A Most Unreliable Narrator Issue #157 Tattoos and Hiatuses
I’ll be back!
Dear Internet,
Michigan pride Pride
Saturday before last I took advantage of a local tattoo shop’s Pride flash sale. I had the perfect spot on my right forearm and thankfully, the flash fit.
While I was there, I also had the artist draw a heart on my finger pointing up following the Claddagh style.
While I love our wedding bands, even with the weight loss, my arthritis doesn’t go away. The heart is my wedding band.
(Don’t mind my nails. I didn’t get a mani/pedi until later in the week.)
I was afraid of the knuckle tattoo hurting, but it was fine. I’ve been thinking about knuckle tattoos for a while now but there is nothing, I’m 100% sold on while I knew I was set on the heart. (I joked with the artist my name is nine characters with the heart being the tenth, so why not get my name tattooed? Just in case something happens. You never know! (No, I will not do this.) I’m chums with someone who is a type 2 diabetic and instead of wearing the diabetic bracelet, has it tattooed on their wrist. Makes sense to me!)
My brother, jokingly I think, suggested I should get the Canadian flag tattooed, and I thought, how about the Canadian flag inside of a maple leaf like this? Ooooh, I also like this one.
I have a spot for that one and I’m looking at getting the maple leaf tattooed in August or September.
(I’m out of commission for swimming for two to three weeks so I want to space out the tattoos.)
I’m now up to 25 or so tattoos. A few are regretful, and it’s on my plan to have them covered up or into a new design, but that’s later down the road. Once my weight stabilizes, I want to have a piece start at my right hip and wrap down to the top half of my thigh. No idea what I want or the theme, just that I really love the look. So much art! So much empty canvas!
Woo (Again)
I’ve started doing a daily tarot pull and writing down the card, its meaning, and how it applies to me. It’s been interesting thus far.
But what is also super interesting, and don’t laugh, but I was reading the book that came with the cards and there were concentration spells to bind you to the cards. I don’t have room for an altar, but there are a few things you can do that don’t require a lot of stuff. One of them required the representation of the four elements: salt (earth), water (sea), flame (fire), and feather (air). While I’ve cleansed the deck, I should also plan on binding it to me. (Shut up.) As I sorted out my needs, I realized I did have a feather that Mr Lisa found the other day. It was in our driveway. I kept it and now I have a purpose for it.
I’m just saying the world works in mysterious ways.
(I’m also going to leave the deck outside on the full moon (July 2-3) to get rid of any bad juju.)
My order of crystals came in (I’m too lazy to get them to tell you what I got) and Mr Lisa snarked yet again. “Where is the woman I married?” “You knew I was freaky!” I’m not LARPing nor do I give a fuck on his opinion so we’re good.
I’ve claimed a small plot in the garden and I’m going to work it for pollinators and mother earth goddess plants. That is happening in the next week or so.
I must add, while I do believe in some of this, a lot has to do with research for my paranormal novel. I asked a witch’s subreddit what they liked or disliked about the craft portrayed in literature/films/TV and one person quipped that what is respectful could be gleaned on how you practice. Point taken.
Renovations
The windows are now installed, and boy howdy do they look great. The windows they replaced were the originals from the early ‘70s; the kind that cranked open. A few broken windows, and some had missing screens; they were drafty as fuck. The new windows should help with heating/cooling, especially in the winter.
Not much left to do this year. When we get back from our mini break, we’re going to shop for window treatments and doors. The gas stove is coming next year and possibly a new deck. Fingers crossed we can do winter ‘24/25.
Social Media
My @heroineinabook Twitter account has been silent since November when Musk came into power. The other day I made the account private. It just felt like the thing to do. Why now? No idea.
My nom de plumes Twitter account remains alive, but I’m not active. No matter how much I scrub my follower list, it remains a hell hole in my timeline. I have put my nom de plume on Mastodon and that’s been working out well. A lot better, at least, than being on Twitter.
My Jane Austen/Bronte Twitter account, @excssvlydvrtng, remains mostly active. The timeline is pure, and I do post there on a regular occasion. I am ditching the Jane Austen website (no traffic and I don’t update) and point to the FB page (which is active) and keep the twitter.
I found a great Mastodon client for Mac, Ivory, that I’ve started using. It’s by the same dudes who did TweetBot, a popular Twitter client. Now that Musk pulled API access for developers, or charging a huge fucking fee, Tapbot has moved over to Mastodon app development. I have tested out a few other recommended Mastodon apps for Mac, but Ivory is the one that is the best, hands down.
You can find me on Mastodon as @heroineinabook and everywhere via Lintr.ee: https://linktr.ee/heroineinabook.
Hiatus
July is Camp NaNoWriMo month, and I want to take part. If you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), every November you pledge to write 50k words (the same length as a short novel) or roughly 1667 words a day. Many people “win” by reaching that goal, and some had their work traditionally published.
I’ve done NaNoWriMo since early aughts and never got more than a few thousand words and there were many years I did not take part. Since I have three projects, two of these are active, I’m taking another stab at NaNoWriMo in November.
Now, Camp NaNoWriMo takes place every July and the stakes are different. Instead of having a pre-determined number of words, you decide what your goal is. Some work on new projects, some world-build, others outline or research, or just simply write. The choice is yours.
I’ve pledged 20K words for Aubrey Jones Gets a Life for Camp NaNoWriMo and 10K words for my paranormal book but that goal ends October 31. As the first week of July leaves me no time to write, I’ve adjusted my goals for July to include more research, world-building, and outlining for both projects over just writing. I’ve got a bit more world-building done for Aubrey so I’ll need to re-write the beginning again, which is fine. And I have a general idea of where I want my paranormal novel to go but nothing concrete. (See learning tarot and magic as research.)
WITH ALL OF THAT BEING SAID, I’m taking July off from newsletter writing. Next AMUN issue will be August 6th with the next issue of Lisa Rabey Writes Stuff on August 9th.
Note: 51 Stories in 51 Weeks will continue while I’m gone.
Other newsletter updates and publications
lisa rabey writes stuff issue #18 frank talk about content writing
chapbook: commercial breaks
Wonderful Thing
ProWritingAid, Scrivener, and Day One.
As I’m going on hiatus for a month, and I write so much, I thought I’d shill for three apps that I use besides Word.
ProWritingAid’s claim is it helps you write stronger, better, and leaner. It checks not only for spelling and grammar, but also helps shorten sentences, and remove weak or filler verbs. It’s been extremely useful to me and I’ve found that my writing is getting stronger. There is a free option, which I’m using, but I may pony up and buy the app.
(The one thing I won’t do is use ProWritingAid as the end all be all editor before publication. This scenario shows up a lot in my writing groups. Hire a fucking editor, my dude! Don’t depend on an app no matter how well it works. And this should also point that ProWritingAId is not perfect, so if you go over this issue with a fine-tooth comb, I guarantee you’ll find mistakes.)
ProWritingAid is available across all platforms including web. The desktop app integrates to all major word processors such as Word and Scrivener.
The second app I use is Scrivener.
Scrivener bills itself as an app that “…won't tell you how to write—it simply provides everything you need to start writing and keep writing.” It’s Word on massive speed. Each “project” provides space for your research, writing, and notes. You can write organically rather than shuffling through 1000s of Word docs. No more post-its. No more random bits of text here and there. Everything in one location and easy to get to.
Imagine if Evernote and Word had a baby, that’s Scrivener.
Right now, I’m juggling five projects:
Aubrey Jones Gets a Life
Maeve Fletcher paranormal book
Smut
Fiction/Poetry
Untitled Edwardian mystery
Scrivener has been great because I’ve been able to haphazardly research and have places to dump that research whether it’s images, links, notes, or webpages. Each project has its own space. Anything. It’s amazing stuff.
Scrivener project for Maeve Fletcher paranormal book
Scrivener is available for MacOS, Windows, and iOS.
Finally, the last app I use is Day One.
Day One is a journaling app I discovered years ago and half-heartedly used on and off. When shit starting hit the fan a few years ago, I needed a place to write that was digital (because I cannot read my handwriting any longer) and private. I like Day One because it’s super simple to use, it doesn’t have a lot of BS, and it’s easy to organize my writing.
I create folders for the topics I want to organize and an entry in each folder. That’s it. It’s that simple.
Day One is available for iOS, Android, and MacOS.
Note: I bought Scrivener and Day One years ago when they were a lifetime price and now they are monthly/yearly but I do not have to pay for upgrades. If you’re thinking about purchasing any of the apps, keep that in mind.
*I do not receive compensation for shilling these tools.
Have a wonderful week!
lisa x