The dark side of darkness
I love a moody setting. A moody aesthetic. I'm all for the dark side of romance. I like art with a side of "holy shit that's twisted." What I'm not into? When romantic darkness turns into real-life harm. In literature, for me, it's a line - it depends on how it's presented. I'm a fan … Continue reading The dark side of darkness
Blooming
It's blooming season here in Colorado. I continue to be amazed and delighted by flowers. Stopping to just exist in a natural area has been proven to lower stress, particularly anxiety - despite our concrete jungles and hearts of darkness, we are wired to be interconnected.
I will not be inconspicuous
I realize this is a privilege we don't all have. But I do, so I will be obvious. Fascism isn't hiding. Hate is proudly announcing itself and painting itself as righteous. Hate is going to come for a lot of people, and too many people who don't hate aren't doing much, if anything, to stop … Continue reading I will not be inconspicuous
Misogynistic characters vs misogynistic writing
I've talked about this with a number of women who write over the past few years, as we have been exposed to stories where misogyny is featured and stories where the narrative itself - and often the writer - is actually misogynistic. Conflating those two things is dangerous. One is a way of exploring and … Continue reading Misogynistic characters vs misogynistic writing
Untameable
Now is the time to become untameable.
Not sleeping is my new superpower
On a writing retreat, unable to sleep. The emotional scenes are always easier to write at 1am. There's nothing out here but wind, deer, and birds of prey screeching. And the wind comes out of nowhere - it'll be silent, then all of a sudden, a rush of wind that sounds a lot like the … Continue reading Not sleeping is my new superpower
Institutions will not save us
To all my fellow writers: There was a book published back in the late 1970s about the Holocaust, in which the author concluded that while there were a lot of individuals who did speak out and attempt to do what they could to push back on Nazi policies and protect Jewish people and others who … Continue reading Institutions will not save us
Post-liminality
The last six months of my life have been turmoil. They've also been weirdly productive. And I don't mean productive the the corporate American work ethos sense of the word, but in the sense that things were flowing, and I handled what I had to handle, and I was fairly calm the entire time. You … Continue reading Post-liminality
The After
The southern part of New Jersey is a marshland - salt marshes full of life, mixed in with the highways and concrete and suburban spaces that are the world we see. The marshes are what we don't see. The things that pass by your window as you drive, the areas you can't touch or don't … Continue reading The After
Mental Wanderings: Art, Nature, Life 