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Agua Caliente County Park + 80s fun (Weekend Coffee Share #24)
I did diddly squat last week, so for this week’s coffee share, we’re going to time travel back to good ol’ 2021. Buckle up! Yeah, sorry, no DeLorean for us. How much money do you think a librarian makes, anyway? Hop in the back of my 23-year-old pickup, and let’s go. But first: Welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. Pretend we’re having coffee together, and I’m boring you to tears with photos and reminiscences.
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The importance of being influenced (#IWSG)
The word, influencer, makes most of us think of self-absorbed wannabe celebrities sharing their carefully-curated lives on Instagram or Tik Tok. (Nice work if you can get it, I suppose.) But we all have influencers. From the time we’re born, the people in our lives shape us in all kinds of ways. One of the things I find both fascinating and terrifying is how a stray remark, a quick interaction, can have a profound effect on another human being. None of us fully understands the power we have over others just by going about our daily business. I’ve written on here a few times about how I got a late…
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January in the rearview mirror (Weekend Coffee Share #23)
Lately I’ve been by turns baffled and terrified at how fast time is passing. 2022? Shouldn’t that be the title of a sci-fi movie? But here we are, almost a month into that sci-fi year, and I find myself in a weird, reflective mood. The last week or so has been… odd. I feel like the fog in my life has lifted, and I’ve found my blue sky again. Cheesy? Yup. But true. I’ve come to realize I’ve spent the last quite a few years just slogging through life. They’ve been hard years–lost my mom, lost one of my best friends, watched my husband suffer through multiple painful surgeries, and…
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Books, Tunes, and Memes–What Else Could You Possibly Want? (Weekend Coffee Share #22, What’s on Your Bookshelf #2)
Good morning, happy Friday, and welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer and What’s on Your Bookshelf, hosted by Retirement Reflections. Let’s get these link parties started! First up:
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Skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)
Posted for Cee’s Flower of the Day photo challenge. Need more flowers in your life? Check out Cee’s blog as well as my flower of the day posts.
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Gila Bend, Arizona travels, a few laughs, and a great tune (Weekend Coffee Share #21)
Happy Friday, friends! In last week’s edition of the Weekend Coffee Share, I shared pictures of our visit to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, part of our short winter break road trip. This week I’ll share pictures from Day 2, along with a few laughs that have crossed my screen this week, and, well… you’ll just have to read to the bottom to find out the rest. But first, welcome to the Weekend Coffee Share, hosted by Natalie the Explorer. This week, she’s shared some incredible dinosaur murals. Don’t miss ’em!
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New story published, Organ Pipe Cactus trip, blog recap, recap, and New Years memes (Weekend Coffee Share #20)
Happy New Year, friends! I hope everyone had wonderful winter holidays. And a big thanks to Natalie the Explorer intrepid hostess of the Weekend Coffee Share! Thanks, Natalie, for helping me connect to so many awesome bloggers like yourself. Writing News–my latest short story is published! My big writing news: My Christmas horror story, “Woe is Me, Poor Child, for Thee,” has been published in the annual Deathlehem holiday horror anthology. See the linked post for deets. SQUEE!
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When to start a writing career? The second best time is now (#IWSG)
The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” Chinese proverb This post is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group monthly blog hop, co-hosted this month by Erika Beebe, Olga Godim, Sandra Cox, Sarah Foster, and Chemist Ken. This month’s optional question is: What’s the one thing about your writing career you regret the most? Were you able to overcome it? Before I get to this month’s question, I want to share some exciting news with my IWSG friends (and anyone else who missed my announcement last week): I’ve published another short story! It’s a Christmas horror story, published in this year’s Deathlehem anthology, The Colour…
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2021: My year in writing
2021 was an eventful year in my writing career. I published some stories, made some progress, endured some frustration, and learned, learned, learned. Such is the life of a developing writer. I hope you’ll indulge me in a little year-end navel-gazing. I enjoy these kinds of posts from other writers, because it helps me see behind the curtain of their careers and get a more realistic understanding of what a year in a writer’s life can look like. And as I mentioned in my last year-end retrospective post (State of the blog and most popular posts of 2021), I find it helpful to do some annual stock-taking to evaluate my…
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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…