MediocreMan

About Nothing · 18 July 2026

What do bloggers write about when they have no subject to write about? I tend to write about nothing.

I do not know what other bloggers write about when they have nothing to write about, but I tend to write about nothing. Or about writing. Or about writing about nothing.

If you have been reading my blog for long, you probably know that I tend to write about whatever comes to mind. My subject might be some story of what happened to me the other day (like last week). Or it might be a piece I posted on DailyPrompt (a fair amount of those since I joined). Or it might be a piece about my writing process (lots of those). Or it might be a piece about nothing (a few of those too).

Yes, you read that right. I sometimes write about nothing.

Now, writing about nothing is not as easy as it might seem. I mean how can a writer dedicate a few hundred words to nothing? Really. It does not seem possible that a person could write lots about nothing. But I have. Just a few weeks ago would be just one case in point (Short and Sweet). And there was one a long time ago called Jibber Jabber. (I wrote that in honor of a friend and former colleague. Note where “former” is in the last sentence. In front of colleague, not in front of friend. Just saying.)

So how does a writer go about writing about nothing? I am not sure. I just do it. Then again, some people might think that I am not a writer. They might think that I am just a hack with a website. Which anybody can do. You can make websites out of thin air in just a few minutes. At least if the different hosting ads are to be believed.

At any rate.

I sometimes wonder if I am really a writer, but I suppose that I have a large enough body of work out there to suggest that I am. Which is nice. Not that anybody reads, mind you. But it is there for those who do. (Thank you faithful readers (both real and imaginary).)

I do need to say one other thing before I finish writing about nothing. I have been putting off blogging until the last minute lately because I have been enjoying writing little DailyPrompt pieces. I enjoy putting together little complete stories for those prompts. I do not write pieces for all of the prompts, mind you. But I do enjoy writing for them. (By the way, I have a piece I am saving for Halloween. I wrote it a while back, but I enjoyed it. And I think it is entertaining. I know Halloween is a ways away, but I hope you are waiting with bated breath.)

Okay. I must say this before I sign off for the week. Writing about nothing is not as easy as it sounds. Oh sure, you can just go off on a stream of consciousness, but that tends to stick to one subject. No. To write about nothing, you really need to write about a bunch of little somethings and keep them as separate as possible (or keep them together somehow). Then, in the end, just say, “Violà!”

And that is how you write about nothing.

Violà!

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Inadvertent Book Sale · 11 July 2026

It might sound crazy, but I inadvertently sold one of my books a couple weeks ago.

I am the first to admit that I am not a very good self-promoter. Some people do not even know that I have written over 2 dozen books and have them on Amazon. Even people that I have known for years do not know. But that is because I am the writer, not the promoter. Even though as a self-published author, I need to be both. But I am not. At least not usually. And rarely in person.

So it was an odd thing that I sold a book to a person I had just met. Sitting at a wedding reception, no less.

One of my aunts was getting married and I was sitting at a table with mostly family. There was also a couple there who I did not know at the time. (I will call them Adam and Mallory.) I asked them how they knew the bride and groom and other questions to get to know them a little bit. It was great finding out about their four kids and their school bus remodel. (How cool would that be?) It was wonderful finding out more about my aunt’s friends.

As Adam and Mallory told me more about themselves, they told me that they attend a church that meets in an old movie theater. I could not believe it.

I said:

“You’re not going to believe this, but I wrote a book that has a church that meets in an old movie theater. The people are living in a time when Christians are being persecuted in the United States. The book is titled The Church Underground.”

Or something like that. Knowing how I speak, it was certainly not that eloquent. (But that is another story.)

At any rate.

Next thing you know, Adam had his phone out and was asking me how to find the book. I just told him. Amazon. Michael Miyoshi. The Church Underground.

He said, “Found it. Done.”

And just like that, I had a book sale that I had not even tried to make. He told me that he has spent more money on other silly stuff, so why not a book that somebody he just met wrote. Or something like that. He was surely more diplomatic and eloquent than that. But I understood. And I appreciated it.

Truth be told, I wish that all of my book sales were that easy. I wish that everybody who read my books gave me a review. Any review. (Good, bad, or ugly.) And I wish that they would tell others about my books. Because I am definitely not a great book promotor. (A blog post would count if more than just a few people read it. Thank you my few faithful readers (both real and imaginary).)

I hope that Adam and Mallory are enjoying my book. And I hope that maybe someday I could make other inadvertent book sales. Or maybe I can just become a better self-promoter. (Yeah, right.)

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Independence Day 2026 · 4 July 2026

Happy birthday, America! Two-hundred and fifty years and counting. Woo hoo!

It is interesting that we celebrate Independence Day on the Fourth of July when the document was adopted but not yet signed. (Apparently, it was signed in August of that year. Who knew?) Still, the date is on the document, so I guess it makes sense.

The document itself makes sense too.

Most people remember the beginning of the second paragraph:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

I do not know why, but I tend to remember the part after the first clause of the first paragraph:

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people…

And yes, both sections that I have quoted are written as they are written in the document. Capitalization, spelling, and even commas. (Apparently, Jefferson and the other authors did not like Oxford commas. Who knew?)

And, by the way, I actually do know why I know the first part of the Declaration of Independence. It was a question asked a long time ago. Like a trivia question: You know the first words of the Constitution (We the people), but do you know the first words of the Declaration of Independence? Or something like that. I did not know the words at the time, but I did after that. They just stuck. “When in the course of human events…”

But I digress.

People might think that the Declaration of Independence is just a bunch of words, but it took blood, sweat, and tears to make those words stick. It took years to back up this profound document. Years to make this country free. I know that even now it takes blood, sweat, and tears to keep it that way.

Now, I know that I have not really said much, but I would like to leave you with one last quote. George Washington said:

“The people must remain ever vigilant against tyrants masquerading as public servants.”

That saying is as true today as it was then. Which is why we must remember that freedom always has a cost.

Happy birthday, America! May we, your citizens, remember that we have a responsibility to keep this country free. To honor those who came before us and to bless those who come after us.

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