Category: Current Events

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writer & editor at large

As we start a new week, I find myself very worried about money, but still optimistic overall. I have a little bit of work, with a vague promise of more on the horizon.  I haven’t been paid yet for  my first week, just submitted my hours for the second week, and we embark on the third.

The other job I was supposed to start is on hold, due to the fact that they can not complete the background check, because the courts in San Francisco are not open.  So that means I have space for more editing or writing work, if you happen to know of any work that needs doing.

I’m on Upwork, but will work with folks outside of that as well.

So other than that bit of the work I’m doing for one client, I’ve been working on The Blood Witch.  I hope to have this final edit done by the weekend.  Which is when the work to sell the book begins.  Which starts, as most things do, with research.  Then query letters, which will  hopefully lead to an agent, who can help with that whole selling part.

As I do, I’m also watching a lot of documentaries, particularly true crime documentaries.  I found a motherlode of new-to-me tv shows and movies on Hulu.

I hope you and your families are staying safe and not going a little stir crazy.  Be smart, as we start opening things back up.  This virus has not yet done its worst, and I fear that loosening restrictions too quickly will send a wrong message to too many people, opening us up for a strong resurgence of victims.  Mask up. Wash your hands.  Stay home if you can, and don’t let people closer than 6 feet.  You never know whose life you might be saving.  It could be your own.

I love you, Readers!  Happy Monday!

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stuck in a hole

All week this week I’ve been telling myself to write up a post.  Each day I stare at the screen with no idea what to say.  And suddenly it’s Friday again and I didn’t post at all through the week.

Today, I’m having trouble staying focused on any one thing.  I get up from the computer to do something only then I can’t remember what it was I was going to do. I wander from the office to the kitchen, out to my little container garden and back again aimlessly.

I guess I feel stuck.

I’m sure a number of you are too.  I’m thinking today I’ll attempt to finish reading this book I’ve been in the middle of for months.  I need something different I think…something not watching another documentary or rewatching Supernatural or any of the other things I’ve filled my days with for the last month or so.

Maybe it will help unstick my brain and let me get back to work.

Be gentle with yourselves, Readers.  Stay safe.

 

Cover Photo by rosario nuñez on Unsplash

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does it matter that it’s Friday?

Happy Friday, Readers!  I meant to post earlier in the week, but I have actual, paying work at the moment, so my attention has been on that.

How are you coping?  I’ve had a few bad days, but between work on The Blood Witch and working in my container garden, I’ve found ways to keep my head up.  I hope you can say the same.

I’ve also been indulging in two of my favorite things, Star Wars and Supernatural.  I find it soothing to re-watch something I am so familiar with.

Today though I feel beat up and sore all over, probably from trying to do too much with very heavy stuff last night (ordered a bunch of soup and it all came in one box…like we’re talking 16 cans of soup. I’d have been better off taking a few cans out at a time, but no…like an idiot I tried to move the whole box).  I’m hoping a hot shower can help me feel a little better.

Aside from that, I’m going to try to finish up these edits I’m getting paid to do, if the website ever comes back up. Right now I’m just getting a blank page.  I assume no one in the support team is currently online.

And, maybe some work on the book.  Depends on how long my beat up body can tolerate the office chair.

I hope your Friday is filled with good things!  Remember, kindness matters.  Please be kind to yourself too.

Cover Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

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the veil is thin

There are two times of the year when the veil that separates this plane from the next grows thin, making communication with the dead easier, among other things.  At Samhain we often invite our dead to sup with us, preparing their favorite foods and drink and setting them out on our tables.  Our rituals tend toward the somber at Samhain.

But at Beltane, opposite Samhain on the Wheel of the Year, our rituals are filled with rejoicing, celebrating the awakening of the earth, the growth all around us, and yes, the fertility that will see us through another long winter.

It is a good time to remind us that life will find a way.  Even as the society we built cracks under the strain of this pandemic and all that accompanies it, the earth puts forth sprouts and leaves and flowers.  In the animal kingdom, babies are born, ensuring that their species will continue.  All around us are the signs that if we just hold on through this “winter” life will begin anew.

And maybe, just maybe, we can learn from Mother Earth’s example, and create something new.

We don’t usually stress communicating with the dead at Beltane, but with so many of us channeling life skills that helped our ancestors survive, maybe it’s time we did.  Reach out to great-grandma to get her secrets to a successful sourdough starter (I can not get mine to do what it’s supposed to).  Call out to your great-great grandpa for advice on planting corn or tomatoes or what have you. Invite them to supper or pour out a cup.

Then go stick your hands in some dirt, grow something. You might be surprised at the joy it can give you.

Happy Beltane, Readers, may it bring you blessings and joy.

Cover Photo by Arno Smit on Unsplash

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and the edit will go on…and on…

I’ve been working all week on my first edit of The Blood Witch. I’m up to chapter 25, which is where I will be starting this morning.  I have so much love for this character. Well, all of them, honestly.

I need to work on establishing some of them a little more, make them stronger side characters with stories all of their own…you know, make them real.  This is particularly true for some of the main character’s family.

As I work through this and build up the weak spots, plug up plot holes and all of that, my muse is already spinning up the world building for the second book, because, yes, this is at least a two book series.

I’ve added over 5,000 words so far, and there are probably another 2,000 to 3,000 to come, which should drop me close to 90K by the time I’m done tinkering.  Then, provided I have the cash, I will be hiring my favorite editor to give it a good going over before I start the terrifying part: querying agents.

Having never done it, and having perpetual impostor syndrome, the thought is terrifying. I think these characters deserve my best, however, and I aim to give it to them…and the best is not just giving it to the publisher you know will take it, but won’t do much to support it once it’s out in the wild.

So, that’s how I’m muddling through the week, Readers.  That and coffee.  Lots of coffee.  Maybe that’s why I’m vibrating?  How about all of you?  How are you hanging in there?

Fancy a bit of “virtual hang out” time with me…and whoever of my friends happens to show up?  I’ll be hosting a Zoom meeting this evening.  No pressure, just a chance to see faces and chat.  I’ll put the details in the Events section over there on the right, or you can check my FB Author’s page for the link.  We did it last week, and there may have only been a few of us, but we had fun!  So come join us!

Okay, coffee’s getting cold so I’m off to slurp it down and get on with that editing business.  Y’all stay safe out there!

Oh, and if you’ve missed any of the Read Along for Through Shade and Shadow, you can find the recordings on my You Tube Playlist.

Cover Photo by Christin Hume on Unsplash

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stay the hell at home

I was going to start this post with some trite comment about surviving another week in this apocalyptic hell, but realized almost immediately that not everybody has survived.  So many people I know has lost someone in the last few weeks, or has a loved one in the hospital that they can’t visit.  Nearly everyone I know has fears that a vulnerable person they love might contract this virus.

And, while we all need some light hearted humor in times like these, what we don’t need is flippant commentary that makes light of the situation.  We are standing at a precipice with our incompetent government poised behind us with a cattle prod, ready to send us hurtling to our deaths on the rocks below.

I try not to get overly political on this blog, but we can’t afford to not be political in this situation.  It is pretty clear to me that those at the top care nothing for the rest of us, and the idiots that are being goaded into protesting to end the very protections that are keeping us semi-safe, care nothing for people they do not know.  It’s going to take major losses of people who they do know and care about to reach through the cult-like group think that keeps them doing the bidding of a man who has used public office to rake in millions of dollars.

How can anybody look at the death toll numbers that climb and climb every single day and not realize that we are not doing enough to curb this thing?  How can they see stories and posts from our doctors and nurses who are fighting tooth and nail to save people without the proper PPE and with no effective treatment plan, and still demand their right to go to the movies or the beach or wherever the hell else it is they think is so damned important?

I know someone who lost her husband this weekend.  He was thirty six.  She had to drive him to the doors of the ER and leave him there because they wouldn’t let her in.  In less than twenty four hours he was in the ICU on a ventilator, unable to talk.  Her last words to his face were, “Call me when you know anything. I love you.”

He died alone, with a stranger in a mask beside him, holding his phone to his ear as his wife tried to say goodbye through choked tears.  He leaves behind a wife and three kids who are now under quarantine having to rely on the kindness of strangers to keep them fed.  Right now, they aren’t sure where he contracted the virus, as he made every attempt to be safe, but he had taken a job as a delivery driver after getting laid off from his regular job.  He had said he just wanted to help in this time of crisis.

His desire to help got him killed.

Make no mistake, Readers, this virus is a killer, and it doesn’t care how old you are or how healthy you are. It comes out of nowhere and can strike down a person in a week, maybe less.

So, stay the hell at home please!  The life you save could be your own, or your mother’s or your spouse’s, your kids, your neighbor.  Please be safe.  Love one another. Be kind.  These are weird times.

 

Cover Photo by Scott Webb on Unsplash

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to tell the whole truth

I have a confession to make.  I’m a documentary junkie.  I like most any kind of documentary; true crime, serial killers, nature, history, biography, science.  I can, and do, watch hours upon hours of them.

It used to be what I had on when I was working from home.  Since the lockdown started, I have mainlined pretty much anything on Amazon Prime, Netflix, Hulu and even Disney+.

The problem is, the pickings are getting slim.  I’m starting to have to hunt for things I haven’t seen.  I’ve even rewatched a few I really enjoyed.  Am I learning a lot?  Yes, for certain.  Am I reaching the end of what I will find watchable?  Very possibly.

Have you been watching my Read-Along videos either on my Facebook page or YouTube?  Drop a comment if you like.

I’m setting up a virtual happy hour tomorrow (Friday 4/17) at 4pm Pacific, if you’re interested in joining a bunch of random folks to raise a glass of your preferred beverage and chat about whatever comes to mind.  I’ll post the info to my author’s page on Facebook once I have the Zoom meeting set up.

I guess that’s it for today.  I need to go do today’s photography challenge thing (see my Instagram) and finish uploading videos to YouTube.  Be safe out there, Readers!  Stay Home! Wash Your Hands! Be Kind (to yourself too)!

I love you all.

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reverting to form

By and large, left to my own devices, I am a night person.  I’ve adapted to getting up early, so that I can get on less crowded trains to get into the city to go to work.  Getting up super early requires going to bed super early.  It took me a long time to get used to, but it means I don’t have to fight my agoraphobia just to go to work, and that makes it worthwhile.

Anytime I am out of work for longer than a month, I start reverting to form.  I stay up later and later.  For a while I’m still getting up early, which means walking around in a brain fog part of the day due to lack of sleep.  I’m also generally a six hours per night sleeper, but if I stay up late enough, and don’t have an alarm set, I can make a full eight hours of it.

That sometimes also leads to brain fog, if I’m honest.

It has taken longer than usual, but this weekend I found myself still awake at midnight, unable to turn off my brain or put down my phone.  The sleep has been glorious, however, once I finally doze off.

To add into my bizarre sleep patterns is the insomnia that often accompanies menopause.  I’ve had bouts of insomnia off and on my whole life, but this brand of it is different.  Normal insomnia for me is two or three nights of laying in bed, tossing and turning and eventually getting up because sleep isn’t happening.  Eventually, I get exhausted enough to sleep.

This is more like my body deciding that two or three hours of sleep is plenty, time to get up and get moving, even if it is two in the morning.

This weekend, aside from the staying up late, I find myself napping late in the day.  I’ll be sitting on the couch with my crochet and some documentary and just…doze off for an hour or so.  Which might contribute to my late nights.  It’s usually sometime between five and seven pm when I fall asleep.

Another new development in the sleep department during this extended at home period is the re-emergence of my sleep walking.  I get up and do stuff, then go back to bed and in the morning I find evidence of my activity with no memory of doing it.  Like, warming up left overs, then leaving them in the microwave or opening a bottle of wine and pouring a glass, then leaving it on the kitchen counter without drinking any of it.

That last bit I attribute to the stress of the current situation, more so than anything else.  I have done it in years, ever since I left that last super stressful job and moved into jobs that I have loved.  But now, there’s so much stress around finding a job and managing to pay the bills and this whole pandemic situation, I think the combination has just overwhelmed my poor brain.

I’m torn between letting myself revert to a sleep cycle that is most natural to me and forcing myself to go back to “normal” or what the world considers normal anyway.  Part of me wonders how much more productive I would be if I let myself do what comes naturally.  How much more ME would I be?

Maybe that’s an experiment for this strange time we find ourselves in?

Either way, I hope you and yours are safe and healthy and staying home like you should.  Happy Monday, Readers (it is Monday, right?).  Take care of each other!

Cover Photo by Kate Stone Matheson on Unsplash

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quoth the raven, nevermore

Are you as bored as I am, Readers?  You are probably tired of blog posts about the virus and how we’re coping.  I get that.  So, here’s a video I did yesterday with me all dressed up and reading some Edgar Allan Poe to start us off.

In other news, I’m trying to get my juices flowing to start working on The Blood Witch again.  Yesterday I tried printing it out to make notes and what-not the old fashioned way, but I ran out of paper, and since it isn’t strictly necessary, I guess I’m back to doing this on the computer.

I got some great feedback from my beta readers, and hope that their notes will help me take this thing to the next level.  I really love this story and these characters.  I can’t wait until I can share them with all of you.

I’m going to plug my YouTube Channel and my Author’s Page on Facebook here.  All of my live readings will be done on the Facebook page, so give it a like to stay up to date and to get notified when I go live.  The YouTube channel will host the recordings of those readings after the live reading is done.

All of this reading of poetry has also kickstarted my poetic muse, and I’ve been scribbling away.  Maybe I’ll come out the other side of this with a whole new book of poetry for you!

Stay safe, Readers!  And Happy April.  Let’s hope it isn’t as long as March was.

Cover Photo by Kasturi Roy on Unsplash

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the bored and the restless

It’s been a tough week, Readers.  I’ve had some really down days and I am struggling my way out.  I am currently fighting off a serious restlessness.  This is the time of year when I most crave travel.

I want to throw some clothes and road food into the car, pack up my camera and go find some off the road hidden hideaway, picnic beside the ocean or a waterfall, fill up a memory card with pictures of moving water and sand and rocks and green, green grass.

Alas, it isn’t happening any time soon.

Instead, I’m tripping my way through various “virtual tours” of places I long to go, and I’m puttering around in my “garden” on my patio.  I have containers filled with succulents that have been loving the rain and not-too-cold temps, plus one salvia that got a little battered in the winds this past month and a lily of the valley that is finally blooming.  Oh, and a couple of containers with gladiolas that my mother gave me last year.  No blooms on them yet, but I’m hopeful.

I think I’ve probably watched every documentary on history or crime or nature or any mix thereof available on Netflix or Amazon.  I think today I will turn to Disney+ for my entertainment.

How are you coping, Readers?  Is there a great book you’d recommend?  Or maybe some documentary or “based on a true story” movie I might have missed?  Do you want me to do another poetry reading?  Maybe some Edgar Allan Poe?

I have to admit I have a deep and abiding love for the way Mr. Poe put words together.  I often read him aloud just for myself.  There is a story of his that I rediscovered recently that I am consider reading on a Facebook live called “Some Words With a Mummy” and I would love to share it with all of you.

For now though, I will return you to whatever you were doing, and I’ll head out to try to find something I haven’t watched yet…or fall back on rewatching old favorites.

Please be safe, stay home, wash your hands and do something kind for yourself today.  I love you all.

Cover Photo by Océane George on Unsplash