If you’re not a subscriber to Abbie Emmons’ channel, why not?? She is young, but she has a lot of great writing ideas and advice. I like how she approaches writing from a more practical standpoint and a lot of what she says makes sense to me.
When I saw her latest video about generating story ideas, it was like a light bulb went off in my brain and suddenly, I had so many ideas!
Anyway, I think it’s definitely worth a watch and with July’s Camp NaNoWriMo happening in less than a month, I thought it might help any writers out there struggling for ideas. (Like me).
Let me stew on these a bit and break down why they resonate with me and I’ll follow this post up with my ideas, like Abbie does in her examples, in another post.
I really like Abbie’s ideas and I feel inspired every time I watch her videos. Her ideas make me excited about writing fiction again.
In the meantime, what three story ideas would you like to mash together?
May was busy. But ya’ll knew it was going to be. If you’ve been reading my blog you’ll know that we are down three MA’s, (medical assistants) at work this month and one nurse retired. This means I have volunteered to take one of the doctors that lost her MA, Dr. S., along with my normal doctor, Dr. M., and now I am taking care of two doctors. One is a full time job, two is over time.
So, I haven’t really done much outside of work/sleep this month. But let’s be honest, I don’t normally do much outside of work and sleep anyway, it’s just been amped up a few notches this month.
And honestly, it will be like this for me this whole summer.
We interviewed a few MA’s this month, only two, because no one is working right now, they’re all staying home and enjoying the money the government is giving them under the guise of COVID relief which the rest of us working stiffs are paying for, and the fact that there aren’t very many people going into healthcare right now so it’s slim pickings.
The first MA was very young, just out of MA school and had zero experience. We’re not opposed to training on-the-job, but we would prefer someone who has SOME work experience – this girl was green-green.
The second MA was older, a breast care survivor, has worked for the hospital for 29 years and was very sweet. The reason we turned her down … she’s not a quick thinker. She couldn’t answer a few of the interview questions. Even if she gave some bullshit answer, it would have been preferable to, “I can’t think of anything to say.” To me, that is someone who doesn’t think on her feet and this job DEMANDS someone think quick on his/her feet.
Even though we’re short handed, we don’t just want a warm body, we want someone who will be worth the time and training investment – so – it looks like I will be Dr. S’s MA for the foreseeable future – unless they mandate the experimental injectable, i.e. COVID vaccine, and then they will REALLY be hurting for people because I’m not sticking around for that.
But I digress … let’s move on to my May journal spreads. As always, prepare to be IMPRESSED.
My May cover and steps page. I’m not crazy about the color combo this month, but I thought they were a good match to the flowered cover page so …
Weather and sleep – I don’t feel like I did very good on my sleep this month. In fact, according to my Garmin tracker, I consistently only got about 3 hours of deep sleep every night. No wonder I’m a zombie. Also, I had a lot on my mind this month so that probably accounts for that. Also – I was “trying” to write sleep in a fancy font – as you can see, I failed miserably.
Wow – terrible tracking this month. And yes, the journal tracker is correct. I just didn’t have the energy to journal. However, I have decided I am going to sum up the month instead of writing daily every once in a while in my journal so I’ll take that tracker off next month. And yes, the cleaning tracker is correct – I cleaned one time this month. Okay fine, I’m keeping track of deep cleaning on this tracker, not cleaning up after myself and making sure we don’t have to wear swim shoes in the shower clean. Walking tracker is also correct – I was already getting 8-10 thousand steps during the work week, I didn’t want to do anymore.
(Go back to sleep tracker results).
I did something different with my mood tracker this month and I’m digging it. I wrote out a sentence that summed up my day to explain the mood I selected for that day. I will definitely keep this tracker. This also likely explains why I didn’t journal this month, I already summed up the day, I didn’t have enough energy to go into details.
My podcast titles, (pretty proud of myself, didn’t miss a week this month) and zero videos. I swear, I’m working on that part. In fact, I filmed myself three times this past week but didn’t want to post it because I didn’t finish the week and felt like a failure so I will tack them on to this week’s video. (Don’t hold your breath on getting that video – I’m a little wishy-washy on videos – I’m sure you picked up on that by now).
The books I read.
And my writing tracker – against, a colossal fail.
My blog post tracker/idea page. Funny. I write these down and then never look at it again. That’s super helpful!
And I tried something else different this month – wrote down some songs I was digging this month along with headlines that I want to remember/memorialize.
And that’s it! I know I make fun of myself on these journal spreads, and let’s face it, there’s so much to laugh at, but honestly, I’m having fun with them and I figure they will be fun to look back on someday, right?
There is a lot to cover today. It seems like the world continues to get more “woke” and crazy every day. I guess my biggest question is – we all know this stuff being forced down our throats is crazy, WHY are we allowing it to happen? Are we afraid to speak up? If you don’t speak up, does this mean you agree with these agendas? It’s something to ponder. Do you think the experimental injectable contains a microchip? Why are magnets sticking to COVID injection sites? Book review is science fiction this week: The Solar War by A.G. Riddle. Take a moment to remember our brave men/women who have served our country this weekend!
One of the questions that Kevin and I talked about in our podcast, (coming tomorrow), was how do you deal with stress? One of my answers was, I physically remove myself from the situation, whether that’s hiding in the bathroom for a few moments to deep breathe or take a walk around the hospital because …. people. Ugh.
But another big thing for me is reading. I read to escape my reality, to temporarily shove my thoughts and problems into a closet allowing more space and energy for my imagination to freely roam.
If I could read for a living, I would, in a heartbeat. If anyone knows of any book reviewer jobs let me know! (I may be looking for a new job, very, very soon).
Also – IT’S JUNE, YA’LL! Twenty-twenty one is nearly halfway over!
You can tell which book I’m currently reading by the Goodreads widget in the sidebar.
I’m all about Kindle e-books. I’m a hard core e-book reader. I haven’t read an actual book in quite a long time and I find that when I hold an actual book, it feels large and clunky. I much prefer my Kindle e-reader than an actual book. With that said, I get all of my books from Kindle Unlimited – I rarely, if ever, spend money on a book – it all goes into the $10 dollars a month I pay for Kindle Unlimited.
So, if you’re interested in reading lesser known authors and want to save a ton of money in books, join me!
I rarely read anything lower than a four-star review on Goodreads – I’ve come to trust the reviews of Goodreads readers. I stopped reading for a long time simply because every book I read was stupid, or disappointing and ultimately, a waste of time. (I feel the same with movies – haven’t watched movies, or TV, in about a year). I’ve had great luck sticking to this philosophy and most of the books I read are pretty good.
I really don’t know when I started not caring about what people thought of me. Maybe high school. I remember not really belonging to any one group, or click, I just … existed. I feel like I was “friends” with a lot of different people from those clicks, but I never allowed anyone to get super close to me, or really get to know me at all, hence the reason I put “friends” in quotations.
I had a best friend in high school. We have since lost touch. We connected briefly on Facebook but when the Zuckerberg Zombies started playing god and censoring free speech, I disabled my account and haven’t been back.
(Though typing this makes me want to jump on to see if she’s still around. I wouldn’t mind reconnecting, actually).
But other than my best friend, I didn’t really have any other close friends. I kept people at arm’s length. And if we’re being perfectly honest here, I feel like I kept my best friend at arm’s length, too.
I know why I have this …. aversion to allowing people to get close to me. I can really trace it back to two incidents, one I’m not willing to talk about on this blog but the other … was a boy.
I fell head over heels in “love” with this guy when I was in high school. I don’t even know if you could call it “love,” but it was strong, however you want to slap a label on it.
He wasn’t a student at my high school, he had already graduated from a neighboring school so he was older and worked at a Skateland, or whatever it was called back then. I can’t remember if his parents owned the rink but he was like a manager, or maybe he was simply popular because he was cute and all of the girls had crushes on him.
And yet, he expressed interest in me. This was a huge boost to my ego because I was never one of the popular girls. I didn’t belong to their group, but we were friendly, (remember the whole friends with different clicks thing?), so I belonged, but not really. I was one of those people with my face pressed to the glass but never allowed into the store, if that makes sense.
And in a lot of ways, I was perfectly okay with that. But the fact that this cute, popular guy took an interest in me … went straight to my head.
And I fell hopelessly in love with him.
Or so I thought. Or whatever you call the feeling you experience the first time you’re in “love.”
We dated for a while, I want to say weeks, but it felt longer, until I found out he was “cheating” on me with a girl I DESPISED.
I didn’t even try to salvage the relationship. There was no way in hell I was going to grovel at this man’s feet – if he didn’t want me, he didn’t want me.
But I was heartbroken. In fact, I would dare say the experience broke something in me. I’ve always been standoffish my whole life but after that experience? I never allowed anyone to get to close me again.
Even to this day. (Kevin is probably the only human who has been allowed to get to know the real me and even then, there is a deep, dark, part of my heart that I will not allow him access to – I honestly couldn’t tell you why – self preservation, I guess).
I wouldn’t say I’m cold, I have a lot of compassion and empathy for other people, but at the same time, I could give a rat’s ass if someone likes me or not. Well, that’s not entirely true, if I like/respect you, then it bothers me if I feel like I’ve disappointed or upset you, but since I don’t allow very many people to get to know ME, that number is quite small.
The majority of people? Meh.
I don’t say this to brag, I’m not even sure if this is a healthy behavior to subscribe to, but in a lot ways, I feel it’s preferable when compared to people who only want to please others or wear their heart on their sleeves. That must be an exhausting head space to live in. Because people are mean and cruel and can manipulate you into doing something outside your comfort zone, either unintentionally or purposefully.
I guess, if you want to psychoanalyze this, I don’t trust people. Again, I know why I feel this way, I can trace it back to specific incidents in my life, which helps me understand myself a little better and deal with disappointments that come my way. It’s just easier for me not to trust someone and allow them to get close as opposed to opening my heart and having that person betray me and open myself up to feeling vulnerable, disappointed, and foolish.
And before you feel sorry for me, let me stop you right there. I’m GLAD for these experiences and LIKE who I am as a person. Because the alternative breaks my heart a little bit.
I’ve worked with countless people over the years, all sort of personalities. And the personality that I feel the most sorry for, and the most impatient with, are people pleasers.
I TRULY don’t understand people with personalities that can’t handle criticism, constructive or otherwise, people that get upset if someone is harsh with them or clearly doesn’t like them. I don’t understand why anyone would CARE what others thought of them. Now, I get people that you know, love and respect, of course, I’m not completely cold and unfeeling, but strangers??
Why?!? Why does it matter if people you don’t know judge you, or call you names, try and manipulate/bully you into doing something you clearly don’t want to do?
Who cares what these asshats think?
Case in point – masks.
I work in healthcare – I don’t think our mask mandate is going away any time soon, unfortunately, but when we talked about our local city finally, FINALLY, lifting the mask mandate for our city, my coworkers got a little freaked out. I understand that they are comfortable wearing them, and if they want to continue wearing them, okay, but when I mentioned that Kevin and I haven’t been wearing masks for weeks, I got deer-in-headlights looks and gasps of shock.
“Oh. I can’t do that. I don’t want people judging me.”
I feel like this is a common response whenever people are put into situations where they have an option of swimming upstream – making decisions against the majority. I get that it’s difficult and takes courage, but if the biggest reason someone doesn’t want to make a decision is based solely on how others will perceive you? I can’t get behind that.
My response? JUDGE AWAY. I don’t care. You don’t know me. Your judgement is based on your own personal feelings and is not, in any way, a reflection of who I am or what I feel. I don’t give a rat’s ass what you think of a decision that I’ve made for ME.
Now. If this judgement is coming from someone I love and respect? Let’s talk. Tell me why you disagree and let’s break it down, but if you’re a stranger? Or someone I dislike or don’t care to get to know?
DON’T CARE.
I think this is a topic that everyone should think about. I think there might be less sheeple if people accepted the fact that you WILL be disliked, that you CAN’T please everyone, all you can do is make the best decisions for you and your family. There is no one size fits all. There is no my opinion is the ONLY opinion. It’s OKAY if people don’t like you.
Truly.
This guy is a little too “new agey” for me, but his message is spot on. I like what he says, “allow others the FREEDOM to disagree with you.” This means, it’s FINE if someone disagrees with you and/or makes choices you don’t agree with. This does NOT mean you have the right to jump on the cancel culture train and actively try and destroy his/her life.
How do you respond if someone disagrees with you and/or your choices?
NOTHING. You simply move on with life.
I also like what he says about people that don’t like you are really struggling to like themselves. BINGO. I feel like this summarizes this topic exactly. I’m betting, most of the time, people don’t dislike YOU, they dislike an aspect of you because it’s something about THEMSELVES they don’t like.
“And they can say whatever they want and it only affects them, it doesn’t have to affect you at all.”
If there are aspects of you that you don’t like, take an honest look at yourself and work on it. The more you feel confident on who and what you are, the more you will care less what others think of you and the happier you will be.
Hey! Finally! It’s the long awaited update on our cargo trailer conversion!
Let me just say, at the outset, that I’ve been ZERO help. It’s all been Kevin. LeRoy has helped but the majority of work has been done by Kevin. He has though long and hard about how he wants to configure everything and I’m really impressed with him! This is the first time he’s really done any carpentry and he has customized the pieces he bought, for pennies on the dollar at places like thrift stores and Habitat for Humanity, and made it work for the space. He has spent a lot of time on the kitchen and I couldn’t be happier.
I can’t wait to take it on the road!
It’s not ready yet, obviously, but now that the kitchen is pretty much done, he feels like the rest of the work will go faster (famous last words?)
He is buying the air conditioner/heater unit to put in next and I’m on the hunt for a deal on our “half” fridge. He actually painted the cabinets under the bed, (you can see them in the thumbnail) today.
A cold wind blows across the snow-covered desert, a chill that oozes through my parka like water soaking in, never drying. The frigid air bites at my exposed neck as I watch the sun peek above the horizon. The sky grows more clear each day as the particles from the asteroid ejections are removed. As the haze fades away, the sun shrinks, as if it’s a light slowly drifting away. That’s what living on Earth feels like, a desolate planet constantly growing darker and colder, with no hope of it ever stopping.
Story blurb:
We thought the war was over. We were wrong.
They decimated Earth during the Long Winter. Now the grid has returned, and they won’t stop until the human race is extinct.
On a ruined world, humanity’s last survivors fight against impossible odds. In their darkest hour, they discover a new hope for survival. But it comes at an unthinkable price, with consequences that will change everything.
I don’t read a lot of science fiction – not because I don’t like the genre I just prefer mystery/thriller, but once in a while I like to dip my toes in an alternate universe and try something different.
“The Solar War” is book two of the trilogy and so far … it’s interesting, but not earth shattering. The first book of the Trilogy starts with humanity struggling to survive on Earth because for some reason, the sun seems to be fading away. Less sun and warmth is making its way to Earth thereby causing a deep freeze and in a perpetual state of winter. NASA gets involved and sends some people out into space to find out what is going on and they soon discover some alien force seems to be harvesting the sun’s power and leaving Earth in the cold and dark.
I won’t give book one away, but suffice it to say, the humans severely piss the aliens off and they come back in book two for revenge by raining asteroids down on Earth and killing 99.9% of the population. The few remaining end up making a deal with an alien form – leave Earth or they wipe out the human race.
I’m about 56% way through the book and I’m not quite sure what to think about it yet. There is non-stop action and the story alternates between James and Emma’s points of view. James and Emma are married, they have one small daughter and Emma is pregnant with baby number two.
Riddle’s writing style is … different. Riddle is almost telling the story as opposed to showing the story to readers but it’s not overly obvious and it somehow … works. Riddle covers a lot of ground and yet he is somehow successful in drawing the reader into the story – almost as if the reader is a historian and writing about the series of events. It’s hard to describe the style and I can’t decide if I like it or not.
I’m not super invested in the main characters and in fact, I tend to like the minor characters more. They have more of a personality than James and Emma, in my opinion.
The relationship between James and the alien is almost stilted. Like they are both going through the motions and are not really invested in what their decisions. It’s like Riddle skims the surface of the story instead of taking the time to really dive under the surface. The story almost feels like reading a textbook, in some ways, if that makes sense. It’s informative, interesting, (most of the time), but dry. It’s like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, without the jelly.
Write From Karen 