How Gail Came to Leave X. Because Everyone Wants to Know That, Right?

We're finally putting up my BlueSky info both on my website (done) and here at the blog (not sure when that will be happening) this week, so it seems like a good time to officially tell people I left X two months ago. And, yes, I'm on BlueSky.

For A Long Time, I Didn't Have a Big Problem with X

X goes up in flames. Pixabay at Pexels

I often heard people talk of ugly stuff going on on X, some of those complaints coming from people
who had never been near it. I didn't see a lot of attacks on others in most of my time there. I had to go look for that kind of thing, it didn't usually turn up on my feed. For example, I only know who catturd is because he(?) was trending once, and, of course, I'm going to go see why someone who calls themselves catturd is trending. (Can't recall now.) But just on my feed, I didn't see a lot of unpleasantness.

That was probably because of the way I'd curated my experience there. By the time I left, I was following around 1,500 people and had about 1,200 people following me. They were primarily children's writers, other types of writers, history people, litbloggers, librarians, literary agents, book people. Most of them were there, like myself, to promote their work. Evidently, they were not the type of people who engaged in name calling on social media. What I saw from them were announcements of new publications or reviews or that an agent or a journal was opening for submissions. I saw newsy type things about problems in publishing companies and literary agencies. This, for me, was legit water cooler stuff.

Additionally, over the last year or two, no other viable alternative to X was presenting itself. I'd see people talking on Facebook about joining this platform or that platform to get away from X, but they came to nothing and soon people were moving on to something else. I just couldn't spend time going from place to place. 

So I stayed at X where I could get info and promote my short-form writing.

A Big Change Came the Morning After the Election

The morning of November 6 an enormous change came to my X feed. It was like watching an on-line street riot. People were incensed, crazed over the outcome of the election. The two standouts for me were:

1. A woman who filmed herself shouting into a camera as if she were railing at Trump supporters, telling them what was going to happen to them because they voted for Trump. She wasn't threatening them. She was yelling that they had doomed themselves. Then she posted her rant on X. No, I don't know what she thought she was going to gain with that. The Trump people had won. What could they possibly care about what a random naysayer had to naysay?
2. A guy who announced that he'd just called his Trump-loving mother and told her that when her Social Security was cut because Trump was president, he was not going to lift a finger to help her. Maybe he got a lot of support for that. I don't know. I didn't stick around to look.

Was this politics? I wondered. What is politics, anyway? I looked the word up. It's either the workings of government or other institutions or discussion of ideology related to same. I guess telling the world that you've just bitched out your mother because of whom she voted for might fall into one of those categories, but, if so, it certainly lowers the level of political discourse.

Things calmed down some after 48 hours, but the place was not the same. I was seeing less professional discussion and more the-sky-is-falling kinds of things that were not necessarily well informed or offering any thoughts on how to move forward. I wasn't the only one who saw the change. I kept seeing tweets saying things like "Where are all the writers?" "Where are the writers?" "Did everyone leave?" "Is anyone left?" 

Writers, the people I wanted to see, were abandoning the place. I held on, though, because I wanted my publishing news and, in the past at least, my work had received some attention there.

AI Raises Its Ugly Head

Towards the end of the election period, we started hearing that X was going to allow AI to train on anything posted there. That sounded a little bit like urban legend to me. I'm big on looking things up and found that, no, it was not urban legend. I do take issue with companies helping themselves to the creative output of others in order to train a computer system to pump out its own bland and pretty much unnecessary "work." I have, for instance, stopped submitting to a Medium publication that uses an AI editor. (In addition to being AI, it's a pain in the ass to work with.).

Then, while taking a writing workshop, I learned that artificial intelligence uses tremendous amounts of energy, which I had totally missed. That was the straw that broke the X camel's back for me. I am not a major environmentalist. We're talking here someone who has a three-section compost bin and a pollinator garden, not someone who lives off the grid. But I don't see how artificial intelligence is doing anything at this point to justify that kind of environmental impact.

Maybe someday AI will be responsible for doing something in the area of science that will enhance human life. But for now, it is primarily generating mind-numbing music for YouTube to broadcast with those creepy fake pictures and allowing search engines to steal info from websites in order to form shallow answers to user questions. It allows poor writers to quickly generate more poor writing and flood the Internet with it. 

In Conclusion

Between my personal X echo chamber being shattered and X becoming part of the AI invasion, I just couldn't justify staying there or, yes, spending valuable time there. Also, leaving was easier, because what appeared to be a workable alternative had finally turned up. BlueSky.

So, I'm over there now, and at some point, I hope to do a post here about my experience skeeting. 

This Week Might Be Different

We have people here painting. This morning I was up, showered, and dressed by 7:20 in order to be ready before they got here. This will go on for at least two more days, maybe three.

With these kinds of hours, I may write another book this week.

My December Project Is DONE

Anna-Louise on Pexels

 I just finished my December project, which involved starting a new short-form writing piece every single day. Yup, that's right. It included Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and today, New Year's Eve.

I did that after finishing my November revision for NaNoWriMo. 

Sure, it would have been gratifying to finish a year with a new publication or some agent interest. But these two months involved working and staying on task, two things I'm very fond of, so I am embracing that and am pumped about the new year.

Hey, New Year's Day--that's a new temporal landmark.

By the way, I am aware that I'm bragging, but my December 29th start is called Pride Doesn't Last and, if completed, will be about how, yes, pride doesn't last. So does that make it less of a deadly sin? Hmm. I should go add that question to my notes.

Tomorrow is a holiday, and I've got it off!!!! 

Time to start New Year's Eve's dinner.

Why Have You Forsaken Us, Gail?

No, I have not forsaken Original Content. But now that I'm writing other kinds of short-form work, the short-form blog posts don't seem as pressing. In fact, a blog post I began last week may become a short-form piece published elsewhere. Or not.

Some Things I've Been Doing The Last Couple Of Weeks Instead Of Blogging

1. I went to Niagara Falls for a few days. This was my third and most extensive visit. One of my other trips I was literally just passing through town. I took some spectacular videos, IMHO, but I can't make them post, so these pictures will have to do.

It turns out, there is a Niagara River that runs from the falls to Lake Ontario. I biked along it for the second time this trip. The other time I biked there I must not have known where the hell I was. In addition to the bike trip, we also walked along the top of the gorge the Niagara River creates on its way to Lake Ontario. Honest to God, I had no knowledge of the great lake involvement with Niagara. I am a great fan of Niagara Falls, but also of great lakes. So this was a multiplier trip.

2. I have been preparing for John the Baptist Day.  You know, the French Canadian holiday that happened today. All you French Canadians and FrancoAmericans have, like me, been planning cookouts, making your deck presentable, cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, and dealing with cancellations, because, just like Christmas and Easter, people are sick.

3. I finished a quick revision of one of my completed adult manuscripts, which I hope to start submitting again next week. Which means the week after.

4. I've been binge reading some not very elevating historical mysteries. This experience has given me an idea for a scifi short story, because I am committed to short-form work as I've mentioned before.

I'm Psyched For The Next Few Weeks 

1. I won't be planning a holiday meal and gathering. 
2. I've got that book submission coming up. I find submissions exciting, because rejection doesn't bother me. In fact, there's something to be said for it. Acceptance always involves additional work of some kind.
3. I have a bag of books I got at my favorite library a couple of weeks ago, I'm reading one of the historical mysteries as an ebook, and I was just notified that two ebooks I requested are available. 

So if I'm not posting here regularly, it's because I'm doing that.

I Have Two Pieces Of News

The Medium platform, where I have been publishing short-form work for the last couple of years, recently started offering a Verified Book Author feature. You have to apply for it, which I did maybe six weeks ago. Or two months. Who knows? At any rate, today I learned that I am now a Verified Book Author there. Of course, it's gratifying that someone verifies I've written books. But more practically, the book title I gave them when I applied is now featured prominently on my Medium profile with all my published pieces at various Medium sites. Okay, the publication date for the book is off by ten years. The ebook edition that I published and that is available was published in 2013 and not 2003. But the Amazon link is correct and the copyright date there is also.

Also, if you are reading any of my Medium work, you'll find my book featured over to the right under my bio. 

Timothy Eberly on Unsplash

My second piece of news is that I had a new humor piece, Some Thoughts On Your Request That I Start Helping Out Around Here, published at Frazzled last week. Frazzled is a Medium publication that specializes in parenting humor. I love publishing there, because the readers are enthusiastic and responsive. 

Well, That's Done

 At 5:30 PM last Sunday afternoon, I finished a draft of a book I've been working on for four years. 143 Canterbury Road. Elevator pitch: A disgraced college student moves into a rental house, unaware that a crime committed there years ago will impact all the present-day inhabitants.

I would just like to point out that it took Julia Child eight years to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she had two co-authors. And one of those co-authors started the book ten years earlier. Not that I just finished writing a cookbook.

Nor can I say that I worked on 143 Canterbury Road exclusively for four years. I started writing and publishing short humor and essays on the Medium platform during that period. I spent a lot of time last summer editing The Mother Suite, which was published at Literary Mama in December. I've made some feeble attempts to be supportive of other authors here at Original Content during that time. I've taken advantage of the great opportunities to attend Zoom workshops these last three years. Someone in the family had a baby during that time. Quite a significant number of family members had Covid during that time, which didn't really require a lot from me but was distracting. 

Still, I've been working on this freaking thing for four years, and it feels it.

Another Significant Change

Earlier this year, I said that I was going to focus on adult writing in 2023, which is what 143 Canterbury Road is. So there's a change.

Another change that should be more significant: Unless something big happens careerwise, 143 Canterbury Road will be my last novel. I will tinker with and continue to submit the five unsold book-length manuscripts I've written since before 2008, but otherwise, I'll be committing to the kinds of work I've had some limited success with during that time and try to expand on that line of work. 

But Not That Significant A Change

Writing novels is grueling--staying in the world of your story and keeping track of all the different threads that hold that world together is hugely demanding. It's not worth the effort for books that don't sell. Writing short-form work--and studying it and reading it and researching markets for it and spending time marketing published work on social media--will be as time consuming, but it will be a different type of work. 

And because it's different that's exciting.

But, first, I have to finish some clean-up work on 143. Then on to new things.

Weekend Wr--Snow Weekend

I was going to do a Weekend Writer post this weekend, but we're experiencing that Northeaster you may have been hearing about. Though it's cold here (12 degrees right now) and windy, so far for us it has been a lovely snowstorm. Snow all day with no loss of utilities. So I've been...

...working on my snow tube run...

...snowshoeing... 

and making a damn fine loaf of gluten free oatmeal bread.

The rest of the day is for reading and maybe some yoga, and tomorrow is going to go the same way as today.

Enjoy your weather, wherever you are.

A Typical Gauthier Christmas

Our Christmas is being put off to January, because I spent the afternoon yesterday with a child whose parents found out last night that he was exposed to Covid at preschool. So we're spending the holiday week waiting to see what's going to happen, whether or not he's going to get it, and whether or not I've been exposed. Believe it or not, this is not the worst Christmas we've had.

While I'm waiting to see what's going to happen, I'm going to try to reread a little Joan Didion, whose The White Album I read many years ago. Hmm. Maybe I'll add a reference to it in that YA book that I've been working on for years.

And in really positive news (positive good, not positive Covid test), though the world may be going to Hell in a hand basket, as my mother would say, we can all be comforted with the knowledge that I made my Goodreads reading goal. We'll always have that.

Don't let the door hit you on the ass on your way out, 2021.

A Portrait Of The Author As A Young Woman

This spring, here at Chez Gauthier, we reorganized and cleared out some old photo albums. We came upon a picture that I would have loved to have used as an author photo at some point. Unfortunately, it was taken about five years before my first short story was published and somewhere in the area of twenty-plus years before my first book was published.

I suspect I didn't like this picture at the time it was taken. I often find I now like pictures of myself that I know I disliked years ago. In this case, in addition to looking young, which I appreciate above all else in photos of myself, I think I look booky and thoughtful, as if I'd just come from an author reading, one of those kinds that just go on and on, or a graduate school lit class. Maybe I just got home after sipping a little Chardonnay with some writers.

Those are all things I rarely do, by the way, except for, these days, drinking Chardonnay. So I guess it would be great if in a picture I could look as if I'd just done those things instead of looking as if I'd just watched part of a TV mini-series or read a back issue of Newsweek, something I may have actually been doing in this one.

We also found this picture of me working in the second bedroom of our first apartment. What is amazing about this picture is I work in this same kind of clutter now. And, because I cook a great deal and our kitchen and office are on different floors, I have set up a small work station like this in a spare bedroom in the house we're living in now so I am always close to a stove and a desk.

I actually had a flannel shirt on this morning.

I'm not sure what this second picture means.

Social Isolation Is Improving My Technology Skills

Thursday night I attended a Greater Hartford SCBWI Meet and Greet. By way of Zoom. Someone in my family decided to memorialize the moment with a picture, which means...blog post!

This was a come-as-you-are event. I want credit for having replaced the flannel shirt I'd been wearing for days (and have on as I type this) with a cleanish cardigan. For some reason, I also felt compelled to brush my teeth. However, if you look very closely, you can see I wasn't wearing socks.

In order to take part in this event, I had to learn how to use Zoom. By which I mean another family member got me set up. Remotely. Because he ran through a practice with me, I got to see him, which was an additional benefit. It appears I can take part in Zoom meetings, if someone else is hosting and sends me an invitation. I don't know how to initiate anything myself. (Like I'm ever going to want to initiate a gathering, even on-line.) That's what I mean by having learned "how to use Zoom."

On Monday I'm signing up to try to get into a SCBWI workshop conducted through Zoom. There are a number of those kinds of workshops coming up in the next few weeks I may be able to be part of.

This is a big tech step forward.

But We're Not Just Talking Zoom!

In the last two weeks I've also learned how to insert photos and images into word documents so I can write illustrated letters to family members. This is a ridiculously easy thing to do. I should have tried it long ago.

I also learned how to "show this thread" on Twitter, for a long-involved reason that is also connected to what I've been doing recently. Another ridiculously easy thing to do. Embarrassed I never tried it before.

There Must Be Historical Precedent For This

I am sure there are all kinds of examples of cultures making technological advances, because they needed to respond to illness or war or natural disaster. I'm guessing someone has also written on  individuals who have done the same thing. It's definitely happening for me.

What Are You Whining About Now, Gail?

Lyme Disease! That's what I'm whining about now. I'm being treated for suspected Lyme Disease, which is a hodgepodge of uncomfortable symptoms, in my case, anyway, and the antibiotics to treat it suck.

I added the Netflix app to my tablet, and now I can watch TV and movies in bed. If I felt better, I'd worry about never reading again. But instead I'm going to go watch another episode of Broadchurch.

And I mention this here, because I don't expect to be working this week. What energy I have is going to watching TV. See you on the other side.

I Have A Connection to Lad! The Dog! That Dog!

Today I had lunch with my husband's second cousin once removed, who told us that his wife's uncle was... Albert Payson Terhune! The collie guy!

It's a good thing I was at Bertucci's today with these people, because my husband didn't have a clue who Cousin E was talking about. But I read Lad of Sunnybank back in the day, and it seems as if I had to have read more of his many collie books, since Terhune's name looms so large in my mind. Not that I can tell you much about Lad, except it was about a dog who was owned by a classy couple who lived in a classy house.

Cousin E. also told us that my husband's great-grandfather owned a Terhune collie, because Terhune was also a breeder. So I have a double connection to Lad.

In an article about a Terhune biography published in 1977, Albin Krebs called Albert Payson Terhune "The creator of some of the most popular books for young people ever published in this country."  In 2015, Bud Boccone, writing for the American Kennel Club called him, "One of the most influential American novelists of all time."

People who like this guy, really like him.

In Lad as a Wasp In Dog's Clothing a child fan who reread some of Terhune's books, noticed some things that got by him when he was younger. In short, he found that "The analogy between thoroughbred dogs and human aristocrats is implicit in all Terhune's stories." To put it nicely. I actually read this article years ago and remember it.

I'm still excited because I'm kind of related to Lad by marriage.

Only Picture Books, All The Time

A few days ago, I learned of the Debbie Bibo Agency, a literary agency in Milan that handles only picture books, many from countries that are not the United States.

What really grabbed me about this agency's site is that I was able to read a number of the French covers. "Why, Gail," you may say. "These are children's picture books. Shouldn't you be able to work out the titles for that reason alone?" Pas moi.

About an hour and a half after writing the paragraphs above, I found a journal (I am fond of all kinds of journals) I'd kept in French in an attempt to remember new French vocabulary. I also found a twenty-five-year-old letter in French from my great-aunt Anna. (Ma Tante Anna, as my Canadian cousins would say.) I'm afraid I'll have to struggle through those, so let me have the French picture books, d'accord?

Quote from moi journal francais: Demain je voudrais fair cuire les gateau sec. "Tomorrow I would like to make cookies." To paraphrase Ethan Allen, I am the same woman still... and in any language.

A New Gauthier Essay

Me in the Rinty Era

Last week, Bending Genres published my flash essay, Heroes. Heroes is a mini-memoir. Also, a dog story. I don't have any pictures of the dog involved (I don't think we had him very long), so I'm using one here of myself, a year or two before the event described in Heroes.

When we have time, we'll be adding this new publication to my Collected Essays.


Some thoughts on flash nonfiction from Dinty Moore, editor of Brevity.

A description of a flash essay course offered through Creative Nonfiction.

Five years ago, I had a piece of flash fiction (not nonfiction) published at Alimentum. I am becoming fond of these short forms.

Recently, Dinty Moore retweeted something I liked about flash fiction. What he shared said, essentially, that flash isn't flash because it goes by in a flash. It's flash because it involves a flash of insight. Something that I would apply to essays, too.

What Have You Been Doing These Last Two Months, Gail? Or What Happens When A Writer Can't Write?

Well, I did make thirteen submissions, six of them as part of the September Twitter Pitch Madness. I wrote seven blog posts. I made twenty entries in my idea journal. I came up with an idea for a new major writing project. So I can't say I did absolutely nothing.

 

However, I had a fleeting thought when I first stopped working back in August that I might do something meaningful…profound…even spiritual…while I wasn’t working. Then when I went back on the clock, I would be changed. In a positive way, of course, a way that would make me a finer human being, or, better yet, a finer writer.

Yeah, well, as you may recall, I dropped off the work bandwagon because dealing with various family issues meant I could only work three or four hours a week, and the effort to keep trying for more was making me nuts. Turns out that I can’t do anything particularly meaningful, profound, or spiritual in three or four hours a week. Though I did change my daily schedule around so that I no longer exercise right after eating. So there's that. That's kind of meaningful.

This Was Disturbing

 In the early days (many days) of not working, I had this fatalistic feeling that I might not ever be able to go back to work. (Given how this upcoming first week back in the harness is turning out in terms of still more family commitments, I wasn’t being melodramatic.) I didn’t actually want to work at that point, but at the same time I felt as if I was nobody and nothing without working. 

A couple of weeks in to my family leave, my husband was finally driving again after his shoulder surgery, which meant that after a meet up at an elder’s place, we went our separate ways. For the first time since May, I didn’t have some place I needed to go instantly. But, remember, I didn’t work. What was I going to do?

I don’t work, I thought. I don’t have to go home. I don’t have to go anywhere.

So I went to Michael’s and bought, maybe, three hundred of those little things for holding pierced earrings in your ears. Then I went over to T. J. Maxx and walked around and around and ended up spending eighty dollars.

This could be my life now, I thought as I dragged my haul to the check-out counter. 

This Was Disturbing, Too

I also didn’t know if I’d ever read another kids’ book. Or The Horn Book. Or Writers’ Digest. (The renewal form for that magazine has been sitting on my kitchen counter for a long time, a very long time.) Instead I polished off lots of adult books from my To Be Read pile and my Kindle. I don’t think I’ve been to the library since July to this day. I just couldn’t bring myself to read anything that wasn’t produced for my age group.

In An Odd Way, This Is Also Disturbing

One day I started reading a really good YA novel I'd just bought for my Kindle. (Except for The Little Blue Truck, I still haven’t read one for anyone younger.)  I started picking away at a Writer’s Digest, and a few weeks ago I realized I was reading a Horn Book. I got started on some blog posts for October. I got an idea for a totally new book and began working on an exercise to develop voice for one of the characters.  

I was working. Barely. And weeks early.

  

What Made This Experience Disturbing

This experience has been disturbing because being unable to work undermined my desire to work, or maybe I should say my ability to work. A case, perhaps, of use it or lose it. At the same time, not working was not satisfying. My identity is tightly involved with writing. I write, therefore I am. I don’t write, therefore I’m not.

The whole thing was like being sick, actually. Something was wrong, and I’m recovering, but slowly.

The Universe Is Toying With Me

I'm planning on going back to work next Sunday, October 1. We have a family member from out-of-state arriving in the area on Saturday, September 30. A lunch is planned on my first real work day, Monday. I don't know how long this family member is staying.

I considered telling the universe that it could just bite me. (I often consider saying "bite me," though I rarely do. In case we're ever together, keep in mind that I might be thinking it.) But then I realized that that might just tick ol' universe off. No, don't want to do that. The universe sent me through my garage door yesterday, when it wasn't ticked off.

Chaos Wins, At Least For The Rest Of The Summer

My true-blue followers are aware that we have family issues this summer with elder care and a relative in the physical therapy stage of recovering from surgery. To deal with the extra work load, I pretty much dumped some of my goals for the year. Mainly generating new work, supporting and promoting diverse literature, and most of community building/general marketing/branding. The marketing effort for Saving the Planet & Stuff was already shot. I was down to just submitting work.

Well, I can't manage even that. I can't take any more of this frustration. I am not pleasant when I'm frustrated. I can't take any more being unpleasant.

So after making some submissions tomorrow morning, submissions I've been working on the three or four hours a week I've had for work the last month, I'm throwing in the towel for the rest of the summer. By "rest of the summer" I mean end of September. Additionally, except for the Connecticut Children's Literature Calendar, I won't be posting here until I'm back at work.

Unless something really exciting happens that I just can't pass up.

I had to take four and a half months off from work seven years ago for another elder care issue. I came back from that, so I can come back this time, too. Yes, I can!

What I should have for you when we're together again:

• Focus training. Seriously, I found something on this. I'll try it out for you over the next couple of months.
• A baby shower with a picture book theme. Seriously, I'm involved with giving one. I'm bringing spaghetti sliders. I'll explain in September.
• Nanowrimo prep. Seriously, I think I'm doing Nanowrimo this year. Hahahaha. 
• Adventures with my iPad. Seriously, I got one. I'm going to go do something with it right now.

 

No Original Content Next Week

In case you missed me mentioning it in the last couple of posts, Original Content will be on vacation until next Friday. I might do a few posts on Facebook, but nothing here.

Have a good week.

What Did You Do This Week, Gail? Feb.13 Edition

Hahahahahahah.

I had a couple of appointments planned this week, but what's a couple of appointments in a whole week, right? So Monday started off great with me working on some Goal 2 and Goal 4 and some Goal 7, which involved getting ready for Writers' Group Monday night and then, indeed, going to Writers' Group Monday evening.

And then this happened on my way home.

I was on a multi-lane highway, in the dark, when my car was hit by something. Then hit again. And again. We think from the looks of the car that I was hit three times. And that what hit me was a rogue tire. Though I didn't actually see the tire, either while the accident was happening or afterward, so it's possible that I was being attacked by a giant, invisible creature that had slipped out of another dimension and had no idea what it was doing. We believe it was a tire, though, because of the tire marks on the side of the car, where no tire marks should ever be. The very young state trooper was quite blown away by the sight of it.

Seriously, I was home an hour later, so it's not as if a car accident was all that time consuming. And it was 9 o'clock in the evening when all this first went down. Not my prime work time, anyway.

What happened the next day, though, was I had an appointment in the morning, then I go home with plenty of time to work. But I'd been in an automobile accident the night before, right? So while I did write a couple of blog posts, mostly I spent the afternoon watching two episodes of Fixer Upper, because everyone watches that,  and an episode of Outlander. I'm with Claire about the second season's Parisian setting. I'm not liking it as much as the first season in Scotland. Though I am able to understand a little bit of the French, which is gratifying.

Then on Wednesday I had to go with my husband to pick up a rental car, and then I had to follow him as he drove the damaged car to a shop for repairs. Then one thing led to another, and the only thing I did for work was buy some padded envelopes to mail books in.

And then Thursday I was on the road all day, because that's what I do on Thursdays, whether I've been in an accident Monday night or not.

So that was almost the whole flipping week.

Today is Friday, and I'm back on goal. Hmm. Maybe I'll start using that term here instead of "on task." Yeah, I'm back on goal today, specifically Goal 4.

Two Other Things I Managed To Do This Week

 

 I managed to share some tweets related to Goal 6

• 45  Books to Counter Islamophobia Through Stories https://kitaabworld.com/blogs/news/fight-hate-with-love-45-books-to-counter-islamophobia

• 5 Multicultural #Cybils Chapter Book Nominees, highlights from R1 judge Claire Noland #DiverseBooks #kidlit ow.ly/IcB8308YgzW
• Freedom Over Me  http://blbooks.blogspot.com/2017/02/freedom-over-me.html
• Strange Fruit http://asuen.com/strange-fruit/ via @AnastasiaSuen
• Coretta Scott King booklist and links http://www.hbook.com/2017/02/blogs/out-of-the-box/coretta-scott-king-booklist-and-links/

And I won a copy of Unlocking Worlds: A Reading Companion for Book Lovers by Sally Allen through the blog Book Nation by Jen. Which just goes to show that anyone can win a book at a blog giveaway.

You still have time to sign up for your chance to win Fancy Party Gowns. Go for it. Because it is good to win a book. Especially the week your car has been hit by a flying tire. And you never know when that's going to happen.

Try To Miss Me Just A Little. Or Better Yet, A Lot.

Vacation 2014

Original Content is taking a vacation, because I am. I will be posting my biking mileage at Facebook every few days, and I might tweet occasionally, if I feel a compelling need to. (I sometimes live tweet TV shows and season premiere time is coming up.) Remote possibility that I might create some new Pinterest boards, because that's fun. Otherwise I'm not even planning to check my e-mail regularly.

Vacation 2015

What About Vacations And Time Management?

Today is Tuesday, so this should be a Time Management Tuesday post. I could be writing about how preparing for vacation is very stressful and time consuming. It increases monkey mind problems.

And what about goals for vacation? Shouldn't I have those? I'm very goal-oriented these days, and I feel that during vacation I should be working on goals unrelated to work. Because I'm on vacation. No work. So I'm thinking instead my goals should be reading French. And meditating. And reading lit journals. And writing in journals. And reading about tai chi. Hmm. Is there something called objective panic?

But you know what would be a really good vacation goal? Arriving at the motels where you have reservations at the time when you've reserved them.