RedHead Confetti

Excuse the self-indulgence of this entry. A lot has happened in the world, and while I can't even begin to do justice to the awesomeness of DOMA being struck as Unconstitutional and California's Prop 8 being thrown back down (where it was overturned) because of lack of standing, let me say I did the Rainbow dance all day and have been thrilled to bits since those rulings came down. Love won the day, and I am so happy for that! Not pleased about the Voting Rights Act's desecration, but I know we can work to preserve the rights of people to vote, I know we can work together as a country and make that right. We've done it before, we can pull together again. So I'm not terribly worried. Pissed at the SCOTUS, but not worried. I applied for a job, and didn't get it. Yeah, I know, it is happening to everyone these days, and it's a total fucking bummer! I was trying to get in at the Hermitage, you know, the cat shelter we were fostering kittens with. I know I ...

OK, so I didn't get my fifty-thousand words, but I did get 47k, and the story is told, so as far as I'm concerned, I win! This is two Novembers in a row that I busted my ass to write, and I feel really good about it. This gives me a lot to think about, however, as I know I can take that mtoivation for a word count and turn it into the novel I have that's perpetually unfinished-- and getting longer and longer and longer! Now about my novella: It was supposed to be a comedy, but it turns out I can't write slapstick. So I restarted about the 10th, and write a Shadowrun inspired story. See, I used to run that game-- that means I was the "Dungeon Master" for our gaming group when we played Shadowrun. I always loved the world setting, and that game is fan-fucking-tastic! One of the story arcs I created morphed into this novella. There are a lot of changes, as I reworked it off the outline, as oppoed to what my players did. I can't remember now what they decid...

Hallowe'en is coming, and it is my absolutely favourite holiday. I wrote this up a few years ago, as I was working my way through the Wheel of the Year, and wanted something that I could use to tell the story of Samhain to kids. It's pretty basic, and I left out the bloodier parts of the story. If you like faerie tales, then I encourage you to read the original. It's in Scots-English, and so the spelling is strange to our eyes. Any way you look at it, this week I'll write about Sa mhain, which is pronounced Sow-a n or Sow-a ne , not Sam-ha ne... and for the record, there is no god Sam Hain who w itches worship... but I'll get into that one later.  Enjoy!  Tam Lin: A story of Samhain This is a retelling of the Scotts song, the Ballad of Tam Lin . The best copy of the ballad I found was in The English and Scottish Popular Ballads by F. J. Child. The original author of the ballad is unknown. The retelling is done here to tell the story of Samhain, ...

This past two weeks, or so, has been a whirlwind around my house. A good whirlwind, but definitely different than my normal "slowly sliding through life" kinda thing. Early in the morning Wednesday, October 10th, the doorbell rang. I hate doorbells, hate them with a passion! Why, you ask, they just tell you someone's at your door! Well, you know that thing babies do when you startle them? They jump and fling their arms out like they're falling. I have a really bad startle reflex when I'm surprised by things like doorbells. Haunted houses don't phase me, scary movies don't either... but for some reason loud, unexpected noises like doorbells startle the shit out of me! So, I jumped, and answered the door. It was a guy from the local baseball team for developmentally disabled people. Poor kid, his opening lines were, "You may have heard of me, I'm famous! I was in the paper!" I asked which one, and quickly said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I ...

Nothing terribly difficult today. I'm going to share my recipe for grilling pizza, complete with photos. The idea came to us one day when my husband sent me a link to Simply Recipes , and we got to thinking, could we do that, it sounds really good!? So we made it, following the recipe as exactly as we could, being that I don't have a pizza stone, or peel (that's that funny flat board thing you see guys using at pizza joints.) So, if you want a pretty generic recipe, go there, and you won't be disappointed. We were quite please. However. There's always a however, isn't there? We thought it needed something... something else. So I started experimenting, and this is what I came up with. The recipe is close, but not the same, but I still wanted to give credit, where it was due, to the gent over at Simply Recipes for his great recipe and the ideas that germinated. The photographer for most of these was my lovely Husband, and most excellent sous chef! ...

Well, summer's over at our house. The kiddos start back to school today. I know there are, technically 13 first days of school for American kids, K-12th grade. But every single one of them is different. Today I'm just musing on this first, and will return to the haphazardly posted blog talking about religion and politics and feminism that you're more used to. My oldest is in high school, and he was pretty excited when he walked out the door at 6:30 this morning. We'll see how excited he stays, having to get up and out the door while everyone else is sleeping! His first hour starts at 7:10! I didn't have to be to school until 8 or 8:30 in high school, but then he does get out about 2-ish, so that's a nice exchange if you ask me. His high school has this thing they call Freshman Academy-- it's district-wide, and it's a way to segregate the Freshmen from harassment and the sometimes overwhelming nature of high school, and still get them into the actual ...

Trigger Warning: This one meanders a bit and is long. I found myself meandering much longer than I initially expected as I let myself think "aloud" about these things. For the sake of simplicity I lump all stories of the paranormal/natural together as a ghost story. This includes faeries, demons, ghosts and everything else. It's just easier that way for me. I discuss my thoughts on ghost story comments, similarities in stories and then share a couple short experiences I've had. There is mockery as well as sarcasm. There is a little thoughtful exposition and a lot of "hmmm". If you can't handle scary stories, then skip this one. I know some people don't like them, and I don't want to cause nightmares. This is part one. Part Two, tomorrow. I've said it before, I love a good ghost story. Every where I've lived I've sought out the stories that happened "just over there, in that building". I love hearing people's exp...