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On the importance of touching grass
This was what I wrote on October 30, 2024 about the importance of touching grass, grounding (literally) and nature. https://theinsideofmybrain.substack.com/p/best-things-today-103024
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Best Things Today Examples
I wanted to give some examples of what my daily writing practice is like. At the end of each day I sit down and write about the three best things of that particular day. This is something I started way back in 2017 (what feels like one hundred years ago) when looking for a clean slate for a new year. It’s evolved into my single best mental health support strategy, keeping me grounded and focused on the things that matter. Surprisingly, the things that matter are often very small things – focusing on the really good cup of coffee, a silly thing a squirrel is doing, the way the air…
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My Substack Newsletter
Hello friends, my long term project, loosely called Finding Joy in the Middle aka “My Best Things List” is available on Substack as a newsletter. I’ll share some specific posts to give you a taste for what kinds of writing I do there. Meanwhile, I invite you to join the list, which is free (but you can choose to pay with a subscription, which is always appreciated and helps fund my wild search for joy and other writing and artistic pursuits.) What you get with my newsletter is a daily email with my “list” for the day (generally I write these at the very end of my day in the…
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Interview with Andy Weir, author of The Martian now up on The Maker Mom
When you fangirl in public, sometimes others hear! My friend Kim Moldofsky of TheMakerMom.com knew I was a big fan of the book The Martian and offered me the opportunity to interview author Andy Weir for her site. I was thrilled with the chance, and after some mayhem and mishaps of scheduling (which I’ll tell you about sometime) I was able to talk with Andy for a while and get his perspective on science fiction writing, STEM careers and fields, growing up a nerd in the 70s (spoiler: Andy Weir and I are exactly the same age and our parents were equally geeky. We had fun trading notes about our…
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Book Review: The Martian by Andy Weir
(from my Goodreads page. Please feel free to friend/follow me there. I love books and love to talk about them!) I LOVED THIS BOOK. I shall shout about it to anyone who cares to hear me. I listened to it in audiobook, over the course of about 4 days, which is very fast for a 10+ hour audio. (pro tip: listen while you cook dinner, fold laundry, or other mundane household stuff. I also listen on short, long, and medium length drives, and while I walk the dogs. My dogs are very well exercised at the moment.) What I liked: this book has so much technical depth and detail. While…
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Ursula Le Guin on writing
Great article/interview with Ursula Le Guin on Slate’s Book Review site.
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Book Review – Diplomatic Immunity by Lois McMaster Bujold
From my Goodreads review (which can be found here.) I am still a hearty fan of the Vorkosigan Saga. Every book I’ve ready (via audiobook) has been a joy to read/listen to. I find myself making excuses to listen more. The dogs are very well walked and my dishes are quite clean now thanks in part to Grover Gardener’s sure narration. This book follows Miles and Ekaterine to quaddie space, and features a mystery (like many/most of these novels do) as well as some old friends (love how Lois McMaster Bujold leaves little dangling bits in other works and then revisits the characters and events, usually with some wry observations, later.…
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Barbie Brouhaha
This week’s Internet Ragestorm is about a really ridiculous Barbie book about computer programming (article also appears on gizmodo if you encounter issues) that includes Barbie “only creating the design ideas, ha ha” and “needing to get Steven and Brian to do the heavy lifting of programming.” And then accidentally cause she’s an idiot infecting hers and another’s computer with a virus carried on a USB drive (a cute heart-shaped one!) Now, I don’t want to join the Barbie hate because…back in my youth I *adored* Barbie. I remember getting the “Pretty in Pink” (not related to the movie) Barbie for maybe my 9th or 10th birthday and being in heaven.…
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In Defense of Sparkle Science
I have an article up on the New York Times’ The Motherlode section called In Defense of Sparkle Science. Some of my daughter’s lip gloss and lip scrub experiments I’m thrilled with this piece as I’ve wanted to place something at The Motherlode for a while. If you are interested in the topic, please take the time to read through the Carnegie Science Center’s response to the criticism about the image that went viral, as they address the fact that they used to offer a wider range of options for Girl Scouts but no one signed up. I agree it looks ridiculous to have only one thing out for girls…
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Now available for purchase – SNOW WHITE AND THE ASSASSIN’S GUILD! (Kindle only)
Now available for purchase – my short story SNOW WHITE AND THE ASSASSIN’S GUILD! I wrote this short story during a workshop I took with Mary Robinette Kowal called Writing on the Fast Track (I highly recommend the workshop! It was conducted via online google+ hangouts, small number of classmates, we did exercises and critiqued each other’s work from week to week, and otherwise just had a ball. It helped me refine my ability to write short stories.) The story blurb: Snow White is frustrated in her role as an assassin in the king and queen’s service. As the third princess, it is her duty to help clean up the…
