Let it never be said that Twitter doesn’t do any good.

I don’t usually check the news before I leave for work, bu sometimes, if we’re slow, Ill scroll through Twitter. Yesterday, I was checking Twitter, and found several tweets about a mass shooting in Orlando.

For those of you who don’t know, fifty people were killed in an act of domestic terrorism in a gay nightclub called Pulse, in Orlando Florida.

After that, I kept off of Twitter for awhile. I couldn’t stand what I was reading.

This leads me to share with you some things I am damned well sick of, as an American. If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to share them with you today.

I’m sick of gun violence.

A gun is a weapon, like a knife or a flame. Any of them can be used for good, or bad. I’m from Western PA, there are some families that I know, and know well, that only have meat in their freezers in the winter because of deer hunting. I like guns, actually, I was on the rifle team in school.

But nothing else that private citizens can get their hands on is as capable as a gun of killing large amounts of people quickly. No, guns don’t kill people, but people kill other people far more effectively with them.

Today is June 12. We are 165 days into this year, and there have been 133 mass shooting in America already. (Source: Bustle.com, VOX) I don’t know what the answer to this is. That’s why I’m a blogger and not a politician. But it would be nice if we were doing, I don’t know, literally anything.

I’m sick of anti gay violence.

If I thought I couldn’t be angrier about gay rights than I was after North Carolina’s recent decision to allow persecution against gay and transgender individuals, I was obviously wrong. People died, literally died, because they were at a gay night club. And I’m sick of it. I’m sick of people thinking they’ve got any sort of right to say what someone else should or shouldn’t do with their lives. Even if you really think that gay people are sinning, you don’t have a right to say or do anything to them!

I’m sick of anti Muslim hate.

And while we’re on the subject of hating other people, let me just remind everyone reading this that the majority of shootings in America are committed by non Muslim people. The Muslim faith is similar to Christianity in many ways, including the fact that we both have a whole spectrum of faithfuls. We have the selfless and devout who spend their lives working to help people because of their faith. We have the people like me who believe, and try to be good people, but mostly just go about our days making small sins and trying to help our brothers and sisters when we can. And we’ve got the crazies who kill people and say that God/Allah wanted them to do it.

I’m sick of the conversation being about everything but gun control.

Over the next few days, you’re going to hear all sorts of things about gun violence, and how we need stronger protections. We’ll hear, from certain people, how this sort of things wouldn’t happen if we would stop letting foreigners (mostly the ones with dark skin) into the country. That’s all bullshit. What we need to do is uphold the laws we have, and close loopholes like gun shows. We need to become a society that values differences, that celebrates differences. We should be a society in which the very thought of disliking someone because they’re different is deplorable, reprehensible. And we need to start keeping control of our guns. This man shot 103 people. How did he do that, without taking time to reload? Why was he ever allowed to get his hands on a gun that could fire that many times? You might say that making things illegal won’t stop people from getting them. That’s true, you are absolutely right. But it will lessen the amount of people who have them. And, quite frankly, it’s better than doing nothing.

I’m sick of being scared.

I was fifteen on September 11^th, 2001. And it seems, I swear, like I’ve been scared ever since. Or, at least, I’ve been told I should be, treated like we all should be. I have seen us overreact, take away freedoms, take leaps and strides toward a 1984 sort of world. I have seen people cower, I have seen safety measures increased, but never have I felt a single bit safer, because we are never doing enough. We are taught to hate the stranger, hate the one who is different, because he might be a threat. We are not encouraged to befriend those who look or think different. We have been taught, as Americans, to stick to our own kind.

Thank you for allowing me to rant today. If you take anything away from this post, take this. Don’t let people tell you to be scared. Don’t hate blindly, don’t blame a group for the actions of a few. Know your history, it will help you process what happens today. And look after your fellow man, no matter his skin color or religion. Please, don’t take this as an excuse to hate.

Take this as an excuse to love.

I have this great little moleskine notebook that my darling husband got for me for Christmas. He had it engraved on the cover with the words Come On Home. Those same words are on the inside of our wedding rings. They’re from our song, Christmas TV by Slow Club. I use this little notebook to collect short story ideas, because I roll over bullet journals once a season, and I need something that lasts longer for story ideas, since I might not get a chance to write more than three of those in a season.

It’s a reminder, every time that I look at it, to write from my roots.

Let me tell you what I mean by this, because I realize it’s a little bit of a strange thing to say.

Writing from my roots means writing from my home, my family and my history.

I write about my home town a lot. I think I might have already mentioned that I have an intense love/hate relationship with this place. Butler is a drying out steel town. Our steel mill is shut down, and has been for awhile. We don’t really make many new things here, which means that our economy just recirculates the same money over and over, year after year. Sometimes, it’s like trying to breath stale air. No one moves here for work. You’re either trying to get out or get by until you die. I’m included in this, because I’m trying like hell to get out. I think it’s pretty obvious that this feeling of frustration often makes its way into my writing. My American world view certainly changes how I see the word, and I write from that root as well.

My family is kind of messed up. I don’t speak to most of it because the majority of my family have no desire to be part of a healthy or supportive relationship. It’s more back biting, more of a situation where you don’t get help without expecting to pay something back for it. But my own nuclear family is wonderful. I have a great husband, and two kids that I love all the time and like most of the time. My mother in law is an amazingly openhearted person who has gone out of her way to make me feel like her child, not just the spouse of her child. I write from those roots.

I was born in 1986, and so I have a far different world view than someone older or younger than me. I saw my country grow scared after 9/11/01, and we haven’t stopped being scared since. I have seen my country become polarized, seen politicians who are supposed to be representing me say things that just flagrantly ignore the laws of science. I have seen heroes, real life heroes stand up for us, and be ignored or shunned. I have seen technology take leaps and bounds that I never thought possible. For instance, I used to watch Inspector Gadget as a kid, and I wanted Penny’s book. You know, the one that was pretty much a computer that had a cover. Yeah, I have a tablet now that’s pretty much the same thing. I have seen us get smarter individually and dumber as a whole. Our policies have gotten more tolerant, our people have gotten more narrow minded. I write from those roots.

What roots do you write from.

I’ve been thinking about this for some time, and now I think I’ve made up my mind.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll be seeing some changes here on Paper Beats World. I’m focusing less on writing about writing and more on, well, writing. As I turn 30 this week, I think it’s a good time.

I’m turning 30, in fact, tomorrow. It seems weird, realizing that the things I’m worried about and working on and praying over are things I wouldn’t have even imagined ten years ago. I’m learning about a 401 K, preparing to publish a few more books this year, and getting ready for my little monsters to go into 7th grade in the fall. (I’m really looking forward to that already, and it’s only the first day of summer vacation.)

So, here are the changes you’ll be seeing.

• I’m going move my posts to Mondays and Fridays. Mondays are going to have a more ‘my real life’ feel to them, and Fridays will be anything from writing advice, movie reviews, tv reviews, book reviews or really anything else I can think of.
• I will still do a market post, But only if people really want me to! If you want me to keep posting markets, please leave me a response to this post, telling me so. Seriously, I was checking my statistics, and they’re by far my least read posts. If I’m wrong, please let me know. In fact, if just one person says they’d like me to keep posting markets, I’ll do it.
• Since my goal online is to show my writing, and get people excited about it, I’m going to be posting more of my own fiction. From now on, I’ll be posting speculative fiction every Wednesday.

And by the way, this new focus on sharing my own writing is going to include a very exciting project I’m intending to launch in August. Stay tuned.

I know that some of you are here just for the writing advice. To you, I say I’m sorry. At this point I feel like I’ve said all I have to say on the subject. But there’s a lot more I have to say. I hope you’ll stick with me.

I think we’re just about done with the topic of real life writing for now. It’s a topic that I’m sure I’ll explore again, but for now I feel like I’ve said everything I have to say.

Before we go, though, I want to talk about computers for a minute. Awhile ago I posted a list of the best aps for your smart phone or other device that will help you be a better writer. At the time, I promised that I would talk about computer programs for writers as well.

As promised, here is that list now. Some of these you might have heard of, and some you might not have. I tend to use only programs I don’t have to pay a lot for, so none of these should be breaking your budget.

Open Office

I was less than thrilled when my latest computer didn’t come with Microsoft Word. Maybe this is just me, but I was spoiled. I’d never gotten a computer without it before.

Fortunately, I’d been using Open Office for years anyway. It’s free to download, and you can convert the documents to any other form. This is awesome if an editor or agent needs your work to be in some strange form. It has all the same lovely fonts and useful tools as most word programs, and is very easy to use. It also has spreadsheets, which I’m sure you all know I can’t get by without.

Book Creator

A lot of you might already know from my behind the scenes look at my e-book creation that this is the ap I used to do it. It is easy to use, took me about three seconds to learn it. It’s great for adding graphics, too, if you’re the artistic type that needs a lot of graphics and artwork in your book.

(Full disclosure, I intend to use Calibre Ebook next time. The only problem I had with Book Creator was that I had to fit the words directly onto the page, I couldn’t just import my work and have it lay it out for me. I’ll let you know how Calibre works after I’ve experimented with it.)

Cortana or google ask

When I got my new computer it didn’t have Word, but it did have Cortana. I cannot tell you how valuable this has been to me. Instead of searching google for things like Middle Eastern names, what sort of dogs are most common in Russia, or what sort of breakfast people eat in Italy, I just ask Cortana. I can also use it to open documents just by asking and setting alarms the same way. I love it.

Avira anti virus and firewall

Please tell me that you already have an anti virus, and a firewall. Let me be clear with you, if you don’t then you might as well be standing on a corner of the street, screaming your bank account numbers, home address and social security number for all to see. You are also leaving yourself as open to viruses as a gaping foot wound while walking in a dog park.

I use Avira, and I love it. It doesn’t take up much room, it’s easy to run a scan whenever I like, and it has random jokes. (Luke Firewalker. Love it. )

Canva

If you have looked at a single image on this website, then you know what Canva has done for me. I use it to create all of my images, including both of my book covers so far, and it is so easy to use. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

If I didn’t mention your favorite computer program for writers, it’s because I don’t know about it. Please share with us below.

This is a cool speculative fiction market I stumbled upon recently. I love that in addition to horror short fiction they also accept horror poetry. This is something I’d never really considered before, but I think maybe I should.

Genre- Horror, Dark Fantasy and Dark Science Fiction

Word Count- Max 3,000

Payout- 1 cent per word.

Wait Time-Not listed.

Here’s your link to the full submission guidelines. I’ll be adding this one to the Market list, so no worries if you miss it.

I find a lot of times I’m getting (and sometimes giving) conflicting advice on the internet. I understand that no one agrees on anything, and I even understand why that’s a thing. What works for others won’t necessarily work for you. Habits that one blogger thinks should be easy to pop right into my day are laughable in their difficulty.

The biggest conflict, so far as I can tell, seems to be the disconnect between holding yourself accountable for achieving certain results, and not being a workaholic crazy person. It doesn’t seem to matter if the person giving these conflicting suggestions are full time writers, parents or people with day jobs like me.

Here’s the problem, though. There’s not a fine line between self care and laziness, but it’s not exactly a four lane highway, either. The same could be said for the line between productivity and killing yourself.

I don’t think it’s a line any of us really know how to tread well. I’m prone to coming home from the day job and continuing to move until bedtime. If I’m not writing, I’m cleaning way longer than the fifteen minutes that FlyLady suggests. I’m finding myself trying to finish up just one more project before calling it a night. This is not okay, as I’m sure you know. Not only does it mean I’m cheating myself out of sleep, I’m also cheating myself out of family time and taking care of myself.

At the same time, I sometimes have days where I just crash. I mean, I fail to do anything productive. Weeks, like last week for instance, go by where I miss my time to get up, don’t hit my word counts, live in a messy house and don’t accomplish anything but keeping Netflix in business. Sometimes this is because I’ve burned myself out. Sometimes it’s because I’m having a lazy day, and that’s just the end of it.

Neither of the above situations is good, and I’ll bet they’re pretty familiar to you. So, how can you tell when you’re working too hard or just being productive? How do you know when you’re taking a needed break or flaking? As with most other self care issues, this is going to be largely personal. But here are some of my warning signs. Maybe they are for you, too.

These things never mean you’re lazy!

I want to get these out of the way first. My rally cry has been self care recently, and I never want to see anyone throw away their health for the sake of productivity. So if you’re doing any of these things, don’t feel bad. In fact, if you’re not doing these things, maybe you should be.

• Sleeping a proper amount of time. This might be seven, might be nine. I know some people don’t need as much sleep as others. I also know very well that you, if you’re an adult, know how much sleep you really need. I need eight, and any less than that will make for a crappy morning. If you need more than that, this doesn’t make you lazier or worse than me. If you need less, it doesn’t make you better. You need the sleep you need, get it.
• Meditation is something I started out feeling silly about. I started meditating after my first daughter was born, and I hated myself for it, at first. What the hell was I doing just sitting there when there was so much to do? It wasn’t until months later when I realized how much I needed that time with the quiet.
• Preparing a good meal, and eating it without work in front of your face. This has always been the rule for dinner, and I’ve started insisting upon it for all other meals as well. I used to write over lunch and breakfast, but I’m realizing that the scant work I get done isn’t as fulfilling. Furthermore, I need the break. Even when I’m just heating up noodles for lunch at the day job, I read or rest. I take my head out of everything I’m doing and do something fun.
• Whatever you do to get ready for the day. This includes hair, makeup and clothes. I know that there are a lot of unhealthy things that can go into worrying about your appearance. But I also know that my day goes better if I like how I look. It’s not vain, it’s about confidence.

These things might be lazy, but might also be self care.

These habits can go both ways. Like everything else, moderation is key.

• Watching tv is one of the ways I relax. Yes, I read a lot, but sometimes I want to watch a show with my family. This is fine, so long as I keep it to when my work for the day is done. I don’t watch tv if I didn’t make my word count. But I won’t write more in the evening if I already reached my goal. That might mean I take a hit. I don’t care, no matter how many pages I get done I won’t bring back the cozy time I spend watching Grimm with my kids.
• Sleeping in is a rare treat that I afford myself once a week. And honestly, it’s not even really sleeping in. It’s just waking up at my normal time because my body’s betrayed me then laying in bed for awhile before getting up. When it happens more often, it means either two things. Either I’m getting sick and need more sleep, or I’m being lazy.
• Blowing off writing time to hang out with a friend. This doesn’t often happen to me, but it does sometimes. I have a list of things to do, but suddenly I’ve gotten an email from my friend who lives in another city. I drop that list like it’s on fire. If she lived in town, and I saw her more often, I probably wouldn’t do that. I would probably get more of a chance to see her, though.

These things are almost always lazy, stop kidding yourself.

This one is hard, because almost everything is an understandable indulgence. But there are some things that you just know you’re not supposed to do. Here’s a list of mine.

• Procrastinating without asking yourself why. I add without asking why, because sometimes procrastination is actually a warning sign that you’re burned out. It might also mean what you’re avoiding just sucks. In that case, ask yourself if it needs done. If not, take it off of your list with no guilt. If it needs done, just do it.
• Tv during your prime time is another big no no, with the exception of sick days.
• Not planning your time, though, is my idea of the worst thing you can do for yourself, and the only good reason is that you don’t understand what it will do for you. You must not think that planning your month, week and day so that you don’t miss appointments, aren’t late for things, and are prepared for upcoming deadlines is very important. I doubt you think that, but you’re wrong if you do. Just sit down and do it.

Please, I can’t say this enough, don’t take this as judging you, or how you chose to spend your time. We don’t have to be producing all the time. We are people first, writers after.

If you’ve been on PBW for a hot minute, you’re aware of my favorite saying. We don’t write in a bubble. We write, in fact, in a loud, noisy, messy world full of other people. Other people who may or may not be respectful of your need for writing time.

I’m at a time in my life where I am blessed. I have finally gotten a room of my own, not in reference to Virginia Wolf but in a literal sense. I have an office in the upstairs of our house, and it is all mine. No one’s allowed in unless expressly invited, including the pets.

As you might imagine, this is a recent blessing. Our previous house had no extra room for me to call my own, unless I wanted an office in our unfinished attic. I actually tried that for a time, until I realized that the weather outside was amplified up there. If it was warm the attic was freaking sweltering, if it was cold my pens froze. At least one bird got in there.

So my ‘office’ was in the living room. For most of my adult life, my office has been in my living room. In fact, a lot of time, my office consists of my writing bag, and wherever I happen to be at the time.

I’ve spent a lot of time writing while surrounded by other people, is what I’m saying. Even now that I have my own office, I spend a good amount of time writing at the day job, in coffee shops, in doctor’s waiting rooms. I have, I feel, mastered the art of writing around other people.

When Writing in a Public Place

I hope I don’t have to tell you that if you’re writing somewhere like a diner or a coffee shop there is a certain standard of behavior. Please try not to go during peak hours and take up a table for hours on end. Remember that restaurant wait staff get paid less than minimum wage, because it is assumed that they will make up the money in tips. Please don’t hurt their bottom line. Order something, don’t take up space if the place is full, and leave a nice tip.

Now that the obvious is out of the way, here’s what I do to make the most out of writing in public mo matter where I am.

As with almost everything in life, good planning will lead to a better experience. I try to have my bag with me at all times, so that if an opportunity to work on the current wip presents itself, I can do it.

I also make a point of never going anywhere without my tablet, and head phones. I sometimes find myself on public transportation, and would like to not waste that time. But other people on the bus, who apparently don’t understand basic courtesy, feel the need to chat. I don’t understand this, but there you have it. Headphones alleviate this dramatically. The music will help drown out background noise, and it deters most people from talking to you. I find that instrumental works best for this, and my default is Lindsay Stirling.

Finally, consider your location and the projects you need to get done. I’ve found that I can rough draft almost anywhere, but I really do need a table for any further drafts. So if all of my projects are in second or third draft stage, my long bus ride might be better spent reading or planning my next advertising blast.

When Writing At Home

Hopefully, the bulk of your writing will be done at home. The same rules don’t apply here. For instance, I don’t have to tip my darling husband for making supper.

The first thing you want to keep in mind is respecting the needs of the people you live with. My monsters have to come first, of course. So if I’m doing something with them, that’s all I’m doing. If you have roommates, and you know they have friends over every week on the same night, maybe that shouldn’t be a big writing night for you.

Timing is important, to a point. It might very be that at this point in your life you don’t have time when you’re going to have your living room to yourself. (I don’t advise writing in a bedroom if you can avoid it. I’ve found that I’m just too inclined to take a nap. Or, I find I’m not able to relax at night because my desk is guilting me.) So consider the ebb and flow of your family. Evenings, for us, are a little crazy. Everyone’s coming home, getting homework done, making dinner, taking care of the fur babies. When we’re all done with that, it’s family time. So I know that I’m not going to get any writing done. The mornings, though, are another story. I can write in the living room while supervising the monsters while they get ready for the day. On my days off, I write while the monsters do their cyber school stuff along side me. If they don’t have class, I can usually depend on them to watch Creepy Pasta videos for awhile, and I can pop in my headphones and write on the couch with them.

Finally, though, remember to pick your battles. Everything is a balancing act when you’re part of a family, and it’s difficult for anyone on the outside to tell you what’s right or wrong. While you don’t want to ignore your mate, and of course your kids needs come first, your needs should be in there, too. If your mate’s complaining that you never spend time with them, and you honestly can’t remember the last time you guys watched a movie together, maybe listen. If your mates complaining that you spend too much time writing when you just worked/took care of family matters all day and they’re not really up for providing you with an alternative to your writing, maybe you need to have a talk with that person. Just saying.

Writing around other people can be done, it just takes some forethought. But trust me, it’s a skill worth learning