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Month: January 2024

Standing Up for Myself

Apparently, scientists are finding that too much sitting is as bad for you as smoking. That’s pretty scary! Especially considering I spend much of my work day on the computer, then come home and spend a lot of my evening trying to write books (or on the computer avoiding writing books. Don’t judge.) I’ve been watching the studies, and if anything they’ve become more convinced of this. And, oddly enough, I do like to stand up to type–it’s unexpected, but I do it sometimes, because i just don’t want to sit anymore, or I want to dance, or whatever. I do it. Until my back hurts from bending over the desk, anyway, and then I sit down, because what choice do I have? Well, now I have a choice. After literal years of watching the price for an adjustable desk go from $500 to $350 to $275–I found a highly-rated one on great sale for about $150. And I pounced. Unfortunately, I don’t have room for two desks. So. Pour one out for my old friend. I’ve written a couple books at this desk, and edited more. But. I want to stand up sometimes. It’ll be good for me, and also fun, since I have a balance board. I even caught a good simultaneous sale on an under-the-desk treadmill! So. Time for some furniture assembly. As I told my family (with a lot of swear words) –if you have a choice, never try to put something together with the garbage…

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Journaling for Self-Love

So, one of my goals for 2024 was to cultivate more self-love/self-care for myself. And I had a brilliant idea one day in the shower (as one does). I decided to pull a Tarot card each day and think about what good quality I had that matched it — and journal a bit about it. For example, if I got The Chariot…the Chariot is about victory, attaining your goals, taking steps to move forward…I’d write about how I’m driven to succeed, I’m a go-getter, and how I’ve accomplished many of my goals because of this. And so on. And then I thought, hey, it’d be cool to decorate this journal a bit, kinda like a scrapbook, make it kinda fun and pretty. I’m not the best scrapbooker, to be honest. I used to scrap back in the day, with my sister and a mutual friend (we even did those 12-hour events which were a blast) and I did okay, but my pages were never gorgeous. But they were decent. My sister brought me supplies in boxes for this project and one of them was mine. I saw some of my old stuff, and I was a bit taken aback because…wow…twenty-some-odd years ago…I didn’t even remember creating those pages…and they were of things I’d done with my ex-husband…but they weren’t bad. Not at all. The journal is for me only, so I am not about making it perfect. Just fun and pretty. I want to add pictures and poetry and collage-type…

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Chaos and Snow

Good morning, friends. Look at me, posting when I am supposed to and early in the day (pay no attention to the fact that this month’s installment of Across Worlds with You was a week late, and purely because I spaced it completely, not because it wasn’t ready). Despite time being arbitrary and all that jazz we talked about last month, there is something a bit magical about January, isn’t there? A feeling of potential, that there’s so much that could be done this year. I think it lulls you into a false sense of security. Sure, you can get a ton done in January! You have plenty of free time! The holidays are behind you (though not completely behind me, as the Christmas tree still needs to be moved to the basement), there’s potentially a bunch of days off of work for less prep-intensive holidays, sometimes it’s below zero for days on end and the whole state gives up, things like that. Add in the general feeling from the cultural zeitgeist that you can do anything because it’s a new year, and it’s really no wonder that everyone crashes in February. That being said, I am having a great January. This, too, is a false sense of security. Because I can already see what I’ve done. Traditionally I set a bunch of goals–writing goals, reading goals, art goals, video game goals, health goals, etc. Last year I cut them all out except for a single writing goal (finish a…

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Across Worlds with You, Part 8 by Kit Campbell

Part 1Part 2Part 3Part 4Part 5Part 6 Part 7 Across Worlds with You, Part 8Kit Campbell Destia’s foot was a shriveled husk, the skin gray and dead. Like the life had been sucked out it. The life had been sucked out of it. Will buried his head in his hands. Theo had sent them straight back to Helstena before leaving Will and Destia to talk to the Council. The Historian had arrived shortly after, helping Destia to a safe place for her to sit. Destia hadn’t said a single word since the gate had closed. He was really messing this up. Other people were getting hurt because of him, and despite them retrieving the amulets—well, most of them—he still couldn’t actually do anything. Why would the prophecy have named him? The world was doomed. The Historian sighed and stood, coming over to join Will where he sat on the edge of the terrace, staring out at the world he was soon to destroy. “Good job,” she said, not sarcastically. It took a moment for Will to parse the words. “Good job?” he echoed. “Destia could have died because the Darkness can somehow figure out where I’m going.” “She could have,” the Historian agreed, “but she didn’t, because you pulled her to safety in time.” “She wouldn’t have even been in danger if it wasn’t for me.” “Oh, well, now that’s not true.” The Historian groaned as she lowered herself onto the ground beside him. Closing her eyes, she took a…

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2023 at Turtleduck Press

You may have noticed that things have been a little quieter around here this past year. Your intrepid authors have been dealing with home repair crises (if anyone breathes the word “plumbing” in KD’s vicinity, she’ll send the piranhas after you). Also, family crises, health crises, the occasional good thing that doesn’t involve our computer keyboards, and… *gestures wildly* you know, all that distracting stuff that keeps happening in the rest of the world. The more Life happens outside our heads, the harder it is to get into our heads and make the stories happen. So it’s a wonder that we’re all still here and cracking jokes, but we are. And occasionally we’re even writing stuff! In 2023, we released one long(er) work of fiction for sale as an ebook, my own Voice of the Sea, featuring a post-fossil-fuel world, clashing worldviews, and a certain undersea fairy tale. Oh, and lots of ocean descriptions, just because I can. (Any guesses as to which ocean?) Kit kept the lights on at TDP the rest of the year by releasing a fantasy serial, Across Worlds with You. Look for the latest installment, number 8, next week! Erin has been writing (and publishing!) poetry elsewhere, and KD did NaNoWriMo for the first time in…a while…so creative things are happening — just not always things that are measurable in TDP publications. Thanks for hanging in there with the four of us. We’ll be here, plugging away, one page at a time. After all, that’s…

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