High on a new thing

So it’s been a bit of a rough ride. Sorry to’ve slipped out of touch.

High. On, yes, a new thing.

The little health embarrassment – that minor unable to breathe thing, you know – has cleared up muchly thanks to, well, drugs. Plus clean living, I suppose, but its not as if that’s all voluntary.

In there just make things interesting I caught a stomach bug. That cleared up too. My weight then took an alarming upward turn, which may or may not have had anything to do with the meds – although I have not changed the eating and exercise habits that have kept me slowly but surely losing weight since I got home from my trifling misadventure a year and a half ago. Although admittedly I let the exercise slip some – again, surprising how problematic not being able to breathe (or sleep) makes that. Then again the weight uptick happened after I’d started exercising more, so who knows?

Anyway, the weight has now, at least for today, dropped back to … less unsatisfactory levels. (Mind you we’re talking about a total swing of about seven pounds, which is still radical enough to rattle my cage, since I’m used to no more than maybe three pounds up after setting a new low.)

Also, what with this thing and that thing, I’ve let myself get behind in the writing. Of which I’ve a mess to write. And, uh, well, rewrite.

And, as with the walking (with Emma Dog, of course!), and the kettlebell swings, I’m finally picking back up on the writing. Yay.

So, after all that preamble, back to the titular New Thing on which I am professedly High.

Not drugs; I don’t do recreational chemicals beyond what you find in a cup o hot chocolate, and that sugar free. And while they are controlled, or at least prescription only (for reasons, most likely, having far more to do with other people’s finances than our health), the drugs I am on are not particularly entertaining.

Nope, it’s the latest version of what’s already become a low-starch standby for me: this flaxseed “foccacia” bread. As I mentioned earlier, it’s a tad bland, but it’s still pretty successfully bread-like. Recently my good friend Roslee Orndorff gave me a bag of almond flour to try out – it’s also low-starch (and low-sugar), being just ground-up almonds, and hence low glycemic load.

The “fauxccacia” recipe calls for two cups of ground flaxseed. So I subbed half a cup of the almond flour for half a cup of that. I did not get to try it when it was nice and hot, but had some yesterday, both regular and toasted.

And … it’s pretty good. has a bit more flavor – bit more body, maybe. Also feels a little less gritty. Now, it has a bit of a nasty, cheesy smell when it’s actually toasting – the straight flax bread doesn’t smell all that fantastic, either. But it tastes good. Better than the more-than-acceptable original.

So, great! Got a new weapon in my low-GL arsenal! The craving for breads is a tough one to get past. And bread-like foods are good for, um, leavening the slightly stark meat-and-veggies regimen I follow.

(And, yes. That is what I’m high about. A new, improved bread substitute. And yes, I have … modest standards for getting high.  Deal.)

Meanwhile, I need to get back to writing I, you know, get paid for. There are also some subsidiary things to do that will in the fullness of time show up here on the blog.

Such as, I am contractually required to produce a map for The Dinosaur Lords. And I am actually mastering my Campaign Cartographer 3 (CC3) software to the extent of finally being in process of converting my crude sketch of the Tyrant’s Head and the Empire of Nuevaropa into something legible. As well as digital, hence transmissible.

So you can expect to catch that soon.

Also, expect to see further installments of my handy and informative An Adventurer’s Guide to the Dinosaurs of Paradise, which I see I’ve sadly neglected.

And finally, I will ere long toss up two moresenses-shattering free sample chapters of The Dinosaur Lords for your entertainment and edification. Which will still amount to, oh, rather less than 5% of the majestic whole. They don’t call it epic fantasy for nothing, kids.

Which means I best hop back to producing the real stuff now. And you know what that means:

As always, thanks for reading!