Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘writing’

I think I should start posting earlier in the day. You know, when the schedule still glows with possibility, and my plans have yet to come to fruition but still could.

Have I finished baking the week’s bread? No, but it is in progress.

Have I aced today’s Wordle? No, but it’s still possible I could pull out a miraculous win. (It’s not, if I’m honest. Really not.)

Will I get to all that yard work on my list, including a date with a massive downed tree branch and a power saw? Soon, definitely!

Finished reading that book on building better habits (and generally being more awesome)? No, but I am halfway through and already feel a fresh cloak of virtue wrapping itself around me like a warm blanket.

Have I worked out a fix for a broken computer, created a brilliant new recipe, drafted a story, sent in that submission, raked and trimmed and seeded and cleaned and refilled and laundered and baked and donated and delivered? (Or realized that this list is unrealistically, impossibly long?)

Now, barring a sudden attack of zombies or a meteor shower, I’ll actually get a lot of these things done. But all of them? 

Probably not. The gap between where I am and where I’d like to be will always be wider than my reach. 

Still. It’s morning and right now all things are possible. Doesn’t the sun shine brighter for it?

Here’s to a productive weekend. Because hope, as they say, springs eternal!

* * *

Photo by Tyssul Patel on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

What’s this, what’s this? I have just discovered that the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America has a video interview series with interesting authors like Ann Leckie, Ken Liu, Karen Lord and more. It’s called Narrative Worlds and is hosted by author Kate Elliott.

I now know this because I follow Martha Wells (Murderbot and much more), and she is heading for the interview chair this Sunday the 24th.

Busy on Sunday? Me too, probably, but good news, SFWA archives the series.

Here’s Season 1 and Season 2.

Have I listened to these yet? I just discovered they existed five minutes ago so no, I have not. The list of authors is impressive, however, and I expect good things.

Also Murderbot.

If you’re into science fiction and fantasy and are curious about what’s goes on in a writer’s head, check out this series.

* * *

Photo by Lacie Slezak on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

Here’s the funny thing about posting every day: I feel I should also be making something amazing every day.

I’m not, I mean, sometimes I am but mostly I’m living life as a regular run-of-the-mill yet awesome human, like the rest of you. Work, not work, the usual. That doesn’t always result in a finished product.

That, as I remind myself, is ok.

And it makes the productive days even more special.

* * *

Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

One day a little country girl bunny with a brown skin
and a little cotton-ball of a tail said, “Some day I shall
grow up to be the Easter Bunny: you wait and see!”
Then all of the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses,
and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run fast,
laughed at the little Cottontail and told her to go
back to the country and eat a carrot.
But she said, “Wait and see!”

— Du Bose Heyward, Majorie Flack (ill.), The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes 1939

When it comes to life’s challenges, may you (like my favorite Easter bunny) be “wise, and kind, and swift.”

* * *

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

A brief excerpt from a work in progress (and no, this isn’t about the Whippersnapper):

“As I’ve stated, Miss Winter, your grandmother’s will is quite specific.” He cleared his throat and straightened his back with an ostentatious thrust of the shoulders. “She made you her primary heir. Except for cash distributions to your relatives and a few minor items like your father’s bronzed baby shoes and so on, you are to receive all of her possessions. This includes the house on Willow Lane and all of its contents, the car, as well as a bank account that will allow you to maintain the house in good order.” He smiled smugly, as bearers of news they expect to be well-received tend to do. Little did he know.

My grandmother lived through the Great Depression, seven children, her husband’s early death, a (rumored, but still) alien abduction, and a long line of vicious Siamese guard cats named Fido. She was as hard-nosed as they come. And she didn’t give anything away, ever.

I could feel the walls of her trap closing in on me, but couldn’t see them yet. I just hoped that it wasn’t too late to escape.

“Ok,” I said, trying to keep my voice calm. “And I get all of this for the low, low price of…?”

“The stipulations are quite clear, Miss Winter. If you follow the letter of the will all rights and responsibilities to her things will become yours, but for that to happen you must officially take possession.”

Ah. Here it was, the sticking point.

He shuffled the papers around a bit, looking for the relevant section of text. “If you do not move into the house and reside there on a permanent basis for a period of at least one full year from today, the day after her death, all goods and monies will revert to my protectorship and be liquidated, funds to go to the largest right-wing fascist group in the state.” He looked up at me with a wry expression. “The final amount would be… considerable.”

* * *

Photo by MaddiesCreation on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

“Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.”

― Scott Adams

Nothing finished today but I live, as always, in hope.

* * *

Photo by Senjuti Kundu on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

This interesting article discusses space exploration as an extension of the frontier mentality, how humanity’s complications underly a lot of science fiction, and asks, “Are the stars better off without us?”

Expanding Horizons | Atmos

A few years ago, in an attempt to lose myself in something other than winter lethargy, I became enthralled with The Expanse, a space drama that asks: what if humanity became a multiplanetary species? What would happen next?

“So much of the show is about resources and scarcity and the connection between economics and history”

It’s easy to write off The Expanse as “just” science fiction, but the ideas that the show wrestles with are important. Science fiction both holds a mirror to culture and acts as a source of inspiration. 

* * *

Photo by David Gavi on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

Fun free fiction for folks. Because Monday. And because you can’t have enough dragons.

The Dragon Project by Naomi Kritzer : Clarkesworld Magazine

“We’ve now created dragons for you twice, you’ve had the opportunity to inspect our work at every step of the way, and both times you’ve refused to take delivery. Timothy is a very good dragon, and you don’t deserve him anyway. You’re fired.”

* * *

Photo by Tarik Haiga on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

For fun today we have a short bit of free fiction from Nature‘s Futures column.

Star Corps Crew Manual Section 15-A37: On Mental Dislocation

If your parallel-universe self seems to be planning some kind of invasion, remain calm…

Good advice.

* * *

Photo by frank mckenna on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

On this day, eons ago, the brave Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee fulfilled their quest to destroy the One Ring in the fires of Mount Doom. And so it was decreed that March 25th would ever after be known as Tolkien Reading Day!

What does that mean?

Today is Tolkien Reading Day! – The Tolkien Society

And as an extra bonus, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Estate Releases Treasure Trove Of Drawings And Maps.

See those maps and more here: Maps – The Tolkien Estate.

* * *

“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King

* * *

Photo by Martin Jernberg on Unsplash

Read Full Post »

« Newer Posts - Older Posts »