Choose or Default
This isn’t the first version of this post. I actually wrote a very nice, compact, wise account of the trouble I had getting to Vegas yesterday, and then using that to illustrate the idea that if you don’t choose your response, if you instead just let your emotions determine your reaction, then you’re going to end up living a default kind of life.
It was profound and poetic, if I must say so myself.
And then, for some reasons, when I tried to save it as a draft it disappeared.
So you now get this much shorter, less details version. But the lesson remains the same. And if anything, the lesson is sharpened to a fine point with what happened.
Because my first reaction could have been to throw my hands up in disgust, get angry, and storm out of my room to go find the coffee I so badly want.
Instead, I’m choosing to sit and do a bit more work. Because I want the results of my response, rather than the consequences of my reaction.
An undisciplined reaction will lead to an unpredictable consequence.
A disciplined response will, at the very least, allow you do decide on your direction, so that you can move toward the life you actually want to have.
That’s the gist, anyway. I swear it was much more profound before. But disciplined or not, there’s only so much a fella can do with no coffee.
If you like this post, there’s a blog full of this kind of stuff. And Side Notes is basically an extension of my Note at the End, which you’ll find in all of my novels. And you can find those by clicking here. Share this post with your friends, if you found it helpful. And buy my books if you’d like to support me and my work!
ISOLATED. MURDERED. GHOSTS IN THE MACHINE.
Book Five of the Quake Runner: Alex Kayne Thrillers
ALEX Kayne has spent years running from the law.
Now she’s running toward a killer.
When a young freelancer’s body is discovered hundreds of miles from home, the case looks like another tragedy destined to go cold. But Alex sees the pattern no one else can. Remote workers. Isolated lives. Digital identities that keep moving, keep speaking, keep earning—long after the real person is dead.
Someone is murdering the invisible and leaving echoes behind.
With QuIEK, her quantum-based AI, Kayne can slip through any system, unlock any secret, and vanish from nearly any trap. But this time, the enemy runs in the same virtual terrain. The killer lives in the shadows between real life and online existence, turning lonely people into puppets, trophies, and ghosts in the machine.
To stop them, Kayne must return to the life she thought she’d left behind: disguises, dead drops, stolen cars, false identities, and the constant pulse-pounding pressure of being hunted from every direction.
And somewhere in Seattle, the next victim is already being erased.
ECHO is a high-velocity techno-thriller about identity, obsession, justice, and the terrifying question of what remains of us when the world only knows our digital shadow. Fast, moody, razor-edged, and relentless, this is Alex Kayne at her most dangerous—and her most vulnerable.
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