Krista

Me out here catching strays! 😮 Also:

Don't give him more reasons, for the love of all things and sanity's sake.

Best bet is @wildone I mean the man has shot Santa and wrote a story about genetically modified Capybaras running amok. Bribery works with him, probably.

It is amazing when a project jumps from your brain to paper so flawlessly. Even if it is rough and needs reworking before posting, getting it there in the first place is half the battle. Having it motivate you so thoroughly that 74k feels as easy as breathing is so nice. I had that with large portions of, "Learned to Lie," I never felt the lack of motivation with that story, and I needed that as it was my first bit of writing I did without posting as I went. I truly hope it wasn't a fluke in my brain, that I can do the next project that hits me similarly. I don't know. Ellis seemed like that after I got Chapters one and two out of the way. Three through six flowed rather nicely. I liked the characters. The pacing is a bit slow, but nothing new there it seems. But then the year ticked over into 2026 and it seemed everything that could derail me, did. I don't like trying to piece things back together to get sorted out to continue a project. Real life is unpredictable, it is stressful, and it is sad. I also had an idea for the Anthology, but I didn't write it down, now I can't remember what exactly the idea was. For the best, probably. My Anthologies tend to run me between 30k and 300k. I'd take that over no written words for two months though. A runaway train may be just what I need.

Allergies have absolutely wrecked me this Spring. I've always dealt with allergies like a gnat. Might pop an allergy pill once a month when they get too annoying. This year though, I thought I was going to suffocate more than once in my own mucus. I've been to my doctor three times trying to find the correct doping method that will work. It has been awful to say the least and it's been going on for about five weeks now. As for Purple, I must agree it looks good on you, brings out the J. -- I do most of my writing in bed, always have. The bed or the couch, and I have a reading/writing nook in my bedroom, but the views are only great Spring - Early Autumn, after that I avoid that nook, it is rather depressing and unmotivating looking out at all the gray scale and dead things. As for pressure, no reason to feel it. Shadowgod's writing I have always loved and respected. I miss him dearly, he was a great friend... or he tolerated me, but I thought him a great friend.

Congratulations!!!

I have always done this because I thought it was something fun to do. I started writing creatively in my early teens, mostly because there was an assignment for creative writing. The teacher allowed us to create a world of our choosing, character and plot, or whatever. I wrote, I think fifteen pages of 'something,' I can't even remember what it was really. After that assignment ended, I started writing things on my own for fun. So I would call myself a hobbyist sort of writer. It is all hobby for me. I want to hone what I want, craft what I want, learn when I want to. Be selfish in the bad habits I have that I can overlook until I read it back and cringe because it doesn't line up with shifting expectations in waning moments of weakness and nitpicky moods. I am here with this writing thing, because it is fun. I will not be here when it no longer is. They're all interchangeable these labels. I think I've used them all to describe myself over the years in one form or the other. I don't put a ton of weight to any of them.

Clucky, cheeky, and nuisance may be words I would use to describe you, my dear. If asked I mean. As far as gardening, love it. I have flower gardens that have Lilies, roses, lavender, and a few that I've planted and forgot the names of as they're perennial and just need pruning and given space to keep growing and coming back. I do a Vegetable garden as well. Tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, cabbage, pie pumpkins, jack-o-lantern pumpkins, butternut squash, zucchini. I want to start an orchard, likely peach trees. Strawberries and me don't get along, but they seem easy for a lot of people I know, I just can't get optimal harvests out of them. It may be my demand of them that makes me think they're not doing their best. The only thing I have little to no luck in that I really want are ferns, they're so needy. It seems that if you look at them they die on you so I've given up on them really, but as a backdrop plant they're lovely.

Steve Irwin and Jeff Corwin. I don't think I would look good dressed up like either one of them though.

I will never say that I am good at writing physical scenes. I don't go into them thinking that I am good at it. That is why I insert dialog, sometimes even plot and character important dialog in the middle of everything. They say don't break up a lot of the action with meaningful distractions such as that. The whole... someone noticing a rose while on the battlefield scenario. The character needs to focus on not being bludgeoned to death and not the rose. But, the longer I stay in the consecutive sentences of the physical act the more awkward I know it feels/gets. That's why the dialog is important to me. It also gives me a reason to read it back, otherwise when I know it is coming I skip over it and the next thing I know @wildone has to tell me that I'm smooshed body parts that doesn't like being smooshed... well I guess if the character isn't into that sort of thing. Which begs the answer: Why do I do it then? I don't know, I can't find myself doing "off screen," or "fade to darkness," scenes in the writing. I feel, especially in mature romances that if you've been working up to the physical act then it needs to be written. Slow burn romances take that one step further, which I typically write. I spend thousands of words enticing, teasing, making the connective steps and to off screen it or fade it to nothing after a few kisses and gropes, I've always felt like if I did that it would steal something from the writing and the experience readers may be seeking within the story. But yes, I will always champion Female authors in M/M fiction. I can see where there is a bloated market and that markets can be dictated by majority rules. I will not sit idle when people preach the removal of us, because it doesn't solve anything. We all must learn that championing and fighting for what we want does more good than telling people they cannot exist in the genre just because. As for male characterizations in my writing, I do fall into comfort zones. I like light hearted and joke-heavy best friends, for example. A character 'there' to be the counter to anything heavy themed. I like Warm/Cold relationships, where one person is a bit more reserved and calculated and the other flies by the seat of their pants. I do think some of my romantic tendencies do lean female, but I go into it hoping that I can still do the male characters justice within the story itself. I try to write grounded 'human' types. --- I'll stop rambling now. There is a noted difference in the way I answered here and how I answered all those years ago as well. Regression or growth, who is to say of that opinion?

I tried to get ChatGPT to do a decent Mothman, it wasn't pretty. It kept giving him bird feathers and talons, not insect/mothy appearances. I went all caps in my frustration and it finally landed on something... lol.

I'm boring as hell and I only drink water. Occasionally I'll drink juice if I can find low sugar, zero added sugar it is surprising how junk most juices in this world actually are. Peach juice being my favorite. For a warmer drink I'll mix a little concentrated peach juice into tea, but my body doesn't handle caffeine, so it has to be a low caffeine blend. I am a pure indulgent sucker for unhealthy, sugar heavy, artificially flavored + blended up cherry milkshakes and/or smoothies though. I allow myself to have a few of those in the summer months. I make them myself and I fuss at myself the whole time knowing all the terrible things I'm putting into them, but doing it anyway.

Yeah I am like that with 90% of the celebrities my eyes have landed on. They're only good in the roles they play on screen, for the most part. If you dig deeper into most of their lives you just find out they're not that good at being 'a person...' Robin Williams seemed like a good person in general though. ---- As a more important aside, bless you for thinking that you could still party like a twink. Any more it is an effort for me to even look at someone that isn't my family and think... do I want to socialize with them? So I honestly and truly commend you for showing the world... you. Much to your better half's dismay, but that's part of the reason why we marry them, I'm thinking. If you can't look over at them and see them shaking their head and averting their eyes, it's a lost art really.

Mothman or Gargoyles? Are you wanting something more humanoid that would be able to communicate? Or just critters?

@wildone best believe if I ever decided to hurl something at your head it will not be something as ineffective as a snowball. Also, it got nearly 70 degrees today, the sun shining, a gentle breeze. Lovely.

Thank you for taking the time to read this little ghost story/light mystery that's not really a mystery.

I didn't feel any sneaky duplicity this time. Hopefully I've not gotten into my gullible phase. Honestly though, thank you. I do feel bad when I'm not actively being productive. Moreso when I've got a story posting and I run off schedule by a few months. Since I have nothing actively posting, I don't feel as much pressure. I do miss posting stories though. But you're right, mental health and alleviating pressure and stressors are important.

It is disheartening when you see the radar scan of a destructive storm approaching a town. Legitimately it does bother me and there's a helpless sort of feeling, because you know with that trajectory it 'is' going to happen and the only thing that is going to keep it from doing so is the storm itself and the conditions shifting ahead of it that sucks the energy. On the other side though these guys are getting popular, millions of followers. So millions of eyes on 'weather' events. The warning times by having them discussing the weather in real time, sometimes hours before your area is impacted it gives people a lot of time to prepare, tell their neighbors/family. Whereas the NWS and News affiliated meteorologists can only become the focus 'during' the event in their coverage zones as they have restrictions. These reputable people have nothing restricting them, they can live stream 12+ hours at times covering the entirety of the forecasted areas of concern, from the start of the event to the end. I have watched a supercell form in Eastern Texas and die in Northern Kentucky, birth to death. In that time the NWS is issuing warnings 10 to 15 minutes before impact. But these meteorologists I watch have already discussed this storm hours into its lifespan. Warning time saves lives if you've been told your area will be impacted by a certain destructive supercell that's currently in another state, the only reason you get caught out in it, is if you choose to be. Which mind you, is the flip of it. Some people actively seek out storms because of these live streams as well, that's human nature really. The more you learn about forecasting, weather, and meteorology, the more you can predict patterns and become less scared of the events when they do happen. I've learned to read dew points, moisture zones, fronts, CAPE, radar scans, and wind direction at different levels just by watching live streams. But yes, it is difficult to watch when you know people are about to be directly impacted.

It's been about a month, wish I had a better update than I do. I've not written anything in more than a month. I'll have to look back to confirm, but I think I skipped the majority of February and I've not written anything at all for the month of March. I've not loaded a document either. I don't know what to do about writing, my brain isn't feeling creative and I've fallen into a motivation slump as my mind is elsewhere. Probably just going to not stress about it and whenever I want to write something again, I will. I know that will slow down any progress and ambitions I had for posting another project this year, or anthologies, etc... All of this does make me want to switch gears on what I'm working on, I'm thinking. Despite remembering that I enjoyed writing chapters 2 - 6 of the "Ellis" project and finally feeling like I had my footing with that story. I got bogged down in real life stuff, worry, and stress and that derailed me. It is difficult for me to get back onto a story if something takes me away from it, it always has.

Yes, he does. I think after his father comes home and he can physically see and talk with him more, he can let loose and understand what his father actually wanted from him when he suggested going out for basketball.

Yeah, there's a lot of reasons why this story ended the way that it did. The most glaring is that it was for the Anthologies that ran too large and well past the due date for submissions. So, the idea I had for it was supposed to end where it ended to make the deadline, but the words got too high for me to submit as it is, so I added more to the story. The second is that realistically Rhett has his own life, he's coming to town for research. Proximity is how romances work. Establishing that soon is good, but the proximity isn't realistic for these characters. They had a genuine connection 'as strangers' and I could've had them exchange numbers and communicate long-distance, but I had no interest in writing such a story. If I did, it wouldn't be too tech-heavy, call me old school but I like a good handwritten letter if I'm in a relationship. Not a text or four hour phone call. Which, mind you, in my teens that's all I did... go from talking in person, right to texting, to chatting after dinner/calling, then chatting after I was supposed to be in bed... so writing a story similar to that would bore me, to be fair.

If we're on equal ground, it will make it easier for me to trip you and rub your face in the dirt. I need to get my mean-girl reputation cultivated a bit, 2026 may be the year. We're supposed to be one of the states that has a severe risk chance tonight and into tomorrow, so I probably should be watching one of the two youtube meteorologists that I sometimes watch. It is interesting how much technology has built these platforms. Not too many years ago we were guessing what the radar is showing and waiting for slow rescans, and if you're in a radar hole, you don't get as accurate real time data. Some of these meteorologists are faster and more accurately forecasting severe weather than our NWS. And, they can live stream it with on the ground storm chasers out in the field real time. Knowing a tornado is on the ground and heading to your neighborhood because you're watching a livestream has been a fascinating watch for me. I do not watch this dude though.