What the heck is ASMR?

The acronym ASMR stands for "Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response." The best description I've ever seen of it is this video here.  The gist is that certain triggers cause good, relaxing feelings of "tingles" and "shivers" that run down a person's spine. ASMR is generally a pleasant, soothing sensation, and it helps people get to sleep …

Give A Goddess Her Agency

(a rough poem by A.K. Anderson) Persephone was not kidnapped She chose to dive. There was no other way to claim her story. Until she became Dark Goddess, Light-Swallower, Queen She was Girl. Maiden. Kore. Un-storied. Sheltered.  A precious, powerless princess. How do I know? The girl was down there for six months. Who fasts …

Before I Begin My Quest

I signed up for a lovely idea called #Quest2015, and I'm going to be setting out with other intrepid explorers to define my creative goals for next year.  It's likely that I'll be blogging about this trek through December. You know how much I like to blog about New Year's Resolutions! Before I set out …

On Writing When Things Suck

The whole point of the NaNoWriMo exercise is to teach people how to start a writing practice. To get budding would-be writers to the page. Getting to the page every day (or nearly every day) is sometimes one of the hardest parts about writing. I'm at 31K words, and I'm not sure I'll push myself …

#NaNoWriMo 2014 and the Process Experiment

In September, I wrote a new draft and began the revision of last year's NaNoWriMo novel. I noticed that I tend to sprint through action - light on details and motivations - until I get to 30K words, then I have to pad back in to make up for this. When this happened with the …

When Your Dystopian Sci-Fi Starts Coming True

In order to fully explain my current depth of freaked-outedness, I'm going to have to refer to a whole lot of other websites and links.  Please click them. They are part of the story. I'm also going to have to delve into some backstory that never really gets talked about in Salvaged. It's what happened 6 years prior …

Note to self – When done writing, write about process

I'm writing a new novel.  This is the second one I've drafted since the tenth draft of Salvaged when I swore I'd never write ten drafts of anything again.  The one before this was last year's NaNoWriMo which fell short of expectations. In the mid-term, I've outlined film scripts and worked on comic scripts and …

Lady Squirrelicorn’s GISHWHES

A few weeks ago, I saw this  video of Germans trying to say the word "Squirrel" and giggled helplessly. Mostly because Bettina, the German exchange student who lived with us when I was in high school really liked the beverage "Squirt," and had a horrible time trying to pronounce it.   She got to the point …

On Writing Sequels

It surprises people sometimes to hear that I'm not diving instantly into writing the sequel to Salvaged. I've outlined Quarantined, I know what happens, but I haven't written more than a few scribbled notes on it. Why not write the sequel?  Salvaged has had a few nibbles. It may be the book that gets me an agent. It …

Writing Process… Wha? Huh?

  I am all nostalgic looking at this photo. Awww. Volume 19. How cute. (My handwritten journals are currently closer to volume 48. I write 3 pages a day thanks to a long standing Artist's Way habit. )  And that's my old laptop. I miss those stickers. *pats laptop* Ahem. Where was I?  Oh. Yeah. …