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Month: April 2023

Camp and Camp Are Similarly Stuck

Last month, I took my kids camping at a lovely and beloved state park. I hadn’t taken my kids before–usually the roomie and I went camping to run away from the kids. Actually, roomie was doing it to get away from her awful boss, it turns out. And then after escaping that job, she went camping so I wouldn’t have to go alone. But eventually I found that out, and invited the kids in hopes that someone would actually want to go camping. I didn’t think it would go well. I really didn’t! They are very into video games. And TikTok. But both had a great time. Delighted, I began plotting more camping trips. The first problem I needed to solve, I decided, was that of space. Our spring break trip had packed the car full-to-bursting, and we’d had a cabin to stay in. No way no how was I getting all that stuff PLUS three tents (instead of one big one–trust me on this, the first time you go camping on a mountainside and can’t find enough flat space to put your big tent on…) and all the other things one needs when electricity and plumbing are not provided into my faithful Corolla. She’s a great car, but she cannae break the laws of physics. I thought about a roof rack, but research showed I’d have to get roof rails first. Hundreds of dollars, and getting it up there at all would be a hassle, and taking it down–well,…

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Writer’s Block Sucks

Man, I haven’t been this blocked in years. Usually, it’s when I’ve taken a bad turn in the plot somewhere, and I need to start over from that point and figure out what happened and how to fix it. Usually, I’ll use a few different methods such as Tarot cards, freewriting, brainstorming, and even playing various writerly “games” to get at my subconscious and the answer—or, at least the beginning of the answer and over the hump so I can start writing again and in the right direction. (The writerly “games” are courtesy of Holly Lisle’s Create a Plot Clinic – an amazing book that I highly recommend — and I do not make any money from this; I am just a huge fan of her fiction and nonfiction). However, I’ve had a fair amount of upheaval in the past few years. We’ve got the pandemic, of course. My ongoing sleep issues, which are getting better, but aren’t perfect yet. We’ve got my usual chronic illness stuff. My business, which is thriving, but also takes a lot of time and energy. I’m still working on that part. I think a lot of this is effecting my creativity. I wrote 6,000 words in 2021. Abysmal, but things were crap that year. Last year was much better at 20,000 words. Yay! I’d said at least double 6,000, and I’d made that and a bit more. This year? I’m at about 2,000. Granted, we’re only into April, so there’s time. And I’ve been…

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Doing Great!

As evidenced by this post being three days late. How are you, friend? Anyway, I’m in the midst of an experiment, and I shall tell you about it because it involves you too. So, every so often, we here at TDP sit down and look at what we’re doing, and whether or not what we’re doing is successful, and what we could potentially do to be more successful, etc., etc., et al. One of the things we looked at recently involved our free shorts here on the website. We’ve been doing free shorts since we launched in 2010, to middling usefulness. So we looked at the shorts and how they were doing, and the data says that serial parts have, almost across the board, performed better than the stand alone shorts. So we’re trying a move to just serials, and no more stand alones. We decided that instead of mixing and matching serials, we’d have one person who would be the serial person for the year, and they’d write and then release a serial over however months were necessary for the story. So that leads me to here. (I volunteered to be the guinea pig.) No, this ain’t my first serial rodeo. But I did decide that, this time, I’d write the whole story at once. This is new. Every serial I’ve ever written I write the needed part as necessary. I’ve never done the whole thing before parts started going live. The thing about writing a serial as you…

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No More Mugs

In a tragedy that would hurt me daily if I didn’t work so hard at not thinking about it, I’m not allowed to buy more mugs. Not one. None. That’s been the rule for years…and yet, somehow, more creep in. I don’t know how. I follow the rules! Don’t let that rule make you think we’re a houseful of mug-haters! On the contrary! We drink a lot of tea. And coffee. Hot cocoa. And we love a good soup. So naturally we love mugs. Tall and narrow, short and fat, big or small (but not too small,) we love them all. And I mean, all. Let me explain. When I need pans, I buy them new—when I need pans, that means non-stick pans, because otherwise I have my glorious will-last-a-lifetime All-Clad scratch-and-dent from my wonderful father, which you can have when you pull them from my death-stiffened clutched fingers IF my roommate isn’t already there to defend them. I’m always down for a new kitchen gadget, and those I also acquire new. For reference, see my Instant Pot, my multi-cooker, the air fryer, the stand mixer, the spiralizer, my beautiful Vitamix… But dishes? Variety is fun, and also dishes are transient. We tend to be clumsy, you see, and we don’t really care. I figure there’s enough guilt in the world—no one needs to feel bad because they broke part of a fancy set of dishes. Chips happen. So in my house, the cabinet is full of thrifted dishes. Thrifting…

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Voice of the Sea

If The Little Mermaid were set in the twenty-second century… In the aftermath of climate change, humans have abandoned the flooded coasts. Underwater, people of another kind struggle to rehabilitate the polluted seas. After one rescues a human engineer, she realizes he might hold the key. If she can learn how to interact with the world like a human, if she can understand them, if she can become enough like them, maybe they will help. Maybe he will help. But to reach him, she may need to sacrifice who she is…

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