The Cost of Living

by on September 12, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I spent a decade working myself out of Obamacare debt after it took away my health insurance just in time for my appendix to explode on me. I finally paid that medical debt off, and proceeded to debt bomb the rest. Then I bought my mom’s house and used the equity in my house to pay off her loan and my remaining debts. And for the first time in over a decade, I had some actual disposable income. Then mom died, and now I’m paying utilities on TWO houses, which are higher now thanks to Biden. And my medical issues earlier this year racked up several thousand in debt, because of course the 700 dollars a month Obamacare won’t ACTUALLY pay for most diagnostic testing. I’m used to tightening my financial belt, but I’m gonna have to cut some more now. Because the cost of living can really suck the marrow from a paycheck in quick order.

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9-11

by on September 11, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Two decades ago I came home from work to find out that a plane had hit one of the World Trade towers in New York. I was watching live when the second plane hit. I saw both towers fall in real time. And when I went to the fan site I was a mod at to talk with my friends about it, the mods had shut the forum down because they didn’t want us dumb Americans talking on their turf. And they’d erased my mod credentials at the site as well, because they didn’t want THIS dumb American talking on their turf. It seems a petty thing. On one hand, an attack that killed thousands of Americans. On another hand, being silenced from even talking about it with my internet friends. The two are fused in my memories as one long shared experience. And it is one of the reasons I have nearly as strong an aversion to censoring or muting people as I do to killing people. Both are attacks, one physical, the other mental. A civilized society should accept neither.

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Writing Prompts

by on September 10, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

Music has been part of my life as long as I’ve been conscious. I’ve been in numerous choirs and gone to sleep playing music since forever. One of the songs that I’ve always been fascinated with since the first time I heard it was Adele’s Set Fire to the Rain. It calls for a good story of betrayal and standing up. I Am Stronger by Jimmy calls for a similar story, maybe aiming a bit more towards an abuse victim. Warning that it does have some rough language as well. I’ve got this story or scene idea in the back of my mind where someone has been manifesting the more interesting side effects of the Peloran treatments, while being gaslit by a husband or father into being a good little girl. And they are done with it all. Live or die, this is the moment they have decided they would rather be free than continue as they have. Those are two of the songs set aside for that story.

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Writing Prompts

by on September 9, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I like to listen to music when I write stories, and I have a play list specifically for that. Running Up That Hill by Placebo is one song on that list. The Kate Bush original is also on the list, but the Placebo cover will be the one I use when it comes time to write a story. It will be a death scene, written from the point of view of one of the Cowboys who died during The War. It will cover the moment they realized if they took one more step forward, there would be no coming back. And then, because others would die if they didn’t, they took the step and threw everything they had into getting the job done before they fell. I’ve never seen the official video, so all I have is the sound of the song to go by, but that is what it has always sounded like to me. And that is the story I will write while that song is playing. One of these days. 🙂

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Writing Prompts

by on September 8, 2022 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I listen to music when I write stories. I have a whole play list on youtube filled with songs that I like to listen to when I write. And sometimes, when writing a scene, I pick a single song and just play it over and over again to get me in the mood for that scene. One For the Money by Escape the Fate is a song I have not yet used for that purpose, but I intend to. Warning. It has some language. But it really is an awesome “kicking ass” song. I have this plan one day, maybe this year if my inner muse is any indication of what I’m looking to do next, of sitting down, putting that song on repeat, and kicking out a story where one of my Cowboys just chews through an entire group of bad guys.

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