The feed of updates to 's blog.
Maybe a slightly provocative title, but it’s true. I am keeping busy, working in my software testing job, getting Cicada Ink going, packaging and posting orders, tweaking the website, doing Instagram posts, etc., also trying to get my body back in shape a little. I’m not back at karate yet, but I’ve been trying to walk daily, and build up some strength with dumbbells at home. Outside of that I’m…
My wee webshop is live, at cicada-ink.nz . Currently selling fountain pen inks with a few small accessories, and hopefully soon some nice fountain pen ink-friendly paper. At the moment shipping only to NZ and Australia, as I figure people further afield can get the same things much closer to home, with better shipping options. I am finding it a lot of fun! I’ve really enjoyed setting up the…
Things are, indeed, happening. It’s raining quite a bit today, grey skies, boring traffic on the drive to school. But it’s also Friday, there’s coffee here, I’m in my happy place, down at my desk in the study. Movement with work, with Cicada Ink, and with writing too– I guess this is a bit of a progress update, more than anything. Things with work are going well. I think after nearly thirty years…
Starting this in bed, with both cats curled up nearby, one under a blanket and the other pressed up against my leg. It’s been cold, and wet. A big storm passed over Wellington over the last few days. Heaps of flooding, some scary scenes of people forced out of their houses, cars floating down the street in Berhampore. A man in South Karori (near where we used to live) has gone missing after water…
Current projects underway include: setting up a Wellington-based ink shop, finishing up some sweaters, pulling together multiple drafts for a short story, and pulling together multiple drafts for the Felathia novels that I started many, many years ago. It’s raining, quite heavily. Flooding at the Wellington hospital, Hutt river doing its thing. We live on a hill and I think it drains well, but you…
Been busy re-doing and updating covers for two of my books today: The Dark Offering cover Catnip + Brimstone cover This time I edited things in the new Affinity, which is now free after Canva purchased it. All sorts of tangled thinking there: Canva promotes the use of AI , and requires you to have an account (albeit free), while the alternative, Photoshop, also promotes the use of AI , implements…
Writing’s hard these days, so have just been doing more tweaking of the blog. The writing blog continues to frustrate, though I did slim things down there and get rid of any overlap between the two. All my blogging now happens here, and the finished products, whenever they happen, get put up there. That way if you just enjoy the rambling you don’t have to look at the books, and if you like the…
For some reason it’s been hard to come back to the blog; again I’ve been plagued with doubts about what it actually is , what purpose it serves, yadda yadda. While all of that’s been percolating I thought I may as well tidy things up behind the scenes. The full list is at the changelog , but tidy CSS , slightly different colours, and new body font are probably most noticeable for me. The…
I’ve been writing this blog post for a few days now. Well, writing it in my head. It has been quite the year. I scarcely know where to begin, but here goes for the bullet-point version: just as a preface, I discovered I was BRCA positive at the very end of 2023, when my sister found a lump that wound up being staged as triple-negative breast cancer. I was scheduled for prophylactic surgery in…
Sometimes I feel like I need…well, not an ego-boost, exactly, but some sort of reminder that I’m a functional human being with interests and things that I do well, that maybe prove that the first full half of my life wasn’t entirely wasted. I’ve worked, I have skills, have learned crafts and techniques. I have muscle memory. What I don’t really have though is a career that sounds interesting when…
It’s sunny-overcast outside, still, lots of birds in the trees that surround the house. Leila home sick again, headache, pale, fatigued. She’s been feeling rotten for a good two or three weeks, has missed a chunk of school. Steve is taking her in tomorrow to get some blood tests done. Hard to know if she’s got a virus, glandular fever (lots of sore throats), is anaemic, or what. She eats well, is…
Just a quick note! Due to some issues with Cusdis (which was what I was using to manage comments) I’ve had to change providers. CommentBox.io has a few differences (I will have to see if I can tweak a few things), including the need to sign in before you can comment. I was hoping to avoid that, but here we are. Apologies to people who left comments over the past few weeks! I saw them come through,…
faces on a wall in paris Sick child again today. Lots of kids in her class have been home sick apparently. It puts a small spanner in the works for me but I’m at the point in this cycle where my neutrophils are low and I need to keep away from people. So I am having to hermit, anyway. It was meant to be a crappy day today, but instead it’s puffy clouds over a light blue sky. Technically it could…
this post, in emacs I’m writing on Emacs right now. It’s something that I’ve played around with for quite a long time, but usually in an on-again, off-again sort of relationship. I have scores of writing apps, things like Scrivener and Ulysses (even going back to the pre-subscription days), and trials of iAWriter, as well as Obsidian. But right now Emacs is scratching that itch. I say Emacs, but…
Just a quick check-in. It’s day 3 of my second cycle of chemo, and I’ve got a little bit of light neuropathy happening with my legs and feet, just tingling, nothing too serious, but I’ve been stretching and doing some acupressure, and I’ll try for a small walk later on. I woke up at 7 (after a 2am wake up and pee) and it’s 10:30 and already I’m feeling like a nap might be in order. Looking back at…
I cut my hair all off yesterday, after hopping in the shower and feeling it all starting to come out in my hands. I was expecting it: my oncologist said “ week three, like clockwork,” but I wasn’t prepared for how creepy all the hair felt in my hands, trying to keep it all from clogging the drain. Strands clinging to my fingers and wrists. Ugh. I sent Steve a text as soon as I got out: TIME TO…
The more I work on things, the more I think I have something akin to kinaesthetic creativity. Or kinaesthetic thinking. It’s weird, I am a reader, and have always been a reader, so generally I like having a written reference if I’m learning something. But in terms of making , I’m realising that I am definitely a person for whom thoughts emerge as I write. And doubly so, for whom they emerge when I…
Another morning in bed. Listening to tunes: Been scouring the net for some cool ideas for making geodesic domes — in particular, one for Leila to be able to put up and take down again in her room. (She slept in her closet last night, obviously wanting something cozy!) I found this one on instructables that looks quite good, just made from bamboo and hose offcuts. A few other interesting links: At…
yeah a meme There are so many things I want to be doing right now: writing, sewing, baking bread, making comics, solo roleplaying, knitting, developing photos, gardening, running again, karate, blogging, this zine idea I’ve been having, letter writing. But for now, it’s still bed. Blank paper. A pencil. The view out over the harbour. There was a rainbow earlier! I think my eggplants that I brought…
I’m writing this in yet another iA Writer trial. I really like this application, and yet every time I head over to the app store to look at it, my finger hovers over the $99.99 button and it’s so hard to do it. I’m in bed, listening to James Reeves’ The Red Curtain , which is a ‘ midnight radio’ tribute to David Lynch. I’m a big Lynch fan; peak for me was watching Twin Peaks on TV as a thirteen…
Moon Power Tarot 8 of Pentacles card It’s been a while since I really felt like I could sit down and add anything to my blog. I’ve just updated my now page (woefully a few months old) and I’m sitting in bed with the second coffee of the day, beside Chewie the tabby, who came in last night covered in grass seeds from who-knows-where. I drank two gins at a friend’s get together last night (we had a…
BOOBLESS Well, I’m on the other side of it. Officially boobless! (And ovary-less, fallopian-tube-less, though those are more of a mouthful to say.) It’s still a bit strange, to be honest, and I’m not really sure what to say. On one hand, this sort of surgery–risk-reducing surgery, I mean–is a tricky one. You’re basing decisions, body-altering decisions, on a series of numbers. Weighing balances,…
This one’s a bit weird; a sort of addendum to the 100 list . 100 scenes–flash scenes. Split into five sections as I brainstorm new story ideas. I’m quite taken by the amount of theft, dysfunctional relationships, and also ennui in these. I also think they are hilarious. The purpose was to pick out a few that I could work on, but I think I prefer reading them all the way through. There are typos…
pasta! When I was sixteen I went to stay in Treviglio, Italy for three months as a sort of “ mini-AFS” experience. I spoke no Italian before I left, apart from the super-basic stuff I had hurriedly crammed when I found out I hadn’t got my first pick, France. I had a great time, and I should really write more about those days. I definitely picked up a lot of Italian during the trip, and I had a…
It’s Sunday, the cicadas are crackling and popping in the trees, I have a purring cat beside me, and I’m about to put on another coffee. We had a great evening last night with some friends coming round for a BBQ and a swim, and afterwards we sat and watched the sun set, then watched The Lost Boys to top everything off. I’ve been keeping myself busy with some techy days, setting up my laptop with…
sunset :) I think I’m getting ready on a few goals now we’re out of January! There’s nothing like eminent surgery to get you to try and cram everything in to the month preceding it. I’m going to aggressively work on two writing goals - the anthology and my short novel, both of which have been stewing long enough and it’s now time to take more active steps towards cracking both of these nuts. I…
path leading through trees The howl and blow is where the drama lies; Mary Poppins comes in on the wind, bringing magic with her. The storms that kick things off in A Wrinkle In Time bring more than just bad weather. Winds bring change, a drop in barometric pressure, rain, gusts from the north or south. They are inconvenient, whipping away your umbrella, gusting rain up under the hood of your…
Happy New Year! Like most Januaries past, this month is a real blob-fest around here, with Leila still on school holiday, and Steve’s work shut up till mid Jan. Much of my work dried up last year, so once I get my BRCA surgery out of the way (early this year) I’ll be back on the job hunt. In the meantime, I’ve been pootling around lately with getting things set up for the coming year. Selling some…
chewie I started writing a blog post but wound up spending a not-small chunk of time tweaking the blog, especially after reading Jeff Huang’s Designed to Last post, which had me running for my Assets folder to see if I could decrease the blog size. I think I’ve managed to shave off a good 22 MB in the process, which I’m rather happy about. It’s now sitting at a 28 MB file size. Thinking a little…
Some thoughts on the 9Qs and the last couple of game days: This style of gaming (seat-of-the-pants gaming with an oracle) does tend towards the chaotic; the enjoyment I get from it is in seeing how things play out, looking for patterns, associations and relationships, and in seeing how the game develops based on all the random, generative stuff from the tables and dice rolls. I realise I didn’t…
Day 2 Chaos: d10 Weather: frigid mist Sun: Who knows? It did not rise today. Food: Fox: 7 rations; party: 3 rations maid o' the lake Other: Finn has -1 to saves and checks until he gets more sleep Threads: - investigate something growing to the north of Sir Vahn's garden in The Gnarl - the clockwork rat - a dead pony - a witch making a name for herself - Gremo and Sir Vahn NPCs: - Everedeni Rasp…