Monarchs are imminent
Somewhere between about 8-15 days, the monarch chrysalis goes from green to blue to finally clear, like in the photo here. That stage means they’re going to emerge as full-on butterflies within a few hours. So cool.
What I read this month
More into the swing of things this month. While I tried a few things out that weren’t to my taste, I got through a fair bit: READThe Adventurers Guild: Twilight of the Elves – Zack Loran Clark and Nick EliopulosThe Trials of Apollo: The Hidden Oracle – Rick RiordanThe Adventurers Guild: Night of Dangers –…
Microfiction contest round two results: Sweeter
I’ve just been informed that I made it through the second round of the NYC Midnight Microfiction contest I updated you on recently and am on to the final round this weekend. As always, it feel good to get the approval of people who vet fiction professionally. Looking forward to the next challenge. Update you…
Lessons learned from children
There’s a lot that grown-ups can learn from kids. Yes, we have bills to pay and jobs to go to (or, even more stressful for many more these days, not), and weighing the pros and cons of getting that root canal… there’s no end of big person responsibilities and issues on our minds. But too…
Summer camps in Covid times
I write this shortly after my nine-year-old has been dropped off at a summer day camp. Your reaction to that line will range from some variation of “Hey, that’s super!” to “What the hell are you thinking?” And as a parent in these pandemic days, I’m rolling up and down through the range of those…
Swimming in new shark (no, alligator!) infested waters
A couple of friends of mine forwarded this post about a deal that a TV and movie production company struck with Netflix, which will see a number of films from unrepresented writers get a solid shot at getting made. In a couple of decades of writing movie scripts and entering contests (or at least keeping…
Monarchs are cool
Off and on for a couple of years, we’ve raised monarch butterflies from eggs to first flight. It’s really cool to see. There’s something satisfying and heartwarming about seeing a monarch that you raised from a tiny egg finally crawl out of its chrysalis, dry out its wings and fly away. We just got some…
Fun with photos
A couple of Christmases back I received a little set of photo lenses that clip onto my cell phone, and while I haven’t used them a ton–a fisheye lens, while cool in its own wonky way, isn’t an everyday kind of photo accessory for me–a recent rainy day offered a great opportunity to give the…
What I read this month
June was no less busy for the household than previous isolation months had been, and in some ways was even more busy. On top of the usual busyness of taking care of household, shopping and cooking duties (while ensuring that my wife had the time and space needed for all her online teaching, and my…
Microfiction contest round one results: Sweet
I mentioned recently that I was entering the NYC Midnight Microfiction contest, wherein writers have to write no more than 100 words for a story the organization assigns rand0mized genres, actions, and single words for. Well, the results came in, and I was in the top 20 of my group, so advance to round 2….