Welcome to my first post in the wonderful madness of Nic Plume’s debut book writing extravaganza. Now, I’m sure you’re asking yourself a few questions as you’re reading this. Probably something along the lines of “Who or what is CBIT?” “Why is he/she writing in Nic Plume’s site?” What is ‘Whatcha Readin this week?” and finally “Why am I reading this?” Well…. I’ll do my best to answer these burning questions, but being the lazy and cantankerous old man that I am, I’ll take them from easiest to hardest.
“Why am I reading this?” That is super easy to answer…..I don’t have any idea why you’re reading this. Curiosity…bored….wanting to know you’re (soon to be) favorite author better. Maybe you can tell me why you’re reading this.
“Who or what is CBIT?” That would be me, Nic’s number one fan, most ardent supporter, and significant other. That’s right, the beautiful and talented Nic Plume is taken and off the market.
The CBIT explanation takes a bit longer, so bear with me. Nic and I have be together for….. a while – somewhere between a day and a century, but long enough to have our two kids become fine young adults, no longer dependent on mom and dad to feed and care for them, but not long enough to have grandkids. My career has taken us all over the US and to a few foreign countries and had frequent periods where I was away from the house for a few days to a few months. During the first few moves Nic had to restart her own career path a multitude of times until she finally came to the realization that trying to juggle a job, kids, frequent moves and un-scheduled deployments was not worth the effort. Thankfully she decided to keep me and the kids and concentrate on being the CEO, CFO, and COO of the household. That plan has successfully guided us through the latter half of my first career and the waning days of my second. When she brought up the idea of transferring her dreams and ideas to paper (or bits and bytes) I agreed with one condition. She would have to accept the fact that my third career would be supporting her. Now my idea of “supporting her” is ensuring her wine glass or coffee cup is never empty, making sure the umbrella is blocking just the right amount of sun, and ensuring that when she is in “writing mode” that she has the peace and quiet she needs to concentrate….everything a cabana boy does at the resorts. Hence, I am now the Cabana Boy In Training, a.k.a “CBIT”.
Moving on to “What is Whatcha’ Readin’?” I read a lot, both professional and personal. My professional reading is mainly technology based journals and reports. My personal reading covers a wider variety of topics from DYI to fantasy/science fiction/space opera/LitRPG/apocalyptic genres. When Nic got serious about publishing her book, she contacted a friend of ours (henceforth known as Mistress Task Master, or MTM) about getting some pointers on the whole social media aspect of this. MTM has a background in marketing, social media, and other related areas, and suggested I write a short note on what I have been reading and what I thought about it. Nic said it was a good idea and I, based on years of experience dealing with both of those folks, decided it was a waste of time and effort to argue the point and agreed.
Hope that answers any questions you had and will entice you to return when I actually do what I was told and cover stuff I have been reading.
May the sunshine be warm and the margaritas stay cold.
CBIT