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New Year, New Me, Old Photography

New Year, New Me, Old Photography

Jan 09, 2019
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It’s the second week of the new year, and already I’m making progress on my resolutions! Specifically, the one about sharing my photography with the world and figuring out how to monetize it (because money=helpful!). I have a TON of photos that I’ve never even gone through (like, over 100k and 6 TB), and I NEED TO DO SOMETHING WITH THEM. It helps to have some external deadline or motivation for me to actually go through and edit them—a personal quirk I’ve learned with my writing lately. We all need to figure out how we work best, yes? That’s a huge boon to productivity!

So, what is the answer to editing images, sharing them with the world, and monetizing them? Stock photo agencies! I can post my images to a number of stock sites and have people license them (hopefully), earning me a small royalty in return. Mind you, this isn’t a get-rich-quick scheme by any means, but it’s passive income that I don’t have to tend to other than putting new images up on a consistent basis. Which, again, gives me the incentive to actually cull and edit my photos. Win-win!

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

Jan 01, 2019
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Happy New Year, friends! I hope you’ve all had a splendid holiday season and are ringing in the new year with new goals, hopes, and dreams to achieve in 2019.

Me, I’m ready to SEE 2018 GO. Goodbye, don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

It’s no secret that I’ve had a difficult year (as discussed here and here), and, to be honest, a difficult several-year period. I’m tired of dwelling in the negative, though, and I’m ready and eager to look forward and embrace a new journey in this new year.

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A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas

A Post-Apocalyptic Christmas

Dec 26, 2018
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Happy day-after-Christmas, friends! Hope you all had a lovely day, and if you don’t celebrate, I hope you’re having a wonderful holiday season. My husband and I had QUITE the eventful first-Christmas-in-our-new-house, as in we didn’t actually get to spend it there. Total bummer. 

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Finding Your Character in Disaster Drills and Writing

Finding Your Character in Disaster Drills and Writing

Dec 19, 2018
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I recently helped out with a disaster drill at my husband’s hospital, where we volunteers were acting as victims of a bus accident that injured 45 people. The doctors in the emergency room did NOT know this drill was about to happen; this was all sprung on them during a normal workday where actual traumas were going on. Ready, Lincoln Hospital? Here we go!

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Fly, Baby Bird, Fly

Fly, Baby Bird, Fly

Dec 12, 2018
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Being a baby bird in writing-land is hard, and I’m not entirely sure it’s a stage anyone ever gets past. We all continue to learn and progress and come up against stumbling blocks throughout our lives, sure. But to be just starting out in this new life, you come to rely on your parents: the resources and communities you’ve found that work wonders for you. And then, suddenly, you’re pushed out of that cozy, little nest, and it’s either learn to fly really fast or go splat on the ground.

We all want to avoid the SPLAT.

My latest push to grow beyond my current situation comes in the form of Storyzine, that fabulous and up-and-coming flash-fiction publication I’ve been writing for every month. They’re taking a break. 

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Restarting a Project in the Face of Failure

Restarting a Project in the Face of Failure

Dec 05, 2018
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Begone, Sword of Guilt! I have conquered the art of restarting a project. I have done the thing, restarted the blog. I HAVE BEATEN YOU. (For now. Please don’t come back to me with a vengeance trying to prove me wrong. K, thanks, bye.) 

I can’t even tell you how good this feels. For the past two years, I have wanted to write this blog. Catch up with myself and write forward. For the past two years, I have lived my life with guilt eating at me for not accomplishing that for various reasons, and on the flip side, with thinking that various experiences would make great blog posts and writing them in my head. It’s been torture. 

It’s always difficult to restart any project because it’s much more of a mental game than a physical one.

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Winning NaNoWriMo—and Winning at Life

Winning NaNoWriMo—and Winning at Life

Nov 30, 2018
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As the title of this post suggests, I officially “won” NaNoWriMo by writing 50,000 words! I had up days and down days, but today, on day 30, I plugged in that final word count to soar over my goal. And it feels fantastic.

What feels better than fantastic, though, is not merely writing 50k words (though,  there’s no “merely” about that…50k words is A LOT). It’s what I managed to do this month aside from just “writing all the words.”

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Writing a Story for Nat Geo

Writing a Story for Nat Geo

Nov 28, 2018
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Over on Wattpad, a pretty awesome sharing/reading platform for writing, National Geographic is currently holding a #planetorplastic writing competition based around two specific image prompts: a person swimming in an ocean of trash and a seahorse holding a pink Q-tip in its tail. I chose the latter as my inspiration image, and off I went on telling the story of Po and his desire to build a good house for his expanding family, with some pretty unique building materials that attract unwanted attention. Read it here to find out what happens!

So, getting to this story was not a one-and-done sort of affair (no decent writing is), but I didn’t expect how many revisions it would take me to unearth Po’s story.

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Accountability to Your Art and Audience

Accountability to Your Art and Audience

Nov 21, 2018
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Recently I (finally) watched Won’t You Be My Neighbor, the new Fred Rogers documentary on his time doing Mister Rogers Neighborhood. It’s a beautiful, enlightening portrayal of a man and show that many of us grew up watching, and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. There were some truths Fred Rogers spoke of that resonated with me outside the context of Mister Rogers Neighborhood, and I want to begin a series of speaking about them, starting here. 

At one point during the film, Fred Rogers states, “What we see and hear on the screen is part of who we become.” 

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Halfway to 50k: Life During NaNoWriMo

Halfway to 50k: Life During NaNoWriMo

Nov 15, 2018
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We writers of the world are officially at the halfway mark of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), and yours truly hit the halfway goal of 25k words yesterday! A whole day early. Huzzah!

I’m trucking along so far this November, and I’ve had a fairly easy go of it so far—minus losing nearly a day’s worth of writing due to my laptop’s keyboard malfunctioning, but I had an old backup ready to go while it sits in Apple’s repair clutches. What’s MORE important for me than hitting the 50k mark this month is achieving that elusive thing I’ve been struggling at for years: a work/life balance.

And, you guys, so far I’VE BEEN ROCKING IT.

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