Welcome to 2022! With the new year just begun, we’re all making plans and resolutions. Or we’re resolving not to make plans and resolutions for various reasons, often because we hate ourselves for doing so five days in. (Been there, done that.)
I’m a binge reader. I will take an author and read five or six of their books. When I start to see the tropes and how they structure things, I stop and move on to something else. This isn’t a slam at the authors, by any means. Sometimes, I read books and watch films to pick them apart. It’s a big part of learning my craft. I don’t want to do that when I read for enjoyment, though, and the moment I start “seeing” the structure, time for me to move on, no matter how much I might love the author.
There was a well-known children’s series I was pressured into trying by the librarian at my elementary school. Took it home, read a quarter that night, returned it the next day. That prompted a parent conference because the librarian accused me of not having actually read a quarter of the book in one evening and I objected to being called a liar.
I’m not talking pumpkin spice (though I’m fond of that as well), but pumpkins. Big, fat orange ones. Adorable little ones which fit in the palm of your hand. Seeing them piled up outside the grocery store gives me a thrill. Even the fake ones outside the craft store make me happy.
I love writing these tales, seeing the word count tick up, knowing I'm creating something which didn't exist in the world before. I grow fond of my characters, because they live inside me and I want to present them in the best light. Which may be one of my problems with revisions, but we're not going to talk about the downsides here.
Mom and I regularly attended the local fan conventions, both Star Trek/SF and nostalgia-focused. A regular feature on Saturday night was the “mystery movie,” revealed only when the credits showed up on the screen. One Saturday, Mom had said she was ready to go home, but agreed to stay until we found out what the film was. Lights went down, the Warner Bros. logo came on, along with Max Steiner’s score and a single word: Casablanca. I told Mom we could go if she wanted. She said, “No, you need to see this.”
There was no rhyme or reason to the family reading patterns. We'd dive into whatever caught our fancy. My habits haven't changed over the years, and since I married a man who has his own love of history, science fiction and comic books, there's no been pressure to do otherwise.
When I was a little girl, most of my friends wanted a pony. I wanted a screening room.
2021 is here. Resolutions have been made, even if it’s just a resolution not to make resolutions. We’ve waved goodbye to the hell year that was 2020 and we’re moving forward.
My weather app claims the predicted temperature today is in the mid-80's. It's lying. By mid-afternoon, we'll be seeing 90+ on the thermometers. Yes, summertime in La-La-Land, which means perfect weather to swim, but lousy weather to cook in, unless you crank the air conditioner up. Since we still have to eat, even with the weather, we've turned to our Instant Pot and our air fryer/toaster oven because those don't warm the place up as much. Plus, much less oil used to fry things.