Pomo-Doggo

The way I'm writing now

Near the end of my tenure with GameTek, the company where I produced video game versions of Jeopardy! and Wheel of Fortune, a new VP of Development was hired. He lived in Sausalito, and convinced the owners to move the development division there. The other producers, who were in their 20s, were offered the chance to move there.

I wasn’t. But they did allow me to fly out for two weeks every two months, to work in the office with the programmers and artists and then travel to LA to present my games to Sony for their approval.

The boss believed employees did their best work in the “zone,” a state of focused concentration and effortless performance, where we would be fully immersed in an activity and performing at our best. The secretary couldn’t even use the loudspeaker to find any of us because that would disrupt everyone.

I carried that idea forward with me. When I was working full-time and only had an hour or two for writing, I went to Starbucks nearly every day. I’d get my grande raspberry mocha and as soon as my butt hit the chair, my brain knew it was time to write. I usually managed to ignore the ambient music and conversations around me, and work steadily for my hour.

A few years ago, I heard about a time management method that directs you to alternate pomodoros — focused work sessions — with frequent short breaks to promote sustained concentration and stave off mental fatigue. Now that I’m working from home, and have longer stretches of time available, I’m leaning into that technique.

Only I call it “pomo-doggo.” I work for a while, until one of the dogs wants a cookie, a meal, a walk, or maybe just to be petted and told he’s a good boy. Though sometimes I’m right in the middle of a zone session, I will stop and do what’s needed, and then come back to the computer.

Griffin and Brody when they’re not demanding anything.

I want to thank all of you who helped boost the visibility of the Smiling Dog Café review on Reedsy. You did enough to get me mentioned in their weekly newsletter, and that has resulted in a steady trickle of sales. Every day when I check my sales data and see that another few copies have been sold, I think of all of you helping. You’re terrific!

I’ve been trying to think of fun things I can do in this newsletter. The Agatha Christie estate has been sending out regular small online jigsaw puzzles based on book covers, so I thought I’d try that too, since I enjoy solving them. It will take less than ten minutes, and I think they’re fun.

I’ve been lucky to get some positive reviews for new books, from Joyfully Jay (who review MM romance); Kirkus (a general interest publication that libraries often use for recommendations; and the aforementioned Reedsy review. I had to pay for the last two, but I consider that an investment in discoverability.

If you know anyone who likes to read M/F romance, I hope you’ll recommend Blueprint for Passion. I had a lot of fun writing this enemies-to-lovers book set around Miami real estate—something I know a fair bit about.

For my golden retriever lovers, my latest book, Dog of Deliverance, came back from the editor with only a few comments, including “Excellent entry into the series, Neil. Bravo!”

It still needs a few alterations but it should be out in early summer.

Thanks always for your support!

Neil