Regarding Fruit Bowls

So this year my only New Year's resolution was to eat more fresh fruit. To facilitate this I have been keeping a bowl of fresh fruit next to my desk. I however only have one serving bowl which now awkwardly doubles a my fruit bowl, which means every time I need to serve something in a bowl (say pudding, I make a lot of pudding) I need to go fetch my fruit bowl and empty the fruit out.

This has led to my decision to buy myself another bowl this one with the express purpose of holding fruit. Hanna Howard makes lovely hand painted mugs and bowls often with literary quotes on them for a reasonable price. I thought it might be nice to have her make a bowl for me.

Which brings me to the hard part, choosing a quote. So far I've thought of two good ones:

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage." — Rainer Maria Rilke

"When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes." -Desiderius Erasmus 

Anyone have any good quotes, about writing or scholarship particularly, they would like to share?  

Happy Birthday, Neil Gaiman

Neverwhere was the first thing by Neil Gaiman I ever read. I was in high school I think. It came into the house via one of the massive raids my Dad did on the library for anything science fiction or fantasy related. I picked it out because it looked interesting and loved every minutes of it. The world building, the amazing creativity of it, just blew me away. I read Good Omens and Sandman not long after that and for me Neil became an author to watch. I loved Coraline and Wolves in the Walls particularly because they could be read by younger audiences but were in no way dumbed down or less scary because of it. Anansi Boys came out while I was in college, and The Graveyard Book while I was struggling to learn how to not be in college.

The man my sister ended up marrying gave me a copy of Fragile Things for Christmas one year. To this day it lives in my backpack for those times when I'm in waiting rooms or airports and just need something good to re-read.

Over the last year I have been getting caught up on reading through Neil Gaiman's blog starting at the beginning with the American Gods tour and working my way up to the present. I find it incredibly soothing to, as I begin to publish my own work, read about his dogs, bees and what he's cooked for breakfast lately.

I think for me, like for so many, Neil Gaiman is definitely one of the writers I aspire to be like. Not because I want to write his books because I don't, I want to write mine, or because of the money and fame he's achieved through writing but because of the large amount of creativity I see reflected in his work.  I want my stories to speak of raw creativity, even if it is in an unpolished and messy way sometimes (especially in a messy way sometimes). I always want to be the author who can write stories that are blatant homages to Sherlock Holmes or the Cthulhu Mythos and have that be okay. I want to be a good enough author to craft it in such a way where it is close enough to the original source for people know immediately that's what you're doing but not so close it feels stale. 

Most of all though I want to be the kind of person who does what I love and what makes me happy everyday, and be able to survive that way. 

 

So here's to many more years of doing what makes you happy Neil Gaiman, whatever that might be, and inspiring me to do the same.

I'm Doing Okay ...

I'm visiting my sister who is expecting her first child and it occurred to me while sitting with her and hanging out that I'm actually really happy where I am in my life right now. I'm going to be living on my own again this summer which will be good for me having my own space again. I will be going to graduate school in the field that I love. I am writing everyday now and working through the process of publishing and I love both of those things just as much as I had hoped I would.

It feels like this year a whole bunch of things I really wanted to do with my life and hadn't gotten done have fallen into place. My life is just kind of slotting together into something really wonderful and that I'm really happy in. I'm active in my religious community still but not to an overwhelming level. I'm happy with my appearance more then I've ever been, I think. I find myself more attractive and more just really me every day.

I'm worried about money, I'm worried about finding a job and that school will be overwhelmingly difficult. I also feel like though that the last couple years have been a process of getting myself to this point of being exactly where I want to be.

Hopefully from here things will only continue to get better.

On the Writing Front

So far this year I have gotten one short story and a novella accepted for publication by a publisher I am thrilled to be working with (LT3). 

I have also written another novella length story I will be submitting also to LT3 in a month or so (my beta reader/editor needs to finish looking it over first). I have also finished the short novel length post-apocalyptic story I talked about last year and hope to submit that to another wonderful publishers come the fall after I've polished it up a bit. I have a novella length urban fantasy story written and waiting in the wings that I can whip out and work on getting published one of these days as well. 

I am also in the process of writing a novel length history-fantasy story at the moment and am about two-thirds to three-fourths of the way done it. 

Why have I written so much you might ask? Well first because it is fun and I love the idea that someone might actually get to read these stories now as apposed to when I wrote this stuff for fun in the past. Also though because I suspect there will come a time when I will enter a writing slump. For most author's I've talked to this happen the first time they get a really bad, nasty review for one of their books. Or the first time they get dragged unwillingly into some nasty author drama (which is by the way quite prevalent in my genre ::Sighs::). Usually they take a little time to have a bit of a cry and probably a cuddle and remind themselves that they are good at other things besides writing. This period can take a couple days or a couple months depending on the author and what happened. I don't know yet what group I'll fall into but when it, inevitably, happens and I don't feel like writing for however long I want to have a couple stories I can polish and tinker with instead. So it's not completely lost time. 

Over all I can't tell you how amazing this has been for me. It seems really surreal at this point that I've actually publish any fiction at all. I mean non-fiction, yeah, I've always known I was good at writing that. So publishing it just seemed the next natural step. 

Fiction though, fiction is a whole other ball game for me, especially fantasy.   

Writing for me in general has always been a mixed bag because I love it and I love doing it but also my disabilities affect it so much. I've gotten so much ridicule and judgement because of that. I guess I've internalized at least some of it and just assumed I'd never be good enough to publish as an author. 

Yet it turns out I can and I have and expect to continue to publish. I have a beta read/editor who works with me for free (bless your heart M.) She takes care of the obvious signs of my disabilities enough so I can send my manuscripts along to publisher afterwards confident they're no worse than anyone else'. It makes it a slower process for me but I don't mind really.  

So yeah, all around it's been amazing and I will continue to post as new things crop up. 

More Lunch Related Stuff

Hey All,

so my Mom made my brother and I these great utensil holders/place mats/napkin holders to take with us for lunch at school.

The outside is made out of a fabric that has some kind of water-resistant coating on it. The inside is leftover fabric I bought about a year ago to make boxer shorts with. The napkin is made out of fabric I also bought to make boxer shorts.

The whole thing folds in half and then rolls up. The tie on mine is made out of leftover fabric from a set of pillow cases my Mom made me for Christmas. The entire thing is made out of cotton fabric so it can just be popped in the wash when it gets dirty. It's a great way to use up fabric scraps too.

Small Blessings: December 24 2010

I am so very grateful for being able to be with my Mother, Father, Brother G. , Brother S. , Sister M.,  her boyfriend C. and my Nana this Christmas Eve.

(taken by Helen Staab)

May we all hold the light of Christ in our hearts this night, and for every night this coming year.

Small Blessings: September 16th 2010

I am thankful for hats on cold days, especially now that I have very little hair.

Small Blessings: September 14th 2010

I am grateful for hair dressers who when you tell them you want your hair short and gender-neutral just nod say ok and then do it.

Small Blessings: September 13 2010

I am grateful for socks today.

Small Blessings: September 10th 2010

I am grateful for the super nice people who work in the local bakery where I buy lots of bread on a regular basis.

Small Blessings: September 9th 2010

I am grateful for every single one of the genderqueer people I ran into while out and about over the last two days. I am equally grateful for every genderqueer person I met over the last two days and was simply unaware of their presence.

Small Blessings: September 8th 2010

I am grateful that the weather is starting to get cooler.

Small Blessings: September 5th 2010

 I am thankful for Friends who think of my commitment to the things I love rather then just me as an Young Adult Friend.

Edited:  I am also supremely grateful for the loving support I have found among the Christ-Centered Friends here this weekend.

Small Blessings: September 4th 2010

I am grateful for the gender-neutral bathrooms in Pitt Hall at Powell House retreat center for New York Yearly Meeting.