Being vulnerable enough to look [honestly] at yourself – at your past is the hardest thing some of you will ever have to do.
I wish you strength. I wish you healing. I wish you peace.
Being vulnerable enough to look [honestly] at yourself – at your past is the hardest thing some of you will ever have to do.
I wish you strength. I wish you healing. I wish you peace.
What’s new?
Is nothing and a lot an appropriate answer?
Well it will have to suffice.
Let me first assure you I am not in a funk nor am I suffering from writer’s block.
On the contrary, potential stories abound!! I say potential because none have made it past my imagination.
In the garden, the grocery store, in front of the television or at a restaurant….
The list goes on forever.
So this morning as I was rocking and sipping my coffee (without spilling a drop), I asked myself,
Self, why haven’t you written a damn thing ??? No new books, not even a short story… Not so much as a blog post since April, and by the way you failed miserably at supporting NPM.
I pondered the question while I kept rocking and sipping, listening to the birds, watching the butterflies in the Mimosa tree and waiting for a response.
Finally self answered. Well, (in no chronological order) let’s see...
You got older and slower so multi-tasking got a little harder.
You had a birthday and Mother’s Day that went on for weeks-because you have some awesome ass kids.
You had Covid twice…
Your oldest brother died and it is still a painful and fresh wound…
You focused on family…
Remember a large portion of last year was consumed when the home had to be gutted and restored due to the flood after the freeze. And the fishing shack had to have all of the pipes replaced due to the same freeze.
The economy has put a strain on your finances so you’ve had to seriously reconstruct your retirement- and even put the fishing shack up for sale.
You chose to spend a significant amount of time mentoring and advocating for others because you know how it can be…
You spend a lot of time “working” at the pond and in the yard and gardens. But honestly you “meander” as much as you work.
Your dog died and you got a new kitten….
After listening to self for a minute, I said Oookay, and I didn’t feel too bad.
But then the selfish self had to wonder… am I still relevant? Not that I base my self worth on my writing but… you know.
So I typed my name and search-engined myself.
Great. At least I still appear in the www sphere.
But I found a piece of me in a place I had not heard of.
Fnac. F what?
Est-ce que tu parles français
Lord no. But I have been known to fake it.
So, in a nutshell that is what’s up. Or down.
If you don’t hear much from me it is safe to assume I am probably wandering in the woods or on the beach or working on a story even if it is in my head.
Stay well. Be happy.
XoXo
Sometimes you just have to ride…
Ride out far enough until the land opens up and the road meets the sky.
Hey, you know what would be great on this Tuesday – the second day of the second month in the year 2022?
Two dozen free tacos delivered to my door.
Or
Two million dollars deposited into my account.
I would eat the tacos and share the dollars.
But I have neither so…
I guess I’ll eat a double-decker dried out bologna sandwich that tastes like dusty cardboard and give you …. drum roll 🥁
Two (+2+2+2+2+) stories (that’s More) for the price of one.
And a few of my favorite twos.
Happy Tuesday/Twos-day Y’all.
Merlin (aka Mystical Magical Merlin, Mer-Mer or Merlin Samuel Salem Saberhagen) is about 3.5 years old now.
I’ve had him since he was a kitten so he should know he’s not supposed to roam and hunt like a feral hooligan.
Heck, he thinks he’s a panther.
It’s that line of thinking that has apparently wrecked his dental health.
Yep, that wild bachelor behavior – fighting and biting the heads off of birds and rabbits might not be so appealing when he’s lost all of his teeth.
But until then…
Did you know it was a woman named Rita Toews who started the Read an Ebook Week? Yep.
Read an Ebook Week brings together ebook retailers, publishers, authors, device-makers and untold thousands of readers who join in this international literary event.
For one week only, publishers and authors offer thousands of original ebooks for free and at deep discounts to encourage book lovers around the globe to give ebooks a try.
Smashwords participates in the event every year.
Admittedly I have not given Smashwords the proper time and care I should have – because to tell the truth they were a great help to me years ago when I went independent.
I hope to remedy my negligence now by actively participating in Read an Ebook Week.
For this week (March 07-13) the price of my titles at Smashwords have been deeply discounted with a price range of $1.99 to $0.00.
HaPpY reading Y’all.
The gruesome photograph that inspired the title [and the book cover] for Once Upon a Dead Gull. That was roughly eight years ago and [amazingly] this cover hasn’t changed much.
A peculiar short story anthology, I admit, but it was written for the horror genre.
Even more peculiar is that none of these stories are about a dead gull.
The poor seagull’s parting gift to mankind… to me, was simply to give life to a book title and cover I had been struggling with.
Fast forward eight [very short] years and one [bitter] historical freeze and…
No, I don’t have a new book release to announce but I do have a dead bird.
I couldn’t save the beautiful little bird but I did (in a poetic way) paint him back to life.
My skill level does not do him justice.
Whew, the title alone☝️is a mouthful. Alliteration much?
I haven’t been very productive as a writer (or anything else). I blame it on a lot of things, heck the heat here in Texas by itself is an acceptable excuse [and I have lots of excuses] but the truth is …
I found TikTok about a month ago.
My Lord, I have stayed up late nearly every blasted night for the past month gobbling this junk up like a crack head crashing after a week long binge.
I might need an intervention.
Nah, like most things, I will probably get bored with it and it will be poof! “physician heal thy self.” But until then…
Tik tic- tick tick – TikTok.
I’m TikToking @ https://vm.tiktok.com/JL7Qw3J/
“Be still and know that I am God.”
Psalms 46:10