I managed to get away from bright flower photos in the past ten days, at least. Mostly.
Snapshot #128 | 10 Things for 2 June 2019
PersonalCurrently…
1. getting… back to work.
2. talking… myself out of dying my hair pink. Or teal. Or any colour other than blonde. I miss real colour desperately but I know I can’t be bothered to maintain it.
3. planning… the next draft of Violet Lane. I’m ready to start writing on Monday.
4. experimenting… with the whole bullet journal thing again. Turns out the setup I was using didn’t work as well as I thought.
5. trying… Beyond Meat burgers. I was pleasantly surprised—not the best burger I’ve ever had, but perfectly good for something store-bought, and far better than any other veggie burger I’ve had. I’ll have them again. (That said, I do want to finally try making my own veggie burgers this summer.)
6. catching… up on my podcast backlog! Completely! As of right now, there is no backlog. Which means I’m tempted to go looking for something new, to start the cycle all over again.
7. making… plans for the site redesign. Now I just need to pick a day to tear everything down and rebuild.
8. meeting… the new ravens! Over the past few years, I’ve managed to become friendly acquaintances with the local pair; this year I got to see their fledglings! (Which, yes, meant I was standing in the middle of a public path talking to four ravens like they understand English. But four ravens! š)
9. starting… to build my DVD/Blu-Ray collection again. I got out of the habit, but as streaming services multiply, it makes more sense to me to buy anything I want to see more than once. Now I need to figure out how to store these things.
10. refining… my goals and updating my inspiration board.
Inspired | May 2019
LinksEvery month, I share the articles and sites that I found most interesting. Here’s what caught my attention in May.
Sketchbook #43
WritingMay has taught me that I really do need to build a better system for managing my writing projects.
It started off well enoughāI had finished drafts of both The Black Sun and Violet Lane, vague plans for my next project (very tentatively titled These Modern Things), and I was excited to move forward. And thenā¦ not much happened.
May wasnāt awful. Iāve been brainstorming the new story and figuring out what I need to do with Violet Lane, and Iām waiting to hear from readers of The Black Sun. Iāve been beta reading a story for a friend. So itās not like I havenāt done anything this month butā¦ it kind of feels like it.
Project366: #111-120
PhotographyThe good news is, Iām happier with this batch of photos than I was with the last one. Not all of them, of course, but there are more good ones than bad, and there are a few that Iām really happy with.
Levelling Up
WritingOne of my resolutions for 2019 was to āactively seek out inspiration,ā to not only look for the art and media that made me want to do things, but to engage with it more.
I also said Iād keep you up to date with that.
Um.
Right. Yeah. Sorry.
I havenāt figured out a way to talk about it that feels natural for this space. I tend to shy away from writing reviews or critiquesāeven short onesābut I donāt know a better way to do it. (If you have an idea, drop it in the comments! I really do want to sort something out.)
But I have been doing the important part: over the last couple of months, Iāve been more intentional in the movies I choose to watch and the books I choose to read. This time, itās not just a matter of pulling myself out of a rut (thoughā¦ itās kind of that, too), itās about looking at the media that thrills me, and picking it apart and figuring out why I love it so muchāand why it frustrates me, because most of the time, the stories I love the most are the ones that infuriate me. Not only are my standards higher, but I spend more time thinking about the story, working through character arcs and plot threads, and eventuallyāinevitablyāseeing the places where they fall apart.
(And, no, Iām not talking about Game of ThronesāIāve never watched itābut I do have to acknowledge that itās part of the reason Iām thinking about this stuff right now. Iāve been watching the discussion over the past few weeks, and itās given me a lot of new ideas about craft and storytelling.)
(I am talking about Avengers: Endgame. At least a little bit.)
Snapshot #127 | 10 Things for 19 May 2019
PersonalCurrently…
1. starting… to pick up supplies for the balcony garden. It’s always a challenge (between the light and the nearby oak trees that try to murder the competition, nothing seems to want to grow out there), but I live in hope.
2. moving… forward with my big scary photo project. Small steps, but in the right direction.
3. thinking… about my creative process, and the things I want to make—in both writing and photography. Exciting things are coming. (Eventually. These things take time.)
4. getting… ready to update my inspiration board.
5. deciding… that I hate the little rubber backs that come on enamel pins now. They’re too easy to lose. (At least I noticed before I lost the pin, too.)
6. accepting… that it’s time to make some updates to the site design around here. I’ve been dancing around the idea for a while, mostly wondering if I was just procrastinating on other things, but… yeah. It’s time. I’m still deciding if it’s a full revamp, or just a refresh.
7. chipping… away at the podcast backlog. Again. (Always.)
8. looking… for a good baby-name site, with historical and demographic data and a good recommendation engine. (For naming characters. Not babies.) I used Nymbler for years, but I kind of hate how it works since the redesign.
9. setting… deadlines.
10. making… a new running playlist. The old one just wasn’t cutting it anymore.
Project366: #101-110
PhotographyOk. Yeah.
The last ten days of photosā¦ arenāt great. Theyāre not awful, I donāt actively hate any of them, butā¦ most of them are ok at best. I only genuinely like two of these photos.
Over the last week or so, I havenāt been paying as much attention to photography as Iād likeāIām relying on my phone, and still taking photos just to check it off the to-do list, rather than putting any kind of effort in.
Snapshot #126 | 10 Things for 5 May 2019
PersonalCurrently…
1. nursing… a post-Endgame emotional hangover. (Didn’t cry in the theatre, but it was a near thing.)
2. thinking… about John Singleton. Everyone’s talking about Boyz N the Hood (and rightly so), but Higher Learning (trailer) had a huge impact on me when I was first falling in love with movies. This hurts.
3. making… a real plan for the new running season. I started later than I’d like (stupid rain), but it’s not too bad, and I’ve got plenty of time to reach my goal for the year.
4. baking… this cake. It might be my new favourite (small batch!) chocolate cake recipe: the cake is flavourful and delicate, the frosting is fantastic, and none of it is too complicated.
5. figuring… out a tricky worldbuilding detail in the mysterious next writing project.
6. planning… some changes.
7. starting… to daydream about cold brew season. Yes, two weeks ago I was complaining about how spring—let alone summer—would never get here. I got over it.
8. feeling… motivated. And also sleepy?
9. troubleshooting… the Scrivener export/compile process. I mean… it works, but it’s not exporting a file that looks the way I want it to when I import it into other applications. (I like to deliver the file to beta readers using Google Drive. It solves so many compatibility issues.)
10. looking… for ducklings and goslings every time I’m near the lake… no luck so far.
Project366: #91-100
PhotographyIāve got mixed feelings about this group of photos. Literally: I am absolutely in love with half of them, and Iām decidedly meh about the rest.
