Author: Nicole Luttrell

I'm a speculative fiction writer. That means I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons on spaceships.

America, embrace the mutt!

Dogs are awesome, literally gifts. I didn’t use to think this before having my own, but I’m now totally convinced. Dogs were put on Earth by God to give us honest, uncompromising love.

America loves its dogs. There were 89.7 million pet dogs in America in 2017, and I’m sure

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Thank you Free Photos,Via Pixbaby

the number has only gone up since then. (Source:Statista.com) And according to Americanpetproducts.org, we spent $75.38 billion on our pets in 2019.

 

But do we? I have to think, if we loved our dogs, we would embrace the breed that most closely resembles ourselves.

The mutt.

Most Americans are mutts. There’s a reason why all these ancestry businesses are making bank right now. I’m Hungarian, but there’s some French and English thrown in there. Pretty sure some Irish, too. Basically, I have greasy hair, lots of freckles and I’m not white so much as patchy red. But I got the bonnie blue eyes and my nose is a normal shape so no complaining here.

My dog, Oliver, is also a mutt. He’s half Boston Terrier, half hell if I know. I think he’s half

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My sweet boy

Pitt, though. So, he’s a bouncy tank.

 

He’s also the most lovable, sweet thing you will ever meet. He follows me around the house, is super easy to train, loves other dogs. 

I don’t know that he would have been as good of a match for us if he’d been pure terrier. That breed tends to have a strong hunting instinct, especially when it comes to small furry animals. You know, like my beloved cat Harper. And while Oliver does love playing with his ‘big’ sister, he has never shown hunting behavior towards her.

Which brings me to the actual point of this post. It wasn’t to show off pictures of my dog. (Okay, it wasn’t just to do that.)

Pure breeding in dogs is animal abuse. 

I am not willing to argue or equivocate on the point. If you have a purebred dog, it is the result of animal abuse.

This is not your fault or the fault of your beloved friend. If you have a pure breed, love the hell out of that little sucker because s/he needs it. Here are some awful facts about breeding animals like this.

-Purebred dogs have chronic health problems. Some breeds have bad livers. Some, like my beloved Dashounds, have bad backs. Some breeds have an issue where their organs just twist up in their stomachs. Genetic diversity matters, people. There’s a reason why we don’t inbreed.

-Speaking of inbreeding, that’s pretty common for less than reputable breeders. 

-It’s also common for bad breeders to just pump litter after litter from momma dogs until

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This is all pretty sad so here’s another picure of Oliver.

their bodies just break down and stop working.

 

-Another fun fact. If your version of fun is bone achingly sad. Each breed has certain characteristics. So breeders breed for those. Pugs have those squishy flat faces, for instance. We bred them for that flat face. What does a breeder do with puppies that don’t show the proper traits for their breed? Well, what do most companies do with defective products? They either sell them at a loss or get rid of them.

Now, before anyone comes at me in the comment section, I know that not all breeders have these horrific practices. Some breeders are good, honest people who take excellent care of their dogs. Some breeders would joyfully bash in the skulls of people who abuse animals with a Louisville Slugger. God Bless you people, you know what you’re doing.

It still doesn’t help the genetic defect issue.

 

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Photo by Jenfaz, via Pixabay

It also doesn’t help the biggest issue I have with buying a purebred dog. And I think you know what I’m going to say.

 

Every single town and city in America has at least one animal shelter. I volunteer sometimes at ours. They are not at full capacity.

Adopt, don’t shop. 

As an American, we’re all immigrants. We’re all mutts. Let’s embrace our fellow mutts. 

Cover art by Jeff Chabot via Pixbaby

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SylverMoon Chronicles Vol.VIII is available now

You can get SylverMoon Chronicles on Amazon right now!

Hey, guys. You’ve been hearing from me a lot this week, but that’s because it’s been a busy week. Like, really busy. Please feel free to insert some nervous laughter here. Taxes and deadlines, doctor appointments and book launches.

Vol VIII & Cyber 2020Book launches!

So, let’s talk about the SylverMoom Chronicles. It’s put out by the Confederacy of the Quill, which I’m honored to be a part of. This year includes a story of mine called Fairy Coin. It’s a dark little fantasy with magic, fairies, and blood. A healthy amount of blood. Beware the Faie, everyone.

Of course, my story is only one of many excellent stories by some fantastic authors. Trust me, treat yourself. Here’s a link to get your e-copy right now.

Have a beautiful day, everyone.

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My year of adventure

Do you ever feel like you’re just repeating the same day over and over? Not like, Groundhog day level, but that you’re just stuck in a rut? That’s where I’ve been. I go to the same day job, write the same series I’ve been working on for years. I eat the same food, read the same sort of books from the same authors, watch the same content creators on Youtube.

It becomes dull. And while I’m not in my twenties anymore, I’m not old. I’m sure not ready for my life to be stuck in a predictable rut. I’ve never been a fan of ruts.

The long term solution for this is to buy an RV, quit my job and write full time. Become a digital nomad. I’m calling that Project Serenity. And if anyone’s interested, I’ll be happy to do a post detailing how I’m doing that. 

But that’s long term. It’s potentially years in the making. And I have no intention to wait until I reach that big hefty goal before I’m happy. 

So I came up with a plan to make this year exciting. Every week, I seek out a new pablo(2)experience. An adventure.

The rules are simple. Find some new experience every week. It can be a Youtuber I’ve never watched, a book from an author I’ve never read, a recipe I’ve never tried. It can be something big, like going on vacation to a city we’ve never been to. Or something small, like driving down a road we’ve always been curious about right here in our hometown.

Now, I’ve been doing this since the start of the year, and I’ve been keeping track of all my adventures in my planner. So far it’s been nothing big. But still quite enriching.

We tried the Incredible Sausage sandwich at Dunkin. It was pretty good. 

We’ve discovered some cool new Youtubers.

We’ve had several driving adventures, exploring our hometown. It’s amazing how little we’ve seen of it. 

We have so many plans for new experiences this year. I don’t think this is going to be some major life-changing experience. My only goal is to have little new experiences that brighten my life.

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The Middle Finger Project, the book, launches today!

And I already got my copy! It’s sitting on my desk quietly waiting for me to finish the book I’m reading now. I’m going to really have to focus on actually getting things done with this book sitting here. I cannot wait to crack into it.

IMG_20200211_111524_724Honestly, if you’ve been around PBW for any amount of time, you’re fully aware that Ash Ambridge is basically my Beyonce. Which isn’t to say she’s a musician that a lot of people fawn over. No, I mean in terms of inspiration. Her blog, also called The Middle Finger Project, inspires me with every post. And if you want to live, actually live, then she should be inspiring you.

I’m also pretty sure she’s my soul sister. She grew up in a trailer in PA, just like me. She’s a classy professional who really likes the word fuck, just like me. And she’s not about apologizing for any part of her life. I’m working on that.

What follows is some awesome experts and information from the woman herself. If you haven’t already gotten your hands on a copy of this book, go do it right now. Or read this, and understand better why everyone needs this book.

Then go get it.

Animals Who May or May Not Want to Pee On This Book

The rhino. (Seems like a total alpha male.)

Turtles. (Yawn.)

T-Rex. (Shitty reading arms.)

Any type of mollusk. (Jealous of my name.)

The Common Molly. (For obvious reasons.)

 

What the F*cking Thing Is About

  • Girl grows up in a trailer park in rural AmericaAmbirge
  • Mom = social anxiety, doesn’t leave house
  • Dad dies when girl is 14
  • Mom dies when girl is 21
  • Girl leaves small town. Goes to big city. Tries hard to fit in with people who paid real money for “nude” as a nail color.
  • Becomes disillusioned to discover nobody actually knows what they’re doing and the rules were made up by a guy named Ted who ate a cheeseburger for lunch and has a dog named Wedgie.
  • Leaves job. Rebels. Sleeps in car in Kmart parking lot.
  • $26 left. Lots of chicken nuggets.
  • Hears radio announcer. New music album available for pre-order. Suddenly realizes that value comes in many forms—not just in all of material things she never had—and art is worth paying for. And? It doesn’t have to be *finished yet* in order to be exchanged for future value.
  • Takes hidden talent—writing—and uses it to create an all-new job for herself.
  • Earns first $2,000 from backseat of car.
  • Uses it to kick start new life.
  • Makes first $103,000 that year, and then goes on to earn several million dollars from her art.
  • Learns lots of lessons along the way, like: You must be brave enough to cause problems. And: Sometimes you’ve got to be a bitch about money. And: Every good idea is offensive to someone. And: Selling yourself requires you to insist on your own brilliance. And: We must learn to become mothers to ourselves.
  • I NEED TORN DOWN SOULS TO READ THIS. I need them to see that they can do so much more than they think. And not just them, but anyone who feels like an imposter every single day of their life. Anyone who doesn’t know what else to do. Anyone confused about their career. Anyone who doesn’t have passions anymore. Anyone who feels like they’ve lost themselves. And anyone who is still really just an innocent babe inside, trying to find their way.

 

 

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Splitting books between two movies. Room for detail or a money grab?

Books, especially fantasy books, have experienced a great swelling of interest. Streaming services and cable channels scramble for new content. As they can often offer a long-form setup and give more room to tell a story, more and more good books are ending up there. And they’re doing way better there! For instance, the movie Series of Unfortunate Events with Jim Carey was terrible. But the series from Netflix with Neil Patrick Harris was phenomenal. Seriously, if you haven’t seen it, block out some time and binge it.

As an answer to this, movie companies have started looking for ways to give more space to tell stories the right way. They’re doing this by splitting books into multiple movies. 

Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

I am the first person to complain about books being made into movies. They always leave out the best parts! There’s always some scene or character I was excited to see that just never happens. And why did they never happen? Because they weren’t considered essential to the plot, so they were taken out for time.

Having two movies’ worth of time allows for the whole story to be told. Things that aren’tsplitting movies pic hp essential to the plot but essential to the enjoyment of the story are all there. The directors even have space to add in new elements as well. One fine example of this is Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. There’s a great scene with Harry and Hermione dancing to the radio while on the run. It’s a sweet moment in a dark time, and it wasn’t in the book. I’m glad it was in the movie.

That isn’t to say that this can’t be taken to far. Take, for example, The Hobbit movies. The Hobbit is a fine book, but it’s not a particularly long book. There’s not enough material to span two movies, let alone three. And unfortunately, the team responsible for beefing up the story wasn’t gifted with what I’d call creativity. 

So why do it all in that case? Well, the easiest answer is that three movies will make more money than one. I’m willing to pay that money if the movies are good. If the movie is full of unsatisfying filler, I’m feeling pretty ripped off. 

There’s another issue with the two to three movie system. There is by far too much time splitting movies pic hgbetween the films. Waiting for Mockingjay part two was torture. But then, I’m not a super patient person. 

Like most things, splitting novels between two movies have the potential to be a great choice. It also has the potential to destroy what would otherwise have been a fantastic movie experience. It all comes down to intention as most things do. Is the studio trying to give the story the space it needs? Or are they just after a double return on their investment?

So, what do you think? Are there books you feel needed the two movie experience? Or are there some that would have been better left to one? Let us know in the comments. 

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Dead Like Me, a series review

One thing I love about the modern way we watch tv is the ability to binge-watch old shows. Can you believe I’d never seen Seinfeld? We sure fixed that now.

Another show we recently binged that took a depressingly short amount of time was Dead Like Me.

Originally a Showtime show, we found it on Amazon Prime. 

Dead like me pic oneThe show centers around an eighteen-year-old girl named George (Ellen Muth). She’s killed by a toilet seat falling out of the sky.

Upon dying, George is chosen to become a Grim Reaper, as the Reaper who took her soul has now moved on. 

On where? No idea, that’s sort of a thing. None of the reapers know what’s waiting on the other side. They just know that they have to take the souls of those who have passed on to where they’re going. 

George is greeted by Rube, played by Mandy Patinkin. He dispenses sticky notes with a first initial, last name, date and time. 

This show was brilliant. We watched both seasons in no time at all. Let me break it down for you.

The show isn’t shy about hitting the hard issues in the first episode. Or any of them. The people who are dying aren’t bad. They’re children, beloved husbands, parents. Innocent, happy people who simply have an appointment.

For example, in the first episode, George has to take the soul of a little girl who dies in a train accident. We also take a good long look at what the loss of a child does to George’s parents. What losing a sister costs her little sister, Reggie.

This isn’t to say this show isn’t also funny as hell. I mean, George is killed by a falling toilet seat. She ends up working at a temp agency because being a grim reaper doesn’t pay. Literally, she’s not getting paid for this gig, and she still needs to do things like eat and pay rent.

Dead Like Me seems to go out of its way to not answer any big questions about the afterlife. The reapers don’t know. They only know that it looks different to every person and it looks fantastic. It’s like that episode of Are you Afraid of The Dark, Station 109.1. Near the end, Roy (played by Gilbert Gottfried) tells the main character that the afterlife is only terrible if you’ve led a bad life.

“If you’ve led a good life, it’s the best thing going.” 

One thing that I always like to see is well-written characters. Characters that feel like they could be people walking through my own life. And Dead Like Me hit that on every level.

Not a single character on this show was exactly good, bad or frankly sane. They’ve all go dead like me pic twotheir thing. They’re selfish, lazy, thieving, angry. Nothing is clear, really, about any of them. For example, the darling husband and I watched every episode together, and we couldn’t agree on whether George’s mom is a good woman trying her best, or a self-centered bitch who verbally abused her husband. I consider the fact that two people who tend to think alike on most things were so conflicted by this person.

So, that was all the good. Now, on to what wasn’t so great. 

The show ended after two seasons. And it ended with far too many questions unanswered. I feel I need to warn you now, a lot of questions just don’t get answered. It doesn’t end on this big awful cliffhanger. But you never find out how Rube died. You never find out what happened to Betty when she followed a dead person into the light. You never find out why one dead person turned into a graveling. You just don’t know. You don’t know if Mason ever gets clean if Daisy finds the fulfillment she’s looking for. You just don’t know.

And if you were hoping that the movie was going to answer any of these questions, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

Let’s talk a little about the movie. Because while it wasn’t Serenity, it wasn’t what it could be.

The story starts with Rube finally getting his last reap and heading into whatever awaits Reapers after they’re done. He’s replaced by a slick Reaper named Kane. He encourages them to break all the rules, including saving people from their death, stealing from the dead and visiting family from their previous lives. Hilarity, and lots of pain, ensues.

But the whole thing is super convoluted and rushed. It was hard to follow everything as it was going so fast. I won’t say the ending wasn’t satisfying. But it wasn’t what it could be.

Would I say it’s not worth watching? Absolutely not. I loved every episode. Do I wish it was more satisfying? Yes, of course. But then, I imagine that George wishes the answers that waited for her after death was more satisfying. So maybe the show did exactly what it was supposed to do.

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Carry Dr. King’s lessons into the Lunar New Year

Image by John Hain

Monday ways MLK Day, the day we as a nation set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His lessons on equality of race and economic status, as well as his calls for peace, are ones that we should honor every day, not just once a year. 

Maybe not with a giant gun rally that included several organizations with ties to Neo Nazis. But that’s another issue for another day. 

Tomorrow is Lunar New Year. Also known as Chinese New Year, it’s a celebration of new beginnings, cleaning out the damages of our past and moving forward into a new year. Kind of like the one we just celebrated at the start of this month. If you don’t know, we are leaving the year of the Boar and entering the year of the Rat. 

I love rats. I’ve had several as pets over the years and I can tell you it’s basically like having a really smart puppy you can perch on your shoulder. 

According to Chinese Zodiac, people born under the year of the rat are clever, successful, thrifty and highly likeable. So anyone having a baby this year, get that kid a savings account. They’re also the first animal of the zodiac, so this year also marks the start of the newest cycle. So that’s pretty awesome. (This information curtesy of Chinesenewyear.net.)

I’m bringing these two things up because I think it’s a sign that MLK Day is the same week as the Lunar New Year. And as this is the start of a new decade, and a new 12 year cycle, it seems like a time to make some significant, long term changes in our lives. 

Instead of making a promise to get your finances in order, or start using that gym membership, how about we all make a resolution together?

Let’s make a resolution to carry the lessons of Dr. King into this new cycle. Let’s all make

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Image by Adam Clay

an effort to speak up for those around us. Hell, for those around the world who are being persecuted. Let’s speak out against hatred, bigotry. Let’s stop seeing The Other. Let’s work towards seeing everyone as us, not them.

 

Today, right now, make a list of ways you can be an advocate for your fellow man, to stamp out hatred and foster peace. If we all do that, maybe the next time the Zodiac Wheel turns back to the year of the Rat, we can make Dr. King’s dream a reality. If not now, when?

And now I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite Dr. King Quotes.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

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A review of Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

I first heard about Rachel Hollis when I saw the cover of her first book, Girl Wash Your Face. 

That title is a case study in why choosing a good title is so important. Hollis got that title spot on. Of course, I had to find out what this was all about. And of course, I had to read her book.

After reading it I had to get the next one. Because the first one was so great. I did a review of it before, you can read it here.

Now, if you read Girl Wash Your Face, you know that it was half self-help book, half stop apologizing pic twoautobiography. That’s what I would expect from any good self-help book. If someone hasn’t lived through Hell, I don’t believe they can help me get through it.

There wasn’t much of the biography experience in Stop Apologizing. There are little snippets of her life, sure. But not the full-fledged stories like before. That was alright, though. We got all that in book one.

What this book focused on was being, fully, unapologetically you. and you know how I feel about that. I’ve all but removed ‘sorry’ from my vocabulary. Unless I mess up, of course. In the past, I’ve literally apologized when other people ran into me! 

I’m working on it. 

Stop Apologizing is broken into three parts. The first part, and the longest, is the list of lies we tell ourselves to stand in our own way. And, most importantly, why they’re all bullshit. 

I think this is the foundation of any real, honest change you’re going to make in life. Start with weeding out the lies and bad habits. It’s like cleaning, you can’t start until you get rid of the clutter.

Next, we move onto habits to adopt. These are not hard habits, but neither are they easy. For instance, Behavior number five hit me right between the eyes.

Build a foundation for success. 

Mind you, I didn’t start reading this book until I’d already picked out my word of the year. You know, Foundation. So this chapter struck me right between the eyes. I love it when the universe lines up like that for me.

Finally, the last part is skills to acquire. Some of these seem like the sort of thing you’re born with or not, but the truth is that there’s little to nothing you can’t learn. 

I appreciate that the first skill listed is planning. No surprise there, it’s my favorite thing. But guess what? The only reason I’m able to get done what I get done is that I plan shit out. Do you think I could hold down a full-time job, take care of a mother in law recovering from hip surgery, host this blog, work for another blog and still put out at least one book a year if I didn’t have my life planned down to the half-hour? No, never. At least not if I wanted to, you know, sleep. And I do, I really do. Sleep is sacred.

I loved this book, and I hope that Rachel Hollis keeps churning them out. I love following her on social media, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Did you read Girl, Wash Your Face or Girl, Stop Apologizing? What books have you read so far in 2020? Let us know in the comments below.

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The price of war

I often spend time sitting at my local Dunkin, just people watching. I do something I call sketching, but what I mean is writing out little descriptive paragraphs about the people in the place with me. It’s a writing exercise.

There’s a lot of kids, of course, drinking smoothies and soaking up the free wifi. Cops and people stopping in for a coffee before or after work. There are all sorts of people, just looking for a sugar fix.

There are a lot of older men who come in. They get small cups of coffee, and they sit around making conversation with anyone who catches their eye. Many of them are not well. Some are homeless, filthy. Some are just angry. Pretty much at everything.

These men are a common sight in my hometown. They’re Vietnam vets. And once or twice a year they all get together and march in the parade. But between those times, Veterans Day and Memorial Day, we pretty much ignore them. They go into stores, sometimes causing trouble, sometimes just making people uncomfortable.

Not me, though. Well, that’s a lie. I get uncomfortable too. But I do my best to not show it. 

I do my best because these men were sent into a nightmare situation. They came backpablo(2) damaged, in body and mind. The best of them came back with night terrors. The worst of them could be said to not have come back at all. Their bodies did, and they walk around in the world. But their minds are still in the jungle. 

This generation of broken men has surrounded me my whole life. I was taught by them in JR ROTC. I had friends who were the children and grandchildren of them. My first father in law was a Vietnam vet. He once almost planted a knife in his younger son’s throat because he accidentally startled him in the middle of the night. I and many women and men of my generation have sat at the knees of these Veterans and learned well the price of war.

And yet, it never ends. My generation has sent its share of young men and women overseas. One buddy of mine had a panic attack at New Year when people started popping balloons. 

Another one killed himself last year. He left a wife and a bunch of kids. The terror of war finally got to him.

In a few decades, this town will still be full of men walking around, maybe homeless. Maybe just broken. They’ll be from my graduating class of ’05 or later years. We’re too late to change that.

But damn it, if we keep beating the drums of war, we’ll just keep breaking these kids. We’ll weaken generation after generation, not in service to our country but service to the rattling of useless sabers. We aren’t any safer. We’re just poorer.

And the next wave of broken men drinking coffee in Dunkin will be from the graduating class of 2020. 

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Join me in helping the people at the American border

Some time ago I wrote a blog post in defense of the immigrants seeking asylum at the American border. 

Seeking asylum isn’t illegal, but they’ve been shoved into cages and forced to exist in inhumane conditions that I, as an American, am ashamed of.

It’s monstrous, and I’ve had enough. I bet you’ve had enough, too. 

That’s why I’m hosting a fundraiser for the groupImmigrant Families Together.

If you haven’t checked out this organization yet, you should. It’s committed to helping immigrants detained at the border post bail, get homes and be reunited with their families. This is work that I want to be involved in.

indexI hope you do too. So I’m hosting a fundraiser for Immigrant Families Together, from January 31st to February 2nd. During that time I’ll be posting a link to donate directly to the organization. 

Of course, I want to thank you for giving to this worthy cause. So, screenshot and send to me the confirmation of your donation, and I’ll send you a free e-copy of any Station 86 book of your choosing. You can do that on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or, you can just use #PBWIFT on those platforms, and I’ll keep an eye out for you.

Now, the PBW community has never done a fundraiser before, but I bet you guys are going to shine. So I want to set our goal at $1,000 over three days. We can do it, I know we can.

If you feel the same way I do, please share this post, and the social media posts I’ll be doing over the next few weeks. We need to raise awareness not just that there are still people imprisoned at the American border and that there’s something we can do to help.

See you then, have a great day.

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