Greetings, all, and happy, Happy New Year! I think we can all agree that we’re not especially disappointed to see 2020 go. But who knows–maybe some of us are. I know we’re all eager to put the last 365 days far behind us, but to ensure that we remember why we’re so grateful for the …
Self-Exploration
I Wish the Monsters Would Stop
For the second night in a row, it happened. This time, I was standing in my kitchen consulting my Google Home on how long I could safely thaw raw meat at room temperature before bacteria began growing. The moment the shrill, public alert alarm broke through the locked screen of my smartphone as it sat …
Writing Prompt: The Portal
Today’s a Nick Drake kinda day–a day when you take long walks, languidly pick up that hobby you promised yourself you were going to finish, catch up with loved ones over a nice, warm drink…and read pleasant little stories inspired by gorgeous, surreal imagery. I’m a little overdue since posting my last writer’s prompt. I …
NaNoWriMo, Here I Come
I was talking with my friend Rebecca a while ago, who was telling me about a challenge she had undertaken at her barre exercise class. “The goal is to complete 45 barre classes in 30 days,” she told me. I was no mathematician, but those numbers gave me pause. “Wait. That means you’re gonna have …
End of a Beginning: My Rookie Year as a Voice Actor
“And, that’s a wrap on Kesha Charles!” It was writer/director/producer Zachary Vaudo who delivered the final hatchet chop on my last act as lead and cyberpunk demon slayer of the third season of horror audio drama, The Blood Crow Stories. From the viewport from within the soundbooth, I watched his wife and fellow writer/director/producer, Ellie …
5 (Good) Literary Classics Under 200 Pages
[Reposting an old favorite. Read and enjoy!]Original post date: October 2013 Months and months and months ago, I was having a conversation with my friend Jen about how short Mitch Albom’s novels are. “I don’t know how he manages to put so much emotion into so little space,” she said, and I agreed, awed—and maybe …
How to Survive (and Enjoy) a Party as an Anxious Introvert
“It’s okay,” I told myself as I drove down the interstate through an unforgiving, almost mockingly spontaneous downpour. “It’s alright. You’ve trained for this for the last six months. You can do this.” It was time for my mother’s birthday barbecue party, in which all extended family members–dozens of them–would be attending. My mother had …
Quote of a Super Introvert: Nick Drake
“I was born to love no one,No one to love me.Only the wind in the long green grass,The frost in a broken tree. “I was made to love magic;All its wonder to know.But you all lost that magicMany many years ago.”