Hello. This is Barbara.

These books are nothing like I remember them.

Let’s start here: I loved the SyFy series, but it is important to keep the series separate from the books. The books are their own thing as is the tv show.

The first time I read The Magicians, I didn’t really like it. I thought it was just okay. I remember saying, “He lost me at the talking animals. It’s just not for me.”

I kept reading. I read them all. When I finished the series (the first time), I said, “that was pretty good,” and moved on to the next book in line.

Something came over me last month. I missed the characters. The show is over now, and I missed my magician friends. So, I picked up the books again. And, whoa…

I was completely surprised by the second reading of all these books. I didn’t remember most of the story. Maybe, I wasn’t paying attention fully during my first go, but by the end of the third book, I was tearful and felt like I had been through something.

Let this be a lesson – reading a book a second time is not always required, but it can sometimes delight you.

I’ve written a brief article on the origin of HTML if you’re interested –

You most likely already know that HTML is used to build websites, but do you know where the language came from?

In 1989, a laboratory in CERN was one of the only places in the world that had access to the Internet. The Internet at that time was very different than the cat video utopia and the political dumpster fire that it is now. This Internet was a way for the scientists at CERN to access each other’s computers at will.

When I’m not writing fiction, I’m writing articles about topics that interest me.

A few years ago, I took a certificate course in WordPress Development/PHP. Like any language if you don’t use it, you lose it. I lost it.

Recently, I’ve browsing my old course text and writing small posts about what I find. I retain information a lot better if I have to teach it, so I am using these articles to teach others (and myself).

Here are my latest posts:

Where Did HTML Come From

How HTML Tells Computers What to Show Us

1. Consider baking bread.

2. Convince your dog it is, in fact, time for yet another potty break.

3. Learn Spanish.

4. Paint a self-portrait.

5. Read an article about voters’ rights being attacked in your home state.

6. Take too long choosing a pen.

7. Coffee refill.

Okay. That’s enough. It’s time.

It is 8:14a.m. on Sunday, and I have no internet.

I live nomadically. This means I am typically at the whim of whatever free Wifi that’s available. Right now, there is none.

This is excellent news actually as I have a draft to finished, but it also means that I cannot do any of my regular posting at regular times.

Until I relocate once again, my schedule for social media, blogging, and marketing will have to be, well, when I can upload vs when I can’t upload.

We’ve been back in Nashville for a week, and I am still not used to seeing so many people.

We were alone in a small town for months. Talking to people is very foreign. Driving in a densely populated city is hard now.

I had gotten used to our little bubble.

It feels at once isolating and relieving to work at home and only been around a handful of people.

This is a very strange time we (everyone on the planet) is going through.

I hope you are doing well where ever you are and whoever you are.

When it comes to writing tools, I am an equal opportunity employer. Cheap pens, gel ink, liquid ink, expensive, ballpoint, and, of course, fountain. Fountain pens are my favorite. They are a bit fuzzy at times, but when they work, you can feel the words coming out of them. No struggle. Just flow.

Two random things about pens/fountain pens:

1. Putting the cap on the back of your pen, any pen, is called posted position. You are either a posted or not posted position writer. I am a posted position writer. When I am unable to post the cap of pen due to design, I get furious.
2. Sometimes with fountain pens either due to ink quality or environmental conditions, you will have to prime your pen to make the ink flow. Priming looks like this: