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| Well, I *did* write this afternoon, but not fiction. A few days ago I'd reached out to some old friends who were feeling like they'd lose touch with everybody if they got off the brain-blender machine. (The Socials, my friends. The Socials are bad right now.) Anyway, I had said "what about being penpals, my dears? It gets us off the brain-blender machine but we still get to talk. I got a fountain pen and some stamps, do you want a letter?" You would not believe how many people want physical paper letters. So anyway, I wrote three letters this afternoon. It was great fun and I recommend it. (One of my Little Projects this year, if you recall, is to become the kind of person who remembers to send birthday cards, and physical letters seem like a natural extension.) I did use up the cartridge in my fountain pen, though, so I ordered a bottle of ink today so I can use the refill-able thingee like a civilized person, and I may end up using my typewriter for at least some of these letters, like Dorothy Parker. (I have a Collected Writings of Dorothy Parker and one of the best letters I've ever read she sent from a TB recovery place in Switzerland, and must have typed it because she gripes about the typewriter and the bad ribbon the whole time in between making you cry your eyes out for the dying friend she was there tending. Lady could write.) |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? So every morning that I do them--remember, these are stream of consciousness blatherings--I notice a few categories of blather. There's what you might call "AHHHHHHH!" stuff, the percentage of which goes up and down. There's "don't forget about the Appointment" stuff that my brain is trying to hang onto. And there's the babbling river of my brain that's always thinking up or noticing Cool Stuff. The Cool Stuff is one of the reasons why morning pages are good. The only way to deal with the AHHHHHHH!-- for me, anyway--is to do a lot of irritating maintenance, like taking walks, sleeping, limiting my doom scrolling, using my SAD light, taking my stupid vitamins, all that stuff. (Eating! Sleeping! It's annoying as heck! Why can I not be a cool brain in a jar?) And doing morning pages is part of that maintenance. In fact, if the AHHHHHH! percentage seems to creep up on a given day, I start looking back through my day for the cause. There is, irritatingly, almost always a cause that I can rectify. The "don't forget" is easier, because if *that* creeps up it just means I need to dump all that stuff into my planner. Which I did. When you don't have AHHHH! and you don't have "don't forget" in the pages, though, you get Cool Stuff from your subconscious. Like today I got a whole story idea, or at least the beginning of a story idea. I think it will be technically kind of difficult to write, but I really like the concept, so I'm going to sketch out the opener today. How are your pages going for you? We're almost through January. Do you notice any categories of brain foam on your pages? Do you get Cool Stuff now and then? PS Oh! I forgot another category. Problems Untangled. Often if I've been half thinking about a problem it'll pop into my morning pages, and writing it down will make me realize I actually have a solution for the problem, my brain just wouldn't look at it from that angle until I wrote it down. Brains, man. |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? Mine will be evening pages today, probably, because I've got an appointment this morning and they'd just be "hey, hey, how long until we leave for the appointment" because my brain is like that. I saw today that they found a piece of writing from ancient Sumer that's got a drawing of someone playing with a dog and a caption that says "the dog knows how to take, but does not know how to release". In other words, even in ancient Sumer dogs wanted you to throw the ball without them having to actually give you back the ball. I have wondered what aliens would make of us/dogs. It's a weird, very understanding relationship between two species who don't even vocalize the same way, and yet here we (and dogs) are like "what, they're just cool". (Although, my dog does his level best to imitate human vocalizations, because we're so dumb. He's been trying to tell me for DAYS that there are plant covers on all the plants in the back yard, and that I should get rid of them, and I keep not doing it. Humans!) |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? Mine today turned into me saying in a few ways "huh, I wonder why I feel so busy" and then finally deciding "well I'll just write down all the stuff I'm doing/tracking/planning and that'll show me I'm not that busy, silly me, ha ha". It turned out to be kind of...a long list. I looked at it and had what is truly an extreme thought for me: "Maybe I should make a spreadsheet or something." I hate spreadsheets, so I probably won't do *that*, but I'm thinking I do need to sit and do some calendaring/time blocking today for February, so less of this stuff is just sitting in my brain being Monitored. How's your day looking? |
Max Griffin 🏳️🌈  - The Husband is very, very good at spreadsheets and can put in all kinds of macros and doodads to make them sit up and shake hands. I am only marginally competent at spreadsheets, so you know if my time blocking has gotten to the point where I'm begrudgingly opening Excell, these are desperate measures. If things get REALLY bad I may even ask The Husband to build me something. |
| Long list, huh? Sounds so much like me. And I DO use spreadsheets to organize most aspects of my life. I don't use the myriad of features spreadsheet programs like Excel offer--many time I just make lists. But they allow me to track and date working items and successes ... or lack thereof. Good luck to you! |
| Excel spreadsheets are my saving grace. I use them for everything. As for the calendar, I used to have a wall one, a pocket one, and notes all over the place, so I converted everything into Gmail calendar - it's like a diary of things to do, things done, things I need to remember, places or events I want to go. And the best part is I can use it on my desktop, laptop, iPad, or phone, and all the info is there just waiting for me to enter the next silly thing on my list. |
| And then, just because I want to give you a lil present, and because I am This Age, here is Alanis Morissette. I have a friend who said, when I admitted to blaring this song when I need it, "Oh, yes. Alanis is the big sister who understands." If you need a big sister who understands tonight, here's Alanis, and also I'm here. |
Also, I'm honored that
has been chosen as a finalist in the 2025 Quill Awards. Thank you, whomever nominated and to the judges. Do toddle over to the "The Quill Book"  to read the other nominated items, I'm in good company!  |
I decided to make available a copy of The Stonetalker's Tale, a short story that I really like, which I sold to Tales From the Crosstimbers last year. Here it is:
I still really love Dareth. I even love Haden. And of course, they both love Steelkeep, the castle who worries about them. (I also learned, writing this story, that you guys are no help. If I ask you "which one dies?" about any given story you will all look at me with big tearful eyes and say DON'T KILL HIM I LOVE HIM!!) |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? I did mine and then dove right into a writeup of feedback for a novel manuscript that an off-site buddy sent me. There's multiple reasons that I think it's good for authors to read for other people--it teaches you how to read your own stuff critically, for one thing--but an underrated reason is that many of these books are just very, very good. In the last year alone I've read three different unpublished manuscripts that I thought were better than a couple of the books I read for a book club. Did they need editing? sure! Were they fun and original and full of characters I adored? Also yes! I've heard a lot of people complain that "music these days is all auto-tune and samey, where's all the innovators? Where's the new Bob Dylan?" And I've thought, I've heard the new Bob Dylan. She's playing at the brew pub down the road from me on Wednesdays for a comped dinner and tips. And I kind of feel the same way about novels. Everyone whines about everything in storytelling being derivative these days, but man, there's plenty of innovation and coolness out there, it's just scrambling to try to get its foot in the door. It's not the artists, it's the industry. I am aware this makes me sound like the aging hippie trying earnestly to get you to take a copy of their zine. I don't care, I'm making this prescription anyway, you should read your friends' stuff. You should read the up-and-comers. You should read for the newbies toddling around on their little baby legs. Read widely, and generously, with an open heart and a sharp eye. It's good for them, it's good for you. And sometimes it means you get to read a really killer novel before anybody else. |
| I have made another batch of cookies! I have written 1700 words of useless vignette (but it made me happy to know how the OTHER POV character, not the one whose POV made it into the manuscript, saw the final-chapter love scene)! (Useless vignette/epilogue was for the characters in this book: "Bladebound" ) This was me giving myself a candy bar to lure myself to writing again. I have also written about 700 words of chapter six, in which I realize I am picturing a space station kitchen as being roughly like the one on the USS Missouri, but with food synthesizers? I should probably work on that some. But crucially, I ALSO realized that my character, advancing slowly through this haunted space station, has suddenly begun to hear what is basically Muzak. He writes it off as "weird old timey stuff" and I am making myself delighted by trying to imagine what it would be. (Chapter six in this book: "Minerva Dreaming" ) Because of course there's Muzak. This is an engineered environment, designed by a very particular type of guy. I feel like he'd try to pick Very Serious Music. So do we want him to pick, like, Bach (keeping in mind that for him choosing Bach would be about like us choosing that weird other-octave medieval chant music) or like, Metallica? |
| Good morning! We still have electricity! Did you do your morning pages? I got up in the cold today and did mine with my fuzzy slippers on. There's no actual snow here, which is nice, because there's nothing to shovel, but there's still ice here and there and it may not get above freezing today, so there's that. Yesterday was exhausting. Today I'm going to keep house and activate my 1998 protocol to hopefully be able to write a little. I think I'm going to try to write the most self-indulgent thing I can think of. Will it have kissing? Yes.) |
| We still have electricity! My morning pages were a half-page today, and much like when I'm in any super-stressful situation I know I'm not going to be able to write today. So! Here are some reminders: 1) Even in a crisis you've got to eat. Try something simple and easy to digest like soup, or a few crackers, or a peanut butter sandwich. I know it feels like you can't spare a minute from the vigilance for food, but unless there's an active emergency in your house right now, you'll do better with the calories. Eat. 2) Also you have time for things like stretches, showers, and making your bed. Even if there is an emergency about to occur, Future Exhausted You will be happy that they showed and they have a good bed to fall into tonight. Take care of your physical form. 3) If you're a spiritual person or have spiritual practices, this is the kind of time those practices are for. Whether you're lighting a candle, reading a psalm, singing, do what you need to do to draw strength and love your neighbor today. Maybe you can just check on your literal neighbor, make sure they've got blankets and enough to eat. Maybe it's just texting someone. Do one little thing. And friends, I'm being vague on purpose here because this is the internet, but these actions apply to ice storms both literal and metaphorical. Take care of yourselves, my dears, and take care of your communities. Keep the faith. |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? I...have NOT, because of the storm and because frankly my brain just won't today. Remember, friends, we do a process, we don't do perfect. Pages will still be there tomorrow. The government is telling us to be ready for power outages, by the way, so if you see less of me for a couple of days, fear not. I am just eating banana bread and playing gin rummy by the light of the solar lantern. Are you keeping warm? Or if you're not in the storm path, are you feeling so smart about your housing decisions? (You should.) |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? Mine were a whiny rant today, and then I decided I should get moving and make banana bread and also probably a pot of beans and such in case we lose power over the weekend. Almost done with the laundry, too. (This ain't mama's first blizzard. Well, it's not supposed to be a blizzard here, exactly. More like sleet. But I don't know any other way of prepping, so they get the blizzard preps.) Here is a recommendation from a podcast I listened to this week: if you're in a situation with big cognitive (that's thinking 'bout a lot of details or plans), emotional (that's big feelings, like say a funeral or a job change or worrying for someone's health), or physical (shoveling snow, training for a marathon, moving) demands, you need to figure out one leg of that three-legged stool to reduce demand on, or you're vulnerable to getting the equivalent of the Blue Screen of Death from your central nervous system. In other words, if you find yourself having to i.e. think through storm mitigation this weekend, try to do one thing at a time with your brain. That is, do not cook at the same time as you listen to a podcast. Do not have a conversation with the TV on, or fold laundry while you're on the phone. As aggravating as it is, quit asking your brain to attend to two things (or more!) at once. Trust Auntie Raven on this one. It will feel very frustrating, but take it like medicine. It's only for a little bit. And drop in if you can to tell us how you're weathering stuff. (Or if you're smugly sitting in the good part of Florida, send us jealousy pictures.) |
| Sounds like good advice. (Of course, I ignore my podcast, so it doesn't count.) Yes, consider the supply of adaptation energy. The study I cited years ago showed that multitasking is quite possible but what they showed is that NOBODy can gauge in-media-res how well they're doing at it. Some tasks, performance wasn't harmed. Some, it was ruined. But their opinion of how it affected success was no better than a roll of the dice. Takeaway: don't multitask when risk is involved. Driving, sorting medicine, walking on frosted sidewalks without ice skates. When risk is not involved: doing a rough draft, buttering toast, chewing gum. |
| Good morning! Did you do your morning pages? Mine were all about this big storm allegedly barreling towards us and how everybody in town seems to be panic shopping, but I've looked through the official "have this in your house for Preparedness" lists and...you guys, I already have all that stuff in my house. (I *always* have that stuff in my house. Even the weather radio. Am a rule follower.) We'll see I guess if this is me having hubris or me...being the annoying kid who did the homework early. How about you all? Are you in the path of this big cold storm? |
| I sometimes write over at Threads That Bind, and today I have an essay up about Not Kicking Dogs, which is actually about Not Kicking You. https://threadsthatbind.net/2026/01/22/how-do-you-get-to-carnegie-hall/ Maybe you want to know how to Not Kick You? |
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I don't know if I ever saw the final result. I'll check this out this week. *saves note*
Hope all your travels work the way you want them to. :)