The Social Porcupine

I only endure the process of peeling and cutting potatoes because I like to see the joy on people's faces when they taste a bit of the Earth and find it be as God says, "Very good."  I think the worst part about struggling for anything is all the time I have to wonder.  I used to think I was quite good at patience and forbearance. You know, because I embroidered intricate, gorgeous scenes all out of tiny stitches. But then I could see my progress, feel it, and most of all know that my goal was coming closer, no matter how tiny my stitches might be.  The problem with real-life is you just can't know.  Ah, but to have the gift of hindsight. "See! I knew I would succeed!"  "One step at a time," they say. If only those steps were as visibly known as the tiniest stitches I embroidered. I simply don't know how close, if I am at all, to my finish line. And even worse, I wonder. "Is all this worth it? Or am I just wasting my time?" It's r...

I would so love to see my books on store shelves someday. It would be amazing if I had fans that raved about my stories and ranted in ways I'd never do (because I'm very calm, for the most part). And if they did this in public. I'd be happy, even approve, of such unacceptable behavior. Call me a hypocrite, I don't care ;) Of course, my ultimate goal is to just write a story that touches others. Money and popularity are NOT the reason I write.  But dreams can go beyond goals, yes?  IF I EVER BECOME A BESTSELLING AUTHOR I WON'T . . .  . . . believe it. How could I? My stories aren't near good enough . . . are they!? Is it the glasses, or am I just bad at dramatic selfies? ;D  . . . buy a brand new sports car. Because that's just a waste of money. Practical and cheap will still work very well for me. Love my Volvo ;D  . . . quit cleaning houses. Now I might clean less. But I don't think I could ever stop completely...

2017 was an interesting year. It started and ended differently than I ever could have imagined. My life experienced things I never saw coming. It was a great year and awful year in so many ways. I will probably always look back on 2017 as a growing year where I was tested over and over, and then again some. I'm still not sure quite all what happened, or even how. Like maybe I'm in a little bit of shock still? I don't know.  As I explained in my post last year  I don't do resolutions.  But my opinions have slightly altered since then. I have been setting a lot of extreme goals for myself these last few months. Some of them were things to help change my focus. Some of them were things I'd always wanted to do and I realized now was the time to start. So, sometimes now I will stop and think, "How do I want to be different by the end of this month?" I'll pick two or three things. And then work on them all month. I've a...

So... I realized something. I'm really bad at updating the world to my writing life. I mean... I didn't even tell you all that I was doing NaNo . Much more... that I had huge, HUGE writing goals for last month. At least they were huge for me ;)  Plus I was traveling... while trying to write.  Here's my apology, with an update!  Back when I was trying to get serious about writing and started the process of building up my writing habits I joined Go Teen Writer's 100 for 100. I wrote a sci-fi novella called Silent Thoughts . It took me several months... but once I was finished I completely loved what I had. And could finally say I'd finished a story of some length.  Here's a guest post I recently did on Go Teen Writer's that goes more in depth about that journey.  But it didn't stop there.  In my mind a series began to develop.  A Series Of Thoughts.  83,341 words, a littl...