-
State of the blog and most popular posts of 2021
I’m one of those annoying people who enjoys taking stock at the end of the year. I like to twiddle the dials on the Wayback Machine and review my goals at the beginning of the year, the status of various aspects of my life back then, and see how far I’ve come. Sometimes it’s motivating, sometimes it’s disappointing, but it’s almost always surprising in some way. I’m usually too busy living life to track on exactly how far I’ve come or how much (or little) I’ve accomplished. So this will be the first of a few looking-back-on-the-year-that-was sort of posts. I hope you’ll pardon the public navel-gazing. First up: this…
-
My short story, “Woe is Me, Poor Child, for Thee,” is published!
My Christmas horror story, “Woe is me, Poor Child, for Thee,” is published in the 2021 Deathlehem anthology! One foggy Christmas Eve, an ex-con mall Santa seeks camaraderie in a California Delta watering hole—and learns that the spirits of the season don’t always rest easy. Billy Foraker had it all: lovely family, big house in the ‘burbs, good job making good money. Then he lost it all and traded the American dream for a prison cell. Now he’s a free man again, trying to rebuild his life, but his past is still out there, waiting for him in the Delta tule fog. The Colour Out of Deathlehem contains 24 holiday…
-
My earliest Christmas memory: meat trays, cardboard, and Krylon
Memories are big this time of year. We spend lots of time and money trying to recreate magical childhood Christmas memories for our own kids and grandkids. We drag out Great Aunt Dot’s tablecloth and napkins (yes, I really had a great aunt named Dot. I’m not sure how I inherited her Christmas things, since I don’t think I ever met her, but I did). And then we sit around and contemplate how our current Christmas experience doesn’t measure up to those glittering, tinsel-draped memories from childhood. And then we drink (or in my case, cut another piece of chocolate custard pie). So in the spirit of the season, I’m…
-
Survivors of the first frost
Winter has finally arrived in Tucson. As I write this post, it’s 32F outside, and there’s frost on most of the plants. Goodbye, rose in bloom. Goodbye, New Guinea impatiens. Goodbye, sunny orange zinnias. Fortunately, the tomatoes and basil are planted against the side of our brick house and appear to be unfrozen. The citrus trees look irritated, but they should be fine. We even harvested our first lemon! And nothing seems to stop the orange bells (the pretty flowers in the header pic). They bloomed almost all year, though they too look a little irritated at being so cold. Here’s what remains of the fruits (literally) of our labor:…
-
What I’m reading and some holiday laughs (Weekend Coffee Share #19, What’s On Your Bookshelf #1)
I’ve had an entirely uneventful week, so let’s talk about books for this week’s Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Since we’ll be talking about books, I’m also linking up with the What’s On Your Bookshelf link party, hosted by Retirement Reflections. Two parties, one post. Efficiency! So… books. Some of you may know I do the Goodreads Reading Challenge every year. This year my goal was to read 90 books, and, well… that’s not going to happen. I’ve read 64 books so far this year and might be able to finish a couple more before the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve. I’ve been reading less…
-
Acceptance, rejection, Christmas lights, and funnies (Weekend Coffee Share #18)
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! I can’t compete with her amazing holiday display pics, but I’ll share a few of my own anyway. But first: Writing news! There are two kinds of people in the world: those who want the bad news first, and those who want the good news first. I’m the former–get the yuck out of the way so we can end on a positive note. So in that spirit: I received a rejection for the writing retreat I applied for. Bummer. It would have been amazing, I’m sure, but on the bright side: that’s 2 weeks…
-
I got a story accepted! Plus other news and a few local laughs (Weekend Coffee Share #17)
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer (whose pics are always gorgeous, but this week’s are *incredible*). I’m going to kick off this week’s post with: Writing news A couple of weeks ago, I was grousing about my lack of writing news. I had several pieces on submission plus a pending application to a writing retreat, and I was getting just a tad impatient (if you consider refreshing GMail every 1.3 seconds, “a tad impatient”). Well, I still have a bunch of things pending, but: My Christmas horror story got accepted! It will be published in the 2021 Deathlehem anthology, which…
-
November: A month of stress and delight in writing (#IWSG)
I just finished NaNoWriMo. For you non-writers (a/k/a normal people) out there, NaNoWriMo, affectionately known as NaNo, is National Novel-Writing Month, a worldwide phenomenon in which millions of writers try to write 50,000 words in the month of November. Free investment tip: buy stock in coffee companies before November. Alcohol and cigarette companies too. But I digress. A subgroup of NaNo participants are known as NaNo Rebels. We bust our butts all month like the “regular” NaNos, but we do something other than write 50K words of a brand-new novel. In my case, I committed to spending as much time revising a previous NaNo project as it would have taken…
-
Seeking new holiday traditions (Weekend Coffee Share #16)
Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer! We had a quiet Thanksgiving week here in Satan’s Anus (where it’s currently 71F and sunny, so not so Satan’s Anus-y). It’s just the 3 of us now for the holidays–my husband, my adult son, and me. I really feel the shifting stages of my life around the holidays. When I was a kid, our celebrations were also small, just my parents and me, sometimes with brief visits from the few family or friends my father hadn’t driven away yet. Then after I became an adult, and my father died, it was just my mom, my then-boyfriend-then-fiancé-now-husband, and me.…
-
Tucson Botanical Gardens and a few laughs (Weekend Coffee Share #15)
Good morning! Writing and work have kept me busy this week, so I’m a little late getting the Weekend Coffee Share (hosted by Natalie the Explorer) up for this week. Today I’ll share a few pics from my visit last weekend to the Tucson Botanical Gardens as well as the usual funnies at the end. But first: This Week’s Writing Update, Brought to You By Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers The writing update for this week is that there isn’t much of an update. I’ve heard exactly nothing about any of my pending submissions, including the story I submitted for the Christmas horror anthology that was supposed to be published…
Janet Alcorn
Suspense | Horror | Romance
