It’s what submarine crews do. One shift rolls out of the bunks, gets dressed, goes to work: the other shift goes off works, undresses, falls into bunks still warm from crewmates’ bodies.
Around here “hot-bunking” means both of us working on the same project, in shifts, more or less 24 hours a day. We’ve done it before (for example, while I was story-editing “Dinosaucers” and finishing work on The Romulan Way with Peter). We’re doing it now on The Ring, while I also work on Wizard’s Holiday.
The problem with this kind of schedule is that, with both of us so intent on the work, local nutrition tends to suffer. Which is bad, because in such cases work suffers too. However, we have a standard household solution for this problem. It’s the justly famous “Mitternachtsuppe” or “Midnight Soup” recipe from the Department of Nuclear Chemistry of the University of Mainz. It’s fast; it’s easy to make; the pot can be more or less constantly replenished with the same ingredients as the soup level falls (or with different ones, so that the soup changes subtly from day to day or even hour to hour); it can be kept simmering on the stove for long periods without damaging the quality of the soup (in fact it just gets better the longer it goes on); and it freezes well, so if when you finish a project you also find you’re tired of the damn stuff, you can just sock it into the freezer and come back to it another time.
Our take on it appears below momentarily (as soon as I find where I’ve hidden it from myself. Trouble is, I know the recipe so well by now that I rarely bother referring to it.)
