Posted in Likes, tagged awesome, fun, home, persistence, Thoughts, winter, work, yay on March 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »
You know how some Mondays you wake up to grey skies and a sheet of ice on your front step, and you have a million things on your list you’re not sure you can do and everything could be awful… but somehow it’s not? Yeah, for me that day is today:)
For you too, hopefully!
Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged #ThingsILike, awesome, creativity, inspiration, NASA, persistence, science, travel on March 23, 2017| Leave a Comment »
If the world feels a bit weighty this morning, grab a cup of something hot, sit back and enjoy Mars.
Posted in Likes, Writing, tagged #ThingsILike, 66, awesome, Fiction, finishing, fun, genre fiction, persistence, science fiction, sff, short stories, speculative fiction, work, Writers, writing, yay on March 15, 2017| 1 Comment »
Hello, and a quick update to say that I’ve got a new story out in the new issue of Andromeda Spaceways Magazine. “The T-4200” is a science fiction adventure featuring a regular guy just trying to save his dimension-hopping tortoise (and oh yes, end a galactic war). As one does!
Given the dynamics of the marketplace, it tends to be much harder to place longer pieces. I’m very happy to have found a home for this novelette, which began life at over 12k and now runs just over 9,000 words.
While ASM is subscription-based (sorry, free fiction lovers!), this entertaining Australian speculative fiction magazine publishes everything from science fiction to fantasy, humor to horror. If you’re in the market for an excellent new source of fresh fiction, check them out, and enjoy!
Posted in Writing, tagged creativity, Fiction, inspiration, Motivation, persistence, Thoughts, work, writing on January 27, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Writing is hard, almost all of the time. It’s been said before, but imagining a new world, reducing it to marks on a page, and sending it out to be reconstituted by another person is a lot like a magic spell. (Or mind control. Or sea monkeys, but hopefully more realistic;) It takes concentration, and focus, and clarity.
All of those things seem to be in somewhat short supply these days. There’s a lot going on in this world. And I fear that I have been neglecting you, fair readers.
So here’s what I’m planning to do: post more. No crazy promises I’m sure to break, like a post every 23 hours and 59 minutes, because let’s get real. I’m aiming for success, not self-recrimination:) And if a photo or quote is what I’ve got for the day, fine. With luck, it will cheer, inspire, amaze, or similarly affect you as it has me.
Because when it comes right down to it, isn’t that what it’s all about?
Here, have a picture of some sea monkeys:)
Posted in Holidays, Likes, tagged #ThingsILike, awesome, history, inspiration, Kid President, Martin Luther King Jr., MLK, Motivation, persistence, quotes, Thoughts on January 16, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!
Want to bone up on your history? Kid President is here to help:)
Posted in Writing, tagged 2016election, artists, Brexit, creativity, Fiction, Ian Warren, inspiration, Motivation, persistence, science fiction, sff, speculative fiction, storytelling, Thoughts, work, Writers, writing on November 14, 2016| Leave a Comment »
It occurs to me that one of the things we really need now is storytelling. With a Republican-dominated government in the U.S., dissenters won’t have as many direct political options to make change via laws. That leaves hearts and minds.
And what’s best for changing hearts and minds? A compelling story.
•
As I see it, an important part of our job right now as writers isn’t to bombard with facts and figures (or not only, of course there’s a place for that). Fiction writers have a special place in society. We imagine other futures, other paths, other worlds. We bring those experiences, those feelings*, to readers.
Our challenge is to inspire, to engage, to help others envision a better world. With a nod to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, to make them long for a kinder, more hopeful, and more just sea.
– – – – –
* And as Ian Warren argues, at least part of what has happened with Brexit and the U.S. election seems to be that “what data and polling often misses, is how people think and feel” and that “the communication of effective emotional messages is currently beating data alone.”
Posted in Food and..., tagged 2016election, food, Motivation, persistence, Thoughts on November 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Concession Cupcakes:
Dark like my mood, but sweet like my hopes for the future.
Today it’s time for cupcakes. Tomorrow, let’s get to work.
Posted in Food and..., tagged #stupidcold, cat, food, gardening, home, overlords, persistence, plants, sick on September 29, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Background: I have a feeder in the yard and we get a lot of visiting birds, along with squirrels, chipmunks, and the odd raccoon. Given all this traffic, plus wind and Nature’s Mysterious Ways, we also have a lot of what real gardeners (not me) call “volunteer” plants. I found what looked like a raspberry sprout and, ever curious, stuck it into an unused planter off to the side.
Mmm, delicious, I thought. Raspberries. Or blackberries. Or whatever. What’s not to like?
And for a while, everything went swimmingly. Despite poor light, irregular watering, and general lack of care, the plant thrived. It made it through last winter unprotected and came back in the spring. Now it’s a bush-sized marvel taking up way more space than intended. Fine, I thought, I’ll trim it back. Let me just take off the last foot or so of these canes. I’ll take my trusty pruners and grab this green bit and pull the end over and…
Overlord, with roots.
What?
It turns out that there is a reason why real gardeners (still not me) do not generally welcome volunteer raspberry (or whatever) sprouts in their gardens. I knew that they were hard to kill, and that they spread via seeds. What I did not know is that these plants were lulling me into a false sense of security so that they could spread by slo-mo walking from spot to spot, rooting their cane *tips* whenever they could. Drawing their emerald chains ever tighter around me.
I had to yank hard on the cane, full weight behind the effort, leather gloves punctured by thorns and all, before I could uproot this monster. And it had friends!
Overlord, with traitorous cat. Figures.
Here’s a closeup shot of the leaves; perhaps one of you out there knows the exact subspecies of plant. All I know is that if I let this go on much longer, we’ll all be calling it “Master.”
So the plant/future overlord has to go. Just as soon as I get over the cold I picked up last weekend. Time for some raspberry herbal tea, I think:)
J.R. Johnson 
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