Diary of a Half-Crazy Writer
Today marks exactly 15 years since my Mom passed. Or, as my Team Lead says, it has been 15 years since my Mom went home.
Sometimes it feels like yesterday. Sometimes it feels like it happened to another person.
All I know is I was lucky to have her in my life for the time I had her.
Writing continues to progress.
Will have more news next week hopefully.
Bye for now
When I opened the 20,000ish word document that held the beginnings of The Sword & Shield’s sequel (The Sea & Storm), I was shocked to see that the last time I touched it was back in December 2020. This was less a writer’s block and more a writer’s monolith. The Kaaba would be a more appropriate reference as far as size is concerned.
But, much like the lightning that consistently struck metro-detroit the night of my epiphany, so too struck inspiration. The problem was simple. I had a beginning but no middle or end. I had the premise and a solid beginning but no middle and no major event. Without the second 3/4ths of the story, I felt stuck and aimless. I attempted to do an outline but that proved fruitless.
Then it came to me. The rest of the story. I drove into work early. Like early early. Like HELLA early.
(It helped that the storm woke me up at 4:45AM)
So I got to work, opened my laptop, and got writing. And writing.
And writing.
I was on a ROLL!
Alas, I was interrupted by the beginning of the work day. But I made a solid start and have been inching closer and closer to a completed sequel every day since then!
To everyone who commented that they want a sequel, like the Sea & Storm beating against the rock that is my resolve, I eventually crumbled.
So look forward for that!
In other news, the new and improved version of The Sword & Shield is up and available on Amazon! For people who purchased the original version we’re cooking something up that you’ll be happy about so hold off buying a copy for the moment!
Bye for now!
Last Thursday I went to my first Post-Covid concert. Lindsey Stirling, a ballerina/violinist is one of my favorite musicians and as soon as I saw that she was coming to Michigan I knew I had to be there to see her live! I also knew it would be a good stress reliever and some filling food for the soul.
The only reason I felt comfortable attending, in light of recent trending variants, was because it was outside. I could have gotten an actual seat under the pavilion at Freedom Hill in Sterling Heights but then we would have been crammed together. So, picnic blanket in one hand and umbrella in the other, Mike (bf) and I, made our way to the lawn section.
I had cause to be anxious. It’s been raining cats and dogs on the regular (as recently as Wednesday) and the lawn seating offered no shelter from the elements. Thursday morning I was woken from a dead sleep by lightning striking right outside my window. Flooding was present on nearly every major thoroughfare in and out of Detroit but I managed to make it in. I attribute that, in part, due to the fact that I got in at 6:45AM to work on an epiphany I had (details in next week’s post). Things looked grim.
But lo and behold, the clouds quite literally parted (though the humidity stubbornly stood its ground) and it ended up being a cloudless concert! And it was a stunning experience. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the artist that is Lindsey Stirling, she plays an electric violin WHILE dancing. Yes, you read that right. And while I understood that on some level, watching it on a screen and seeing it live were two very different things.
It was a night I’ll never forget and I’m almost certain that the next time Lindsey Stirling is in Michigan I’ll be at her show!
Bye for now!
Nothing says BFFFEs (best friends for fucking EVER) quite like matching tattoos. Myself and my platonic soul-mate Amanda took the plunge Saturday and went to her ridiculously talented cousin and tattooist at Old Soul Tattoo Parlor out in Keego Harbor. Not only did she have a delicate touch but she was hella fast and I only needed two breaks despite it being in one of the top ouchie spots on the body!
The inspiration for the tattoo was Tui and La from Avatar the Last Airbender. Or, for non-ATLA nerds, Yin and Yang. But we’re crazy cat ladies so it had to be a cat version. I knew I wanted galaxy so she went with the light version. The horn is there because her spirit animal is a caticorn.
Much like Ezra with his innumerable Death Marks, all my tattoos have special meaning. The main difference is that I didn’t kill anyone to get mine, lol.
Or did I?
In book related news, the updated version of The Sword & Shield should be available on Amazon soon. For the lovely people who have already spent money on an OG version of the book, I’m looking into some way to provide a coupon code of some sort. If you’re going to buy a book twice, you might as well get a discount! At least, that’s what I think.
No promises but if there’s a way then I’m gonna make it happen.
Bye for now!
For those of you who are likewise afflicted by a deficit of attention to such a degree that it has been labeled disorderly, you know the struggle. Some things have to be done on a regular basis. Cleaning, exercising, a consistent sleep schedule, and for me in particular – writing.
Setting aside the fact that life is chaos and trying to find a vacant hour every day at the same time that you’re free seems impossible, for someone with ADD even if you have that hour sticking to it is the real challenge.
Let’s say that, hypothetically, there was a magically consistent and available hour wherein I never had plans or commitments. And let’s say that I managed to, at the beginning of that hour, put my butt in my chair and start writing. Staying focused is a bit like playing the violin and dodgeball simultaneously.
Random ideas and distractions will come at me from every direction, sometimes hitting me when I least expect them and my metaphorical guard is down. Suddenly the hour is over and I’m watching a Tiktok about effective resin mixing techniques.
I wish I could say that this was an op-ed post about the methods that work for me but this is something I actively struggle with. If any of my readers have found a solution and they’re willing to share it with me I would love them forever!
In the meantime, I’m doing my best. Self imposed deadlines don’t work for me because I’m intimately familiar with the person who set them and I know she’s full of shit.
Bye for now!
I know I’ve said it before, on more than one occasion, that I was going back to school. I dipped my toes back into the waters of academia and either I wasn’t in the swimming mood or the water was too cold. Ultimately, I’d back out. Not this time – I hope.
SNHU’s Project Management & Operations Master’s Program summer term began today, July 26th, and I was in it!
I had initially hoped to avoid the mandated Math course as my math skills are very much NOT ‘Smarter than a 5th Grader’, but alas, I was not able to dodge that particular bullet. Thankfully, according to my academic advisor, there are a bunch of tutoring programs available to me, the cost of which is incorporated into the tuition that I don’t have to pay for anyways.
I had a good laugh at the expense of their university bookstore as I typed in thriftbooks.com to order my textbook used for a third of what they wanted to charge me. It arrived last Tuesday and I have been looking over it a little bit every day since then.
To say I am unenthused at the prospect of taking another math course is an understatement. I once got an 18/100 on a Basic Algebra test. Math is not, by any means, my forte.
Would happily trade a signed copy of my book along with bookmarks and stickers to any reader blessed with math talent that would be willing to do my homework for me.
Just kidding.
Or am I?
Bye for now!
Life is interesting in the way it winds and weaves. When you plan on zigging, it zags. When you plan on ducking, you stumble over a trip-wire. And sometimes when one door closes the only way out is through the air ducts.
Two years and four days ago I drove into Detroit to begin the best career decision of my life. I didn’t know it yet, of course. At the time I was just excited about the new opportunity. What followed were 734 days of laughter, tears, adventures, and newfound friendships. The road has not been a cake-walk by any means. The Rock Family of Companies provides their Team Members with amazing benefits and a Rock Star culture but they expect you to put in the work in turn.
My 23 months were spent at Rock Connections and for those of you who don’t read my blog on the regular, I recently transitioned to the position of Senior Team Coordinator at Bedrock. I’m still in Detroit and still under the Rock Family of Companies, but at the same time it feels like everything has changed.
The people are so welcoming and are just as random and silly as I am while still exemplifying the work ethic I strive to live by.
In every job transition I’ve ever had, without fail, around the 2 week mark I usually have some sort of self-doubt ridden panic attack. I’ll question whether or not I’m capable enough to take on the new role, intelligent enough to learn what I need to, and so on and so forth.
And yet, the part of my brain that has traditionally chimed in to tell me I’m a garbage human being has been atypically quiet as of late. I think, and I’m just spit-balling here, that through a combination of personal growth in tandem with the people and atmosphere I have transitioned to my brain did not feel the need to go the self-disparaging route.
Welp, today is week FIVE at Bedrock. Time to see what new adventures await me!
Bye for now!
I’m back to my regular blogging schedule again. I apologize for the brief hiatus but my site was/is undergoing a makeover.
1 year, 3 months, 9 days since I packed up my desk and started working from home.
I’m BACK Detroit!
Today (6/21/21) is my first day back in the office and I am beyond excited to be around PEOPLE again!
I love my pets but they don’t talk back – yet.
Friday was my last day at Rock Connections and today marks my first day at Bedrock as a Senior Team Coordinator!
Wish me luck and
Bye for now!
5 Days Later
My first week was AMAZING! Sorry for being AWOL but the site has been undergoing repairs. My heart is so full and I have been welcomed with open arms into the Bedrock family! For the first time in a long time, the weekend wasn’t as exciting to me, because I was having so much fun at WORK!
ok NOW bye for now!
(just kidding)
Friday July 9th
Today is the last day of my third week at my new job and my spirits are so high they need oxygen to deal with the elevation differential. I am waking up every morning excited to go to work! Everyone I work with is fantastic and every day I’m doing something new.
There is also some exciting writing news but I have to keep it under wraps for the moment but it’s very very exciting!
Bye for now!
I am beyond ecstatic to announce that I have accepted a new position as a Senior Team Coordinator within Bedrock. The joy is multi-faceted. Let me explain. Bedrock is still within the Rock Family of Companies (commonly known for their flagship company Rocket Mortgage/previously called Quicken Loans) which means I get to stay with the amazing people who have treated me like a VIP since I started in July 2019! That means my PTO, health insurance, basically all of it stays the same except pay (which goes up!).
From the first (there were two) interview I knew this was where I wanted to be. It was my best interview to date, though it felt more like a conversation than an interview. For the first time in my life, I was able to refer to such an interaction as delightful. A word rarely used to describe the interview process.
It will be an adjustment for a couple reasons, the primary one being that I will be back in office five days a week after over a year of working from home. Which means wearing pants with a zipper or shoes with backs or brushing my hair every morning. Things that I can neither confirm nor deny as habits that may or may not have lapsed.
Another reason being that I sense this position is going to challenge me in new and unexpected ways, a thought that fills me with a small amount of anxiety that is vastly overshadowed by excitement.
I’ve got care set up for Gipsy Danger and my goal is to have my condo in maintenance mode before I return to the office. I do look forward to seeing people face to face every day and I am so excited to work with this team. In my second interview I got to meet some of the wonderful people I’d be working with which made me want this position all the more!
In other news, if you tried to access my site or any of my recent posts last Thursday (6/10) you may have noticed a distinct lack of content from the last TWO YEARS. The reason for this is simple. I am technologically challenged. I decided to downgrade my WordPress subscription because I had no need for all the extra features that were available to me with the plan I had been using and was not aware that EVERYTHING I HAD POSTED since the upgrade would disappear. So when I refreshed my most recent post was from 2018.
I was, understandably, freaking out.
I contacted WordPress customer support and advised them that, should I be unable to retrieve my previously published content, I would proceed to sob uncontrollably. Tech support was very supportive in my time of crisis and things have returned to normal. The site may look a little wonky till my agent Amy uses her wordpress superpowers to make it look shiny and new but all the content is there and that’s what matters.
I start in office the 18th!
Wish me luck and
Bye for now!
Honestly I have no clue.
Maybe I have a muse who works alongside my guardian angel. She whispers ideas in my ear while I’m in the shower or by waking me up at 3AM. The Sword & Shield came from a cat scratch that wasn’t healing properly. Still not sure where Seer came from, and pretty sure my current Work in Progress was a fever dream, lol. It’s too weird to be anything else.
Right now my muse may be on vacation – or on strike. Who knows? These ethereal beings can be temperamental. As long as they don’t form a union and demand pay and benefits I’ll be fine.
Does a Muse need health insurance?
Anyways, I don’t have much in the form of immediate news. Exciting things are in the process of forming into a reality but not so soon that I want to jinx them by attempting to speak those pieces of news into existence if that makes sense.
I hope the weather is better where you are and that you all have a wonderful week!
Bye for now!