Skip to content
flames flames flames on the side of my face

Luggage Panic and Time Travel

a plane taking off in silhouette before a red sunset
I took this photo at DFW.

Here’s a story with little take-home moral. :)

Tuesday morning, I woke up in Tōkyō. I got up early after four hours of sleep and caught a shinkansen (often called a “bullet train” in the USA). Three days before, I’d stayed at a hotel and sent on a suitcase full of vintage kimono and obi to the airport to wait for me. But there was a problem with airport delivery (we hadn’t known the weight of the filled suitcase and so had opted for a payment plan that turned out not to be eligible for airport delivery), and the hotel had contacted me through the booking agent to ask for my Tōkyō address instead. All that was fine.

Luggage Panic and Time Travel

That time I got stuck in England…

So you might remember we had a global pandemic which affected a lot of travel plans. One of those plans was a family transatlantic cruise from Southampton to New York–or, as my mother repeatedly described it, “the Titanic route.” That trip was eventually rescheduled for April of 2023, and so last month we flew to London, visited some tourist sites, and then hopped a train to Southampton.

En route, I checked my phone and realized our train journey wouldn’t make it. The final leg was shut down due to an accident (someone had gotten onto the tracks). I worked to re-route our party, knowing we had a countdown to board the ship. But as we prepared to disembark early and find an alternate route, another message came in: our cruise was canceled, less than an hour before boarding began, due to a technical issue on the ship. (Later information revealed that it was an engine/scrubber problem.)

Well, then.

That time I got stuck in England…
painting by Victor Hugo

Review: Les Misérables (with a Z)

I wrote this a couple of weeks ago on a plane en route to ClickerExpo, but I forgot to finish and post it live. Here we go!

Les Miserables playbill

I had the opportunity to see the new tour of Les Misérables this week, and I’m still trying to decide how I feel about it.

I came awkwardly to my Broadway nerddom. When young Laura told my piano teacher I wanted the learn the “Phantom of the Opera music,” I meant Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, and I was honestly boggled when she gave me the title track to Lloyd Webber’s show, which I’d never heard of. Then that stage passed, and I came of theater age during the heady early ’90s. This of course meant Les Misérables was a key influence.

Review: Les Misérables (with a Z)
She Speaks In Flames

I’m Giving Birthday Presents Like a Hobbit ?

I’m having a crHappy Birthday, so I’m fixing it by giving books away.

Your to-do list today:

  1. Get a free story as a birthday present for you
  2. Vote for Kin & Kind, please and thank you

Happy Birthday…?

So here’s the very short version: Today is my birthday, and I was supposed to be traveling through Italy this week, visiting archaeological sites and gathering research vibes.

Instead, I am spending my birthday as day 9 in isolation in a single room with a positive COVID test.

I’m Giving Birthday Presents Like a Hobbit ?
Quoth the raven, NaNo More! by Timekeeper Art

It’s been a rough couple of scenes….

I’m at our annual creative retreat, working on rewrites for Kin & Kind, the final installment of the Shard & Shield trilogy.

We are six writers and artists, including K.T. Ivanrest, Timekeeper Art, “And Sewing Is Half the Battle!”, and Burnt Cookie Books. We are eating obscene amounts of leftover Halloween candy and working on various creative projects. We have a big page on the wall to record achievements, demon tomatoes, in-context and out-of-context quotes, helpful reminders, etc.

a long sheet of paper with multi-colored quotes and drawings
Lots of random stuff.

Right now I’m adding new material, and it’s… a bit rough on my story world. My colleagues have added an at-retreat tally to the wall board.

It’s been a rough couple of scenes….

My New & Improved Walking Desk!

image of Titan Fitness Under Desk Walking Treadmill on wood laminate floor
Yes, the pawprints mean the dogs tried it first.

It’s been a while since I started my walking desk experiment and I have finally worked it out. I have a sit/stand desk from Ikea and an elevated monitor, which has really helped my back and neck pain since I no longer look down. (Sorry, laptop in bed and on the couch. I love you, but you’re not good for me.) I had still been using my original treadmill, however, which technically did the job and was undoubtedly cheap. It had a timeout “feature” though and would stop the belt suddenly, which could be quite disorienting if I were in the zone.

My New & Improved Walking Desk!
large spiderweb stretching between red car and wall

I Am Being Hunted

Yesterday I stepped out through my front door with the dogs, and I walked face-first into a huge spiderweb spread across the frame of the door itself. I clawed the web from my face and hair, and I turned back to see the spider crawling up to the… I Am Being Hunted

ghostly hands translucent over keyboard

When Ghost Stories Get… Boring

ghostly hands translucent over keyboardA week ago, I posted this short personal tale to my Facebook page:

As I got into my car to drive home last night at 2 am, my proximity sensor warned me something was close behind my car. I checked my mirrors, checked the rear camera, but nothing. I started to back out, and the proximity warning screamed. I checked again. Nothing. Backed up veeery slowly, the warning shrieking the entire time.

I drove home. I pulled up to my gate, set well back from the road, under large trees between empty fields, in the total dark of a feeble moon. Proximity warning goes off. I check the mirrors and camera. Proximity sensor indicates something big and very close behind.

I have to get out and open the gate.

When Ghost Stories Get… Boring