Category: Uncategorized

Today, I am 38.

Last year, I wrote the first draft of a soft sci-fi called The Zoo Agreement. If you like The Orville, I think you will enjoy this story as well.

I will be releasing more details and some looks inside the book as I go on.

Visit PilgrimFowlPress.com for more details, and to join the Pilgrim Fowl Press newsletters to get updates on upcoming books.

Favorite Short Story – Harrison Bergeron

Harrison Bergeron is the first short story that comes to mind when I think of short fiction. I was 15 or 16 years old when I read it for the first time, and I remember being absolutely terrified of the reality depicted in that story.

I will not ruin it for you, but there is a ballet scene in this story that is at once moving and jarring.

You can find the audio version of Harrison Bergeron on YouTube though I am not entirely sure how legal it is for them to be there. You can read it with your eyeball or your ears in Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut.

This is a member’s only magazine in which I am F E A T U R E D! Can you believe this? So stinking cool!

My friends, Hether and Kayla, have this wonderful membership site that is all about self-care. They have a 3-month trial package offered at discount, so you can take a look around and see if their place is a good fit for you.

They definitely overdeliver every time. I highly recommend you take a look around if you’ve been looking for ways to take care of yourself, learn more about everything else, and find people like yourself who are interested in being healthy and a real person at the same time.

http://www.hethercrawfordcoaching.com/limitless-coaching

I cannot recommend this podcast enough. If you are a fan of reading/writing short-form fiction, you’ll love it! Also, LEVAR BURTON! Come on! Does it get any better?

On my calendar, there are two short stories that I need to write.

One of them needs to be written, edited, and ready to publish on February 11th, and the other needs to be ready in all the same ways by November 3rd.

The story due is February is something for my PFP (Pilgrim Fowl Press) Lily Dae (this is a pen name) mailing list. It is a little thank you gift for them reading my very first book under that name. You can get it too for free if you join the mailing list before February 11th. Here’s a link if you are interested in joining: http://eepurl.com/gQPxZ1 .

If you have no idea what book I’m talking about, here’s a link to the book on Amazon, so you can read about it: https://amzn.to/2GHIMTJ .

The second short story on my calendar is very special to me. They all are, but this short story is the origin story of a character that has lived with me for around 16 years. I feel so guilty for just carrying this character and his friends around with me so long. It is time to tell his stories, but I will admit, I am nervous to write this one.

More on that when it gets closer to becoming a reality, but I can tell you this for now: The genre is fantasy.

I have a modest number of subscribers to this blog (Thank you for being here as a reader and/or a subscriber – Happy to have You). From time to time, I send a newsletter, but that is as scheduled as it gets.

Because this is a personal log, I figured people were joining to get the blog posts emailed to them directly, but my posting like my newsletter is inconsistent.

Some days, like today, I will post several times. Who wants to get several emails in one day from a blog? I mean, they are from a person. They are from me, but to most readers, the newsletter is coming from a blog.

So, I have decided to make a change. I am now going to email subscribers once a month. Specifically, on the first Tuesday of every month.

What will be in this email?

Inside will be a tiny update from me (350 words max.) and links to all of the blog posts from the previous month. I will also include links to my courses and books at the bottom, so you can easily ignore them or click them to get more information.

Why am I doing this now?

Well, I’ve been thinking a lot about the function and purpose of a newsletter. I have been unsubscribing to a lot of them lately, because I don’t have time to read them all.

The newsletters that I’ve remained subscribed to have been helpful to me in a couple of ways: they compile a list of things that have happened on the site that I may have missed, and they tell me about new releases and/or sales.

I think combining these two things into one email would be a good practice for most of these places, so I am going to try it out here.

Let’s see how it goes!

Captain’s Log – Day 11 in the recliner

Turns out reclining is not the best way to get any good thinking done. Reclining is for television watching, convalescing, and playing video games.

I have a novel to edit and various projects to plan, but I can do none of that in a recliner. Between coughing, bathroom trips, and napping, I’ve gotten nothing done.

I have played Sims 4 like it is going out of style, watched all The Witcher, viewed Two Popes, and watched the last UFC.

Not productive. Not productive at all.

I’m sick. I know I’m not supposed to be productive, but I am getting better. Being a little bit better makes me think about how I will be returning to the day job and part-time job again soon.

I wish I could split into two when I’m sick allowing one part of me to be in the recliner watching Gargoyles reruns and taking three medications at once, and another part of me to be going to work, cleaning the house, and carrying on with my novel edits.

Alas, I am but one. One coughing mess of a woman taking three medications, watching TV, playing Sims 4, and trying to figure out what she actually has the energy to do versus what she wants to do.

Being sick is hard. Let’s never get sick again.