{"id":47866,"date":"2026-06-24T11:22:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:22:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=47866"},"modified":"2026-06-24T11:23:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T15:23:06","slug":"if-they-ask-me-i-would-write-a-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/06\/24\/if-they-ask-me-i-would-write-a-book\/","title":{"rendered":"If They Ask Me, I Would Write a Book&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54161120017_0fb12730c1_c.jpg?resize=640%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Aztec 500 typewriter\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nWell, nobody asked me, but I\u2019m writing anyway. It may become a book. It may be an illustrated story. It might even end up as a comic. Whatever form it takes, I\u2019ve made a habit of throwing words down on the virtual page every morning with a hot cup of black coffee.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Now that my <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/05\/20\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-maltese-mac-mini-stack\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>cigar box mini stacks<\/em><\/a> are running smoothly and my <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-home-stretch\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">family server<\/a> is finally in place, I\u2019ve crawled out of the digital rabbit hole and returned to the long-neglected creative side of things.<br \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"47868\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/06\/24\/if-they-ask-me-i-would-write-a-book\/textedit\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/textedit.jpg?fit=392%2C359&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"392,359\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;alt&quot;:&quot;&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"textedit\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/textedit.jpg?fit=392%2C359&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-47868\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/textedit.jpg?resize=150%2C150&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"TextEdit on vintage Mac\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/textedit.jpg?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/textedit.jpg?zoom=2&amp;resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>It\u2019s nothing fancy. I get up, boot one of my vintage Mac minis into an obsolete offline OS, open TextEdit, and pick up right where I left off the day before. I write for one focused hour, then stop\u2014hopefully leaving myself wanting more. I may jot down notes in a physical notebook during the day, but I try to keep the actual writing to that single hour. My fear is burning hot for a whole weekend and then not touching the project again for six weeks.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;or six months.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;or forgetting it entirely.<\/p>\n<p>An hour may not sound like much, but I\u2019m chipping away at it steadily. This approach gets more done than waiting for some mythical vacation where I\u2019ll finally have \u201call the time in the world.\u201d<br \/>\nThe real trick is the distraction-free old operating system combined with the strict one-hour limit.<\/p>\n<p>And of course, the coffee has to be hot, strong, and black.<\/p>\n<p>So what am I writing? A horror story that has been percolating in my sketchbooks, notebooks, and the back of my mind since the mid-80s. Let\u2019s see where the first draft takes me\u2014maybe I\u2019ll share a taste of it later.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve also returned to the drawing board, though as usual that happens at night while watching trash television with a cat and a spouse on the couch beside me.<br \/>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55354178870_16ecfa6e18_c.jpg?resize=640%2C480&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Cat in box drawing session\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" \/><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\nI\u2019ll share some of the work soon.<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Well, nobody asked me, but I\u2019m writing anyway. It may become a book. It may be an illustrated story. It might even end up as a comic. Whatever form it takes, I\u2019ve made a habit of throwing words down on &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/06\/24\/if-they-ask-me-i-would-write-a-book\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[317,518,26,318],"tags":[6381,6377,6378,6382,907,6379,6028,6149,6383,6384,6274,6380,6298,5978],"class_list":["post-47866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computers","category-joes-garage","category-stuff-joe-likes","category-technique","tag-creative-routine","tag-creative-writing","tag-daily-writing-habit","tag-distraction-free","tag-drawing","tag-horror-story","tag-illustrated-story","tag-mac-mini","tag-personal-essay","tag-reclaiming-creativity","tag-retro-computing","tag-textedit","tag-vintage-mac","tag-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-cs2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":47683,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/05\/20\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-maltese-mac-mini-stack\/","url_meta":{"origin":47866,"position":0},"title":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Maltese Mac Mini Stack","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"May 20, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"My second cigar box mini-stack is now complete. Like the first one, it pairs a vintage Mac with a modern one \u2014 a 2010 Mac mini running Snow Leopard and a M1 Mac mini running the latest macOS. They share one keyboard, one monitor, and one mouse through a KVM\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Maltese-Mac-Mini-Stack.jpg?fit=1200%2C1100&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47326,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/03\/30\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-cigar-box-mini-stack\/","url_meta":{"origin":47866,"position":1},"title":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Cigar Box Mac Mini Stack","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"March 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"After months of tinkering, I finally built the Murci\u00e9lago Mini-Stack: a 2010 Mac mini sitting on top of a 2022 M1 Mac mini, all resting on a cigar box. Two Macs, one keyboard, and zero subscriptions. Here\u2019s how I reclaimed my creative life with vintage hardware I already own.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/stacked-isometric-minis-4.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47983,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/07\/14\/a-face-in-the-crowd\/","url_meta":{"origin":47866,"position":2},"title":"A Face in the Crowd","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm about 70 pages into the first draft of my Teenage Beast story. I envision it as a comic, but I am writing it out as a full prose story because that is simply the way it wants to come out. As I have written before, I spend about an\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Doodle Tuesday&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bobby-Hughes-07-09-2026.jpg?fit=640%2C934&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bobby-Hughes-07-09-2026.jpg?fit=640%2C934&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Bobby-Hughes-07-09-2026.jpg?fit=640%2C934&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47748,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/06\/02\/reclaiming-my-creative-life-with-vintage-macs-the-home-stretch\/","url_meta":{"origin":47866,"position":3},"title":"Reclaiming My Creative Life With Vintage Macs: The Home Stretch","author":"Joe","date":"June 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Over Memorial Day weekend I tried installing Linux Mint XFCE on the 2012 Mac Mini, paired with a new OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual \u2014 a dual-bay external enclosure that holds two 3.5\" drives. My aim was to build a family server so that I could gather and organize the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gutman-screenshare-window.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gutman-screenshare-window.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gutman-screenshare-window.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gutman-screenshare-window.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/gutman-screenshare-window.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":47445,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2026\/04\/08\/the-greenstreet-mac-mini-adding-another-2010-to-the-cigar-box-fleet\/","url_meta":{"origin":47866,"position":4},"title":"The Greenstreet Mac Mini: Adding Another 2010 to the Cigar Box Fleet","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"April 8, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I wasn\u2019t planning on building another cigar box mini-stack anytime soon, but eBay had other ideas. A very clean 2010 Mac mini popped up for auction so I took a shot. I threw in a maximum bid of $37 on a whim\u2026 and was genuinely surprised when I actually won\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Computers&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Computers","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/computers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Greenstreet.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":45372,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2025\/07\/24\/keeping-good-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":47866,"position":5},"title":"Keeping Good Habits","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"July 24, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the thin 3-ring binder I bought from a dollar store near work and filled it with 97\u00a2 worth of looseleaf paper in order to work out the story of The Teenage Beast. I am writing an outline for what will probably be a novella and have done a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Book Design&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Book Design","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/book-design\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/three-ring-binder-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C751&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/three-ring-binder-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C751&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/three-ring-binder-outline.jpg?fit=640%2C751&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}