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Month: February 2020

Meanwhile, Two Decades Later…

Ahh, 1994. Bill Clinton was president of the United States. Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa. Comet Shoemaker-Levy hit Jupiter, George Foreman hit Michael Moorer, and the Lion King hit EVERYTHING. It was big, y’all. Harry Styles, Dakota Fanning, and Justin Bieber came into the world, while Jack Kirby, Dinah Shore, John Candy, Kurt Cobain, Raúl Juliá, and Cab Calloway all left it. Doesn’t seem like a good trade, but no one asked me, so. (that’s actually only a swipe at one of those born in ’94, by the way. I have no opinion on the other two.) Another movie released in 1994 was the Star Trek “bridge” movie passing the torch from the original series (TOS) to The Next Generation (TNG)–aptly titled Generations. This post is not about that movie. In 1994, I had nothing to do with any of the above. I was working as a Jack in the Box drive-through cashier and also as nanny to three children, and dreaming of writing books but doing very little actual writing of anything. But 1994 was the year I decided I needed to change that. Writers, I reasoned, should write things.* Or they should not call themselves writers. Enter this poster. I snagged it from work because duh. It was a free Star Trek poster. I used it to get myself to write most days in 1995, and finish my first novel. But this post isn’t really about that, either. It’s about the fact that…

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Diving into the world of planners

It’s happened. I’ve been hit by the planner bug. For the past three years or so, my mom has always given me a simple planner for Christmas. I use it to track appointments and my daily to-do lists. I use it as a modified bullet journal, except without the bullets. But the idea is the same. I list what I’d like to accomplish and mark them off when I do. If I don’t, those tasks move to the next day. I also track wordcounts as well. And I do love that planner. It’s simple, easy, and I can jot stuff down and get to work. All three have been Bloom Planners, so I never have to figure out a new way to do things. However, a few days after Christmas, my mom told me that she’s actually bought me a different planner. Unfortunately, there was an issue with it closing once in a while, so she decided to not give it to me. She showed it to me anyway, and said I could still have it if I wanted it. And it’s a bit different than the Bloom Planner. So I thought about stuff for a bit and came up with the idea to use it as a Tracker. I had a bunch of things I wanted to track: wordcounts (yeah, I know it’s a duplicate, but I liked the idea of having them there, too) bedtimes (because I am still working on my schedule), food (because I am dieting…

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They Say Most People Give Up on Their Resolutions by Jan 19

Which would be funny, really, since I was talking about my yearly theme on the 14th. But hey, my year of education continues apace. At least for the first month. I finished both my writing book and my sketch journaling class. I did my two prompts just to write. (I also put out a nonfiction book and wrote the midpoint reversal and dark moment on a scifi horror novella I’m working on.) So! Month 2! Doing okay. This month I’m taking a figure drawing class (though not, like, one where I sit and draw naked people somewhere. More cartoon-like, like anime or Don Bluth-style wise). It’s going fine, though my shortcomings as an artist are really coming out. But hey! This is why we practice. I’ve done the first of my prompts and have picked the Pinterest pins for the next one. I haven’t started my writing book. Whoops. I did pick one out–Fixing Your Plot & Story Structure Problems by Janice Hardy–but I’ve got library books out and you know how THAT goes. (If you don’t, I’ve got to read them before they’re due or I shall lose them, because they’re newer books and other people have holds.) (We went to the library yesterday and I sat in the car to avoid the temptation.) (I have a nonfiction book called What to Eat When that I read about in National Geographic, and a YA scifi novel called The Light at the Bottom of the World.) But all in all,…

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Adulting II

This time last year, I was writing about how I accidentally became a community leader when all I meant to do was make some appointments (aka adulting) and clear the junk out of my home office. In the intervening year, I have: made those appointments — dental, medical, and financial things that needed doing, all sorted continued being a community leader, or at least organizer survived the shift from cubicles to an open office at my day job (being able to work from home part of the time has been essential to my sanity) turned 40 (I have not, however, cleared out my home office. Much.) 2020 started with some more big changes at the day job. Retirements and a shrinking team meant that a few colleagues and I needed to step up and acquire some new skills, fast. At the same time, we’ve got our hands full with a big, tricky project, which doesn’t help matters. I’ve spent all of January feeling waaay out of my depth. …and yet nothing has exploded, we’re keeping on top of things (so far…ask me in a month or two, ahahaha), and I think I’m impressing my manager and colleagues. It’s really not a comfortable spot to be in. I’m stressed and tired, and I’d much rather go back to my happy little status quo. But…I might just be rising to meet this challenge. In related news, last weekend my spouse and I had a house party, just a small gathering of friends.…

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Connection by Kit Campbell

ConnectionKit Campbell Ciel slid to a stop, mere inches from the edge. Below him, below the jutting rocks, was water, dark and cold. Hells. Another dead end. There was shouting behind him. Close. Too close. Ciel rubbed his left forearm, his fingers tracing the glowing blue design that encircled it. It’d been there as long as he could remember. His mother had always made sure he’d kept it covered, but he’d never understood why. But now his mother was dead, and now he understood. “Over there! By the ruins!” It had all happened so fast. His mother had known she was dying, had begged him to leave, to head to the city, where he would blend in better. But how could he leave her, when she was in such pain? And then she was gone, and in the act of comfort, a well-meaning neighbor had taken off Ciel’s coat. And comfort had turned so fast. He could hear their footsteps now. Neighbors, friends, people he had lived among for his entire life. Intent on seeing him gone, or worse. Ciel looked around for an alternate route, but the forest was thick on one side, and full of things one did not want to encounter. Behind him was his past, bent on his destruction. There was nothing for it. Taking a deep breath, Ciel gathered his fear around him, and jumped. The water was colder than it looked, driving his breath from him. The glow from his forearm was brighter, here…

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