March of 2020 when Covid started we’ve not taken a vacation; we’ve been taking long holiday weekends for 2 years to try to make up for that and take an occasional break to refresh and recharge.

So, instead of my usual Daily Take today, I wanted to drop you a personal note of appreciation for subscribing, whether paid or free, to my daily missives.

Also, on multiple occasions I’ve gotten notes from people asking about my writing habits or even if I’ve outsourced any of the writing here, so here’s the inside scoop.

I get home from the radio studio every afternoon around 1 o’clock, and lock myself in my office until around five when Louise and I typically have dinner and watch the news. During that afternoon time, Louise is organizing the next day’s show while I write my Daily Take for the following morning.

Then Louise reads it after dinner and offers thoughts and opinions, and I do a final draft before we go to bed. (Sometimes I’ll also wake up in the middle of the night and spend a half hour or so just fine-tuning the piece: it helps me get back to sleep.)

When we get up in the morning at 5:30 am it’s the first thing I do: I read it through, double-check everything, Louise finds and inserts the picture while she’s also doing the final run sheet for that day’s show, and then I go into my home office to record the podcast of it (which is also my final proofread) for our paid subscribers. Typically I get it published by seven or 7:15 and then head to the studio to do the radio/TV show.

Although I’ve been publishing books and articles for years, I’ve never had to be so disciplined with my writing: a daily 7 am deadline does that!

It’s been a lot of work writing a publishable Daily Take every single weekday for over a year now, but it’s been very rewarding. I’ve learned a lot about discipline and writing, even though I’ve been at this since I was 15 years old and got my first short story published.

When I left home at age 16, I left behind bedroom walls papered with 56 rejection slips, mostly for my poetry. I had managed, though, to publish one short story.

It was about 20 years later, in 1983, that I resumed writing for publication, this time for Ziff-Davis magazines (Popular Computing, etc.) where I became a Contributing Editor, and doing freelance advertising copy. My first book was published in 1986.

Arthur C. Clarke once said, “Your first million words are practice.” With over 30 books in print and about 50 that I’ve written (some were just terrible: that’s how you learn!) I’ve produced a lot more than a million words, but I’m still amazed by how much more I know about the art and work of writing today than I did just one year ago when I started this daily Report.

If you write, I recommend a daily exercise like this; I now understand how and why so many people are devoted to their daily journals or diaries.

So, thank you again for giving me a reason to do this daily writing and for joining me on this journey. Your support, sharing my work and commenting on my articles, is so sincerely appreciated!

— Thom

PS. If you’re really wanting a dose today of my writing, here’s one that I particularly like: https://www.salon.com/2015/07/16/if_the_gop_tries_to_sink_the_iran_deal_it_wont_be_the_first_time/