Whew. April? Gone. Vanished. Vaporized into a cloud of productivity and (mildly itchy) yardwork.
Here’s a peek at what filled the days:
Spent hours upon hours in online classes
Revamped my website—consolidated, streamlined, and now everything’s in one place
Took a staycation with my husband where we tackled house projects like champs (my father-in-law flew in to help with his mighty expertise)
House Projects Completed
o Took down old, starting-to-rot back deck to reveal nice brick steps underneath.
o Replaced four light fixtures and a ceiling fan inside the house
o We had an electrician add an outside outlet at the back of the house (strangely, we didn’t have one – it is an older house, though). He also added some GFL outlets in the kitchen and bathroom. We feel so much safer now!
o We installed a new range hood. So shiny, so nice.
o We added handrails to the steps at our side door and back door.
o Our neighbors let us cut down a dead tree in their yard that looked like it was going to fall over our fence. It was covered in all the vines: poison ivy, Virginia creeper, greenbriers. Thankfully, I only got a little poison ivy on my forearm! It’s still a bit itchy…
o Did some other landscaping and yard cleanup.
o Cleaned out the dryer vent.
o Had the AC maintenance guy do the annual service.
o Added an 8-ft vinyl fence panel in the space between our chainlink fence and the house (it was originally where the edge of the deck was and we needed to close it off so our dog woudn’t take his crusade against squirrels out into the neighborhood.
o Replaced an old toilet seat
o Installed a pull-up bar
We also picked strawberries at a local farm, played games, went out to some local shops, and enjoyed making and eating good food together.
But…
In the midst of all this growing and improvement, I lost some of the structures I had in place to keep various writing and art projects moving along. I’ve neglected posting anything for weeks.
I suppose sometimes life is like that.
A Seasonal Rhythm?
I had a thought over the past few weeks that it would be cool to mirror my life and workload to nature.
Over winter, I could write and work on creative projects with the intent of bringing them into the world during the spring.
I could shift to light creative projects in summer and fall with a focus on making sales and preparing for the upcoming winter.
I would also use the spring and summer to read and learn as much as possible because I love how that feeds my brain and creativity.
I’m not sure how feasible this idea is, but it might be worth exploring.
Back to the Writing
For now, I’m reviewing my project list and making a new plan for the rest of the year. I’m also getting back into the writing groove.
I have been working out some plot points the past couple of months for the “The AI Anomaly.” I have also been struggling with how I want to tell this story. I think it has to maintain some similarity to “The Resurrection Incident,” but mayhap there is enough wiggle room to shift the format in a way that makes it fun for me to write and, hopefully, for the reader to read.
I still love the story and am excited to get it out in the world. Time to make it happen.
My friend Kathy and I have known each other since junior high. At one time we waged a cartoon war that involved adventures of our awkward superhero alter egos. I was dubbed Super Frizz because my grandmother had attempted to perm my hair in the seventh grade and severely damaged it. It took years to grow out.
Circa 2009-2010, Kathy and I had a series of meetings at our local Wendy’s to catch up and discuss creative adventures. Just thinking about it makes me want a bacon and cheese baked potato – my go-to at Wendy’s at the time. We called the meetings “The Wendy’s Experiment” and dreamed up lots of possibilities.
(Kathy, if you’re reading this, please correct me if I’m wrong about anything – this seems like a whole life ago to me).
The Birth of Hope & Josie Go to the Prom
I have had several friends over the years that I tried to create with, but it is no simple thing for more than one person to have the time or energy or resources to bring ideas into form.
However, on this particular occasion, all the things aligned to create something really fun.
Hope & Josie Go to the Prom was written in a back and forth manner between Kathy and me as the characters Hope and Josie. We treated the creation almost as if we were uncovering the story ourselves as we wrote our notes to each other and the exchanges grew in complexity and silliness.
At the time we wrote it (again, 2009-10), we felt like we made use of the communication options that teens had available. While most of those don’t really translate to what a 2025 teen would use, the story still holds up. It is super zany and wild, and if you read it with the knowledge of when it was written, it hits some nostalgia buttons.
Then and Now
I decided to bring it back into the world earlier this year. When we first published it on Lulu.com in 2010, we had it printed as a spiralized book because we thought that would be a cute feature. It actually made the printing cost a little ridiculous. Later, we didn’t publish it as an ebook because we didn’t want to lose the handwritten fonts that we felt made the book seem like you were truly reading someone’s notes.
I finally decided to tackle that issue. I knew I could publish Hope & Josie as an illustrated ebook, but I needed to do it in a way that people wouldn’t have to enlarge each page to read it (because that would be super annoying).
I tested several different sizes and I think I found a sweet spot where the reader has a decent amount of text per page without having to zoom in.
Is There a Sequel?
When we first created Hope & Josie Go to the Prom, Kathy and I thought we would be making a series of books with these two characters. That hasn’t quite panned out over the last fifteen years.
I’ve been working on my next book, The AI Anomaly, and developing the story outline has been really stretching my ideas about humanity’s potential for evolution and what’s next.
My exploratory morning pages have churned out things that I didn’t even know were nesting in my inner workings.
This is a good place to be. I feel like I am on the right track with my habits and goals and I’m excited about how the story is growing.
“The Calm Before the Storm”
I had a fleeting thought this morning that I have felt this way before and then chaos ensued and I got knocked down or distracted or something got in the way of my progress. I thought, “Maybe this is the calm before the storm.”
I have thought that many times before.
I have had an expectation in the past of something negative balancing out my good. This train of thought presents a life where I am at the mercy of things happening to me and around me to determine how I feel about life at the moment.
Calm as a Choice
Even though that programming continues to pop up and test me, I know better. I have had enough experience to understand that I am in control of how I feel in any situation even if I am not in control of the situation.
This self-control is the calm. I enjoy this quiet place within myself. Focus and productivity grow out of it.
I’m not always perfect at maintaining my calm, but I have been working on daily habits to help me stay present to it.
It is a work in progress that I am happy to continue.
I am embracing the calm as my normal and there is no storm unless I allow it.
I’m finally back to developing my next book, The AI Anomaly. Hoorah!
I love the process of growing a story. The AI Anomaly is sprawling a little wildly in my mind and freewriting right now. It’s fun. It also needs a more defined focus.
Picking Up Where The Resurrection Incident Left Off
If you don’t know, The AI Anomaly is the sequel to The Resurrection Incident. In this next storyline, some of the Earthers head back to Earth to assess what is left and how they want to rebuild. One thing they find is an artificial intelligence created by the former generations of Earth humans, but it has had over 300 years to develop itself outside the confines of what humanity had established for it in the past.
I sort of want to just sit quietly somewhere and imagine all the possibilities. But, more than that, I want to get the story out into the world.
My Feelings on AI Villain Tropes (Hot Take Incoming)
I was working out the theme today because, for me, that is foundational to how the story will continue to grow. After my morning freewriting, I see it is shaping up to be something around our creations being extensions of ourselves and also allowing and encouraging independent thinking.
This past weekend, my husband and I watched the movie Atlas. This may be an unpopular stance, but I’m a bit done with storylines about AI only wanting to destroy humans because we are like a virus and are destroying the Earth.
I found the Terminator movies thought-provoking when they came out. I also feel like the fact that we’ve envisioned that possible future through the movie, we learned something. And, in that learning, maybe our relationship with AI has changed in a way that it would not go in that direction.
Building a Better Future (One Word at a Time)
Obviously, I don’t disagree that humans have done not great things to the Earth and we continue to do not great things. I also have an unwavering faith that as we each wake up to our innate potential, that there is no challenge we cannot overcome creatively and we will naturally shift to a more balanced existence.
Looking back, last year was an exploration of newly found freedom. I was in a flow state. I tried a bunch of things. I tested how many spinning plates I could manage at one time. I did a lot. I learned a lot. It was actually pretty awesome because it helped get really clear on what worked and didn’t, what supported my goals and what was a second or third head growing out of my creative body (nothing wrong with that, but it’s not the look I’m going for).
Clarity Over Chaos
I’m not a person that has a problem doing things. I am a person that sometimes has difficulty determining what things I should be doing – the things that would make the most difference. I expanded myself so much over the last year that it only seemed prudent to evaluate it all and make adjustments as appropriate. My past few posts have been about that and I am pleased with the progress.
When I look at all the things I have created this past year, I remember how much fun I had in doing so. However, I can also see that if I had framed a lot of it towards my main life goals, the framework would have been much stronger sooner and I might be further along.
Note to Self: Busy does not necessarily equate to reaching goals.
I’m not beating myself up. Just making an observation so I can be more efficient going forward.
Writing, With Intention
When I’m planning a book, other than the story idea itself, one of the first things I hone in on is the theme. Once I have that established, I use that as a filter for making other story decisions.
As I prepare to work on my next few books, I’m thinking about things differently. I feel like my last three books were rushed along faster than they needed to be. It was almost as if the getting it done was the most important part. I’m proud of what I accomplished, but a bit more planning would have helped me market them better.
Being in an ebb state now and with a clear purpose is showing me where I need to prepare my structures to hold and support/guide me when I’m back into flow and wanting to spill all over everywhere. It’s a balancing act. I find that I have to be cautious to not cut out too much when I’m ebbing because most things can just be tweaked to be aligned with what I want.
A Season of Restructuring
I expect many creatives experience this. I think we have to go through overflow after overflow to learn and grow and decide what really enlivens and inspires us.
I’m restructuring my day and month and year and general project plans in ways that I expect will support me. If a system breaks along the way, I’ll just fix it or replace it with something better.
Going forward, I’m all about my bespoke busy-britches!
