Falling Leaves

I grew up in bookstores. When I was eight, my family moved back to the States after a couple years on a typhoon-ridden island1.  Back in California, with its lovely beaches and high cost of living, my mom had to get a job to help us make ends meet. Enter Books West, the only new...

Trust Everyone

I just had to get "Trust No One" off as the first post (especially since it's been there for nearly a year)! But seriously, that's closer to my feelings today. I just got back from an annual volunteer trip up to Bolinas, where I co-run a weekend workshop for teen girls aimed at redefining beauty. We...

Trust No One

I'm in the middle of a massive crafting project, and as a result, I'm re-watching all of the X-Files on Amazon Prime. As one does. I'm approaching season 3 now, and I've finally realized where that nagging "this is ridiculous" thought in the back of my head is coming from. At the end of season...

Just Write Through It – Exponential Sins

I'm going to admit to two things that I've been shamefully hiding from most of the world, or at the very least, downplaying drastically. - I've been pretty depressed. - I have not been writing. In my head, both of those are shameful, and to be hidden. (I know, I know. But my head goes...

Road Rage-ish

I'm not terribly prone to road rage. It's rare that I honk in anger, or scream and curse, and I think I've only ever flipped someone off once (after some careful deliberation). I think what I get is better labelled as Road Tics. In other words, I gesticulate and make odd noises, but there's very...

#notwriting

Oh, I had good intentions today. I woke up before seven, ready to jump into the blank page. But since I woke up so early, I decided there was time for a bath. Then, after the bath, I had to make tea. Then, I began my pre-writing ritual of clearing out my rss reader, and...

On my way to the wilderness, I passed…

Yesterday, I drove a speedy little Fiat into the Santa Cruz mountains, the light filtering through the redwoods and through the sun roof onto my head, in order to take a wilderness skills class that taught me how to walk stealthily through a pile of leaves in order to sneak up on a deer and...

The Foul Genre Aftertaste

I've been having a lot of the same conversation recently. Me: "Oh, you read (insert genre fiction title, most often Hunger Games or the like) too? What did you think?" Them: "It was good... you know, for the type of book it is." or: "I enjoyed it. Not, you know, deep, but fun." Why, why,...

Pin-up Boys

It's happening. I am going to publish a pin-up boys magazine: Boys & Wheels. Spinning wheels, that is. Beautiful men, posed seductively next to sexy spinning wheels. The whole idea came from a Dark Roasted Blend post, Girls & Trucks. Also loosely inspired by this flickr set that I loved from first sight, and by...

Three months, in a nutshell.

Wow, January was really the last time I posted? I'm not totally surprised. Since then, I - moved, - had my car stolen, - recovered the car, - submitted 14 grant proposals, including a monster of a national gov't one, - drove to Tucson to visit family, - planned and implemented a girls weekend retreat...