Okay, it’s July 6th, so let’s talk about hydration!

…

I’m… not the person you should listen to about hydration.

Whatever I say here is not medical advice. You should check with your doctor. I’m a writer, which means I have opinions on a lot of different topics, but nothing I have to say about this subject should be taken seriously.

Mostly, I think you should drink when you’re thirsty, and if you’re not thirsty, don’t force it.

I have seen people walking around with a barrel of water, chugging it down like they miss their Atlantean home, and that’s not for me. Maybe it’s good for them? I don’t feel like it’s good for me.

This is rich coming from the guy that gets kidney stones and has high blood pressure, I know, but I don’t think my medical problems have anything to do with me thinking it’s a bad idea to overdo it on the hydration.

Do you want to know how I can tell if I’ve had enough fluid? I look at the color of my pee. If it’s bright yellow or orange, and I’m not taking any drugs that would make it so, I probably haven’t had enough to drink. If it’s closer to clear, I’m doing fine.

Also, I listen to my body. Or at least I try to. I have been known to get distracted, ignore my thirst, and have problems, like kidney stones.

Melissa has lived with me long enough that she knows I can get absorbed in one of my projects or a game and ignore my thirst. She is always trying to get me to drink, and I try to keep her happy.

If you want to drink 8 liters of water a day, go for it, i suppose. Just try to avoid sever hyponatremia. Drink too much water and it will eventually mess up your brain, put you in a coma, and kill you. You have to drink a LOT of water to do that, but it’s happened. On live radio, even.

I probably should drink a little more water than I do. I just prefer my water have a little something in it. Like flavor. Or sometimes coffee. But not caffeine, still.

I think that’s all I have to say about hydration. Maybe hydration will come up in a future story? I don’t know. This was one of the first topics suggested for this month, and I’ve covered it about as well as I’m going to cover it.

In other news, I have a bunch of books that need to go out to pre-orders. I have the list of names, and I can customize them. There is a little bit of bad news, though.

Many people ordered hardback, which is amazing and awesome and I love you for it, but we don’t have enough of the hardbacks to go out this run to cover all the orders. They’re still going to get customized and sent out, but it’ll be about 2 weeks before they’re printed and available. We have enough of the trade paperbacks, though, so those will go out very soon.

The official release is next week, on July 12th. I’ll have more to say about that soon, as well!