Tag: Writing

My experience with Livways notebooks

This is not a sponsored post. These are simply my opinions regarding a writing-related product I purchased that I thought you might be interested in. I will always tell you if I have a sponsored post.

Instagram has my number, let me tell you. Especially this time of year. I was getting constant ads for this Livway index notebook. It was bloody expensive for a notebook, retailing at $40 before we even consider shipping costs. Even as someone who used to buy Moleskine notebooks in her bullet journaling days, this was a pricey notebook.

But eventually, I was worn down. The book just looked so classy. It looked like it was just screaming for detailed novel and world-building notes. I had lovely fantasies of using these fold-out pages to keep bird’s-eye views of my WIP, and all sorts of other lovely things.

So, I caved. And I’m sorry to say, I actually love the damned thing.

Before we continue, you do not need this notebook to write! You don’t need any specific notebook for your writer’s notebook. You can write in a cheap college-ruled notebook just as well. You can keep notes on your tablet, on your phone, on takeout napkins. Get you a good long CVS receipt, you can write a whole story on one of those. But if you’ve been considering this notebook, and you want to invest in it, let’s talk about it to see if it’s worth your hard-earned money.

It’s sturdy

I am rough on my supplies. If I’m carrying a notebook, I tend to get hard covers. I have been known to accidentally break book spines, rip off covers, spill coffee or candle wax, or rip out pages. I’m forever shoving my notebook in my bags, carrying it around to the kitchen or backyard. So I really need something that’s going to survive me.

The Livways notebook is doing just that. The pages are thick, and the cover is sturdy. The rings are good quality. I’ve had mine for several months now, and it’s holding up to all of my abuse.

I also like the rings. They aren’t the aggressive snapping sort you usually find on a three-ring binder. (Anyone else real gunshy around those things?) They open and close fairly easily. Not once have they opened by accident. Love that.

It’s adaptable

What I need from a writer’s notebook changes. Sometimes I’m writing a review of a TV series. Sometimes I’m working on a very complex novel with a lot of moving parts.

I like the fact that I can move things around, remove pages I don’t need anymore, and add more room in sections I need.

The different size inserts are nice, too. Especially the accordion pages. I haven’t done this yet, but I plan to write out common writing formulas there, like the MICE quotient.

You don’t have to just use their supplies

Because it’s really just sturdy cover and pages, there’s no reason why you can’t add in whatever you want. Collage pages, scrapbooks, pictures. I put a decorative clip on the front of mine to hold some decor and a pen. I always appreciate products that work well with others.

It’s super classy-looking

Finally, and this matters least of all. But it just looks classy. It looks like a notebook that should be bursting with creativity. I love having it with me; I love having it open. Most of all, I love writing in it. It makes me feel like an artist. I love when things are functional and beautiful.

Overall, I’m glad I got the index notebook. I’ll probably get another one for my book of shadows. It’s durable, useful, and beautiful. If you’ve been looking at it and wondering if it’s worth the money, I think it is. And if you’re looking for holiday gifts for a writer or artist friend, this might be just the thing.

My book, Station 86 Volume One, is available now on Amazon! It’s got two dark sci-fi stories about murder and mayhem on the station of First Contact.

0

Why Backrooms worked

I had to tell my therapist about Backrooms. That’s the highest praise I can ever give a piece of fiction.

Happy Halloween! Or, Halloween Eve. Whatever, we only have two more days of spooky season to soak up. I am trying to fit in as much scary fun as possible into the next 48 hours.

I mean, I love a good spooky story anytime. But this is when there’s so much readily available content! All the good horror movies come out. Or, in the case of the movie we’re talking about today, they come out on streaming so I can finally watch them.

Today, we are talking about the film Backrooms.

As soon as I heard this movie was coming out, I was apprehensive. I’m sure you already know this, but the Backrooms is a whole thing on social media. Ever since the original video by Kane Parsons graced the internet, we’ve all been a little obsessed with the backrooms and liminal spaces. Everyone wants to expand on the world, be part of the story, and add to the lore. Some people are better at doing that than others. But it felt very much like one massive game of Round Robin that everyone was in on.

And no one killed anybody over it, so that was a step above Slenderman.

With this being such a beloved online story, I was very much worried that Hollywood wouldn’t do it justice. But then I found out that Parsons was co-writing it. That made me feel more optimistic.

Thankfully, my optimism was well placed. The movie was scary, dark, and quite well done. So today, let’s talk about why Backrooms worked.

It didn’t try to do everything.

As I mentioned earlier, and as you were probably already quite aware, there is a lot of Backrooms lore. Most of it’s written by anonymous users online. And I could very easily see the movie trying to shove references to every single popular Backrooms story or theory in there. That would have ruined the film, I think.

The story is simple. Our main character, Clark, goes in out of curiosity. His therapist, Mary, goes in to save him. Both get lost, in more ways than one. It’s simple, but this allows the eeriness of the place to penetrate through the story. Much like the backrooms themselves, it’s not cluttered. It’s so empty it echoes.

It respected the audience’s intelligence.

There is very little in this movie that’s outright explained. I think Mary’s motivations are a great example. We know that she lost her mother. We know that her mother had a mental illness that darkened Mary’s childhood.

We don’t know that Mary became a therapist to try to save people, like she couldn’t save her mother. But we can pretty much figure that out.

Not everything in a story needs to be spoonfed to the audience. You can just show what’s happening, and let them make their own conclusions. Backrooms seemed to understand this better than most movies I’ve seen.

We didn’t actually get answers, only assumptions.

Finally, I’m sure that some people watched Backrooms and were disappointed. This is true of every work of fiction; even Shakespeare had critics. But I imagine that some people are upset that their own pet theories about the backrooms have in some way been disproven.

If this is you, I have good news. This movie didn’t tell us anything definitive about the backrooms.

For some stories, that would be a huge problem. For this story, it’s kind of the whole point. The backrooms are not supposed to be understood. They’re supposed to be a mystery.

Yes, we do get an info dump from Clark. But he’s only telling Mary what he thinks is happening. He doesn’t have any facts to back up anything. We might think he’s right. We might think he’s wrong. But we know nothing.

I love this, because it’s the difference between telling a story and experiencing one. This allows the viewer to play along, turning a passive activity into a very active one. And when you’re active in the story, it becomes all the more impactful.

Have you seen Backrooms? Did I miss something important? Let us know in the comments. And I hope that you have a beautiful Halloween, Samhain, and anything else that you celebrate.

My book, Station 86 Volume One, is available now on Amazon! It’s got two dark sci-fi stories about murder and mayhem on the station of First Contact.

0

The last Station 86 book is going to look different (But I swear, it’s coming!)

I haven’t published a Station 86 book since 2024. And I’m sorry to tell you that I don’t even have a rough draft finished for the last book yet.

I’m working on it right now! Don’t worry, it’s coming. But it’s going to look a little different than the others. And, honestly, that’s why it’s taken me so long to write it.

Since I’ve never really done anything like this, I thought I’d share this experience with you.

See, I’ve written no less than three rough drafts for the last Station 86 book. And none of them have worked. They’ve all sucked. I hate them all.

At first, I thought I was just scared of finishing my longest-running series. I mean, I’ve been writing Station 86 for a decade or more now. Finishing it is going to be emotional as hell.

But after some thinking and soul-searching, I realized that wasn’t it. I love this story, but it’s done.

And that’s the issue. The Hollow Suits are all but defeated. So there isn’t much story left to tell. Not enough for a start-to-finish narrative.

But there are loose ends. There are storylines that have remained unresolved, that I’d intentionally left unresolved, because I was planning on resolving them in the last book. And now, here I am at the last book, with nothing but a collection of slightly connected stories that need resolutions. I can’t write a collection of slightly related stories just to give satisfying answers to all the little plotlines, while also finally defeating the main monsters in the series, can I?

Wait, can I?

Artists are always learning and evolving. Art changes. Consumer taste changes. And what was considered unheard of years ago is mainstream now. I mean, let’s look at some books that have thrown conventional wisdom out the window. Incidents Around The House was told almost entirely from the point of view of a child, with little to no punctuation.

The latest Paul Tremblay book has an interlude in the middle where Paul goes on a little rant to his readers.

Dozens of books are now written in present tense, like the Savage Rebellion trilogy. That seems run-of-the-mill now.

This is How You Lose the Time War was written entirely in letters passed between time travelers.

I loved all of these books! And lots of other people did, too. They work in part because their authors told the stories in the way they needed to be told, conventions be damned.

Now, I’m not Paul Tremblay. But I thought I at least wasn’t so hung up on traditions. Turns out I was. I’ve spent years trying to shove a square peg in a round hole because I was sure it should fit. To be clear, I wrote the last Station 86 book before Nova. Nova was supposed to just be flashbacks. I thought the reason why I couldn’t write the last book was that Nova needed to come first. And in part, I was right. I think Nova’s a great book.

I need to let this last book be great as well. I want to be like Paul Tremblay, not George RR Martin.

So, I told you all that to tell you this. If you’ve got a project that you’re struggling with, consider if it might benefit from some unconventional framing. Don’t force yourself to do things ‘the way they’ve always been done’. Write the book you want to write, in the way you want to write it. And if you’ve been waiting for the last Station 86 book, I’m sorry for the delay. It’ll be worth the wait.

My book, Station 86 Volume One, is available now on Amazon! It’s got two dark sci-fi stories about murder and mayhem on the station of First Contact.

0

How I keep my home clean (enough)

I would start this post with that great Dorothy West quote, but I just used that one recently.

I hate housekeeping. And I honestly think people do too much of it. Who the hell cares if your baseboards are dusty? Are we really judging people for dusty baseboards or dirt on the windowsills? We shouldn’t be.

That being said, a certain amount of cleaning up does need to be done. I’m not thrilled about it. Dishes need to be washed. Laundry, too. The cat box, of course. And there is a certain amount of mopping, sweeping, and tidying up that can’t be avoided.

Much as I might try.

However, housekeeping is usually at the bottom of my priority list, under caring for my disabled husband and pets, working a full-time job, and writing.

Oh, and taking care of myself enough that I can continue to do all the other things. My health is more important than a clean closet.

So, what do I do to keep up with what needs to be kept up with? In a life so busy, how does any cleaning get done at all? Let’s talk about it.

Prioritize

If you only have fifteen minutes to dedicate to cleaning a room, do the most important things first. For instance, let’s say I’m cleaning the bathroom. I need to clean the cat box, scrub out the tub, clean the toilet, and declutter the counter. If I only have a few minutes, obviously the cat box is first. Then the toilet. Sanitation and things that can impact our health always come first. The decluttering can wait for another time.

Deligate

Unless you live alone, everyone in the house should be helping keep it clean. It’s up to your household how that gets delegated. But it should be.

Even a five-year-old can pick up his own toys.

In my house, my roommate does the lawn mowing. We split dish duties and dinner cooking. I keep the bathroom hygienic. We take turns caring for the dogs, taking them out and trimming their nails. The Darling Husband does what he can, what with the stroke and all. But anyone physically able to do home care in your home should be doing it.

Audiobooks

I’d rather be reading than washing dishes. I’d rather be reading than vacuuming. I’d rather be reading than folding laundry, decluttering my closet, scrubbing the bathroom, or really anything else. Since I have yet to master the practice of levitation, I listen to audiobooks.

This makes a boring chore tolerable. I can listen to a great story and all but forget what my hands are doing. I just started listening to Please Remain Seated by Marcus Kliewer, if you’re wondering.

Make a cleaning chart

Ugh, yes! Making a cleaning chart has actually helped me keep my home cleaner. But not necessarily for the reason you might think.

I don’t know about you, but when it comes to home care, I tend to get overwhelmed. There are just so many things that need to be done. And I usually clean at the end of my day, when I’m suffering from serious decision fatigue. I’m more likely to just throw my hands up in frustration and not get anything done.

So, I made a cleaning chart. I wrote down all the things I needed to get done daily and weekly. And I gave each day a chore to perform. I used my day job schedule as a guide, assigning heavy tasks to days off and easy tasks to longer days. If you’re interested in making your own cleaning chart, here’s mine as an example.

Daily tasks-

Wash dishes

Wipe down kitchen counters

Wipe down bathroom counters

Swish and swipe toilet (Yes, I was inspired by the FlyLady. No, I don’t wear shoes in my house.)

Cat box

Weekly tasks-

Monday (A day off)- Do laundry and run errands

Tuesday- Empty out the trash bins

Wednesday (An overtime shift)- Go through any mail

Thursday- Mop downstairs

Friday- Vacuum upstairs and mop bathroom

Saturday (An overtime shift)- Clean out French Press

Sunday (A day off)- Plan meals for the coming week, fill pill sorters, and order any prescriptions we’re out of.

I also pick a room every week, and try to spend ten to fifteen minutes a day cleaning and decluttering. Again, the point is to give myself a direction, so I don’t have to think about what needs to be done. I can just do them.

Give things a home

You can’t put things away if there isn’t an away to put them. Everything in your house should have somewhere it goes when it’s not being used. Simple as that.

Do little things every day

I think this is the worst thing about homecare. It’s not ever going to be a one-and-done project. As soon as you clear the sink of dishes, you’ve got to cook again and make more dishes.

It’s also a blessing, though. As you notice in my weekly chore list, I’m not getting everything done every day. I do a little here and a little there.

I find moments when I can get a tiny thing done. If I’m waiting for water to boil in the kettle, I’ll put dishes away and sort out things on the counter. If I’m going from my bedroom upstairs to the living room downstairs, that mug on my desk is coming with me. This approach leaves me feeling far less overwhelmed.

Don’t make it a punishment

I hate to blame my mother for all of my problems. But I do blame her for this one. Cleaning was never fun growing up. It was a constant stream of arguments. It was never done right, never done fast enough.

It was never enough.

Now, I’m not saying that cleaning is anyone’s favorite thing. But it has to be done, and it might as well be pleasant. I light a candle and put on an audiobook or some music. My roommate might join me, and we’ll talk about things. I like to buy cute sponges and nice-smelling soaps. In short, the goal is to make this as enjoyable an activity as possible.

Overall, cleaning has to be done, and it brings with it rewards. When you do laundry, you’re rewarded with clean, nice-smelling clothes. When you put things away, you know where they are next time. And when you keep your dishes done, you don’t have to fight your kitchen to make a cup of tea. So you owe it to yourself to make cleaning as quick and painless as possible.

My book, Station 86 Volume One, is available now on Amazon! It’s got two dark sci-fi stories about murder and mayhem on the station of First Contact.

0

How we create in dark times

Man, I could really use some precedent times.

I don’t need to tell you how dark things are getting out there. You know, you have eyes.

I hope you also have plans to vote in the midterms in a few months here.

As many of you know, my personal life hasn’t been great either. The darling husband is still recovering from his stroke in December of 2024. We had to move out of my dream apartment, my soul cat Harper passed, and Haunted MTL closed in 2025.

And my favorite wine bar closed. I know it doesn’t seem like much compared to everything else. But that was where I went when the husband was in the hospital, and the house was too quiet. Basically, it was one of the things keeping me going through all the other rough shit. And then it was gone.

2026 has been a lot brighter. We moved into a new house, and it’s lovely. We have a new roommate. The darling husband gets a little better every day. And, thanks to the move, I was able to bury our girl in our own yard, where I can visit her every day.

Now, I’m decompressing from what was certainly a Tower Card year. I’m getting into a groove that has space for being a caretaker and a creative. I’m also learning to work within the way my body is changing now that I’m in my 40’s.

Writing can come back to the foreground of my life now. But even while I walked through a rough year, I kept writing. So today, I want to talk about how I did it. What kept me writing? How did I fit it in when I barely had time to shower?

Let’s talk about it.

I need the brightness

Writing is bright for me. It’s the best thing. The thing I want to do more than anything else. And when everything felt like it was falling apart around me, writing was how I handled it.

Writing my weekly blog posts, getting in a little writing time on my novel, and especially journalling. These were things I could do while the husband napped, attended physical therapy, or slowly learned to use his smartphone again. They were things that made me feel like me. If only for a little while.

Today I have a thousand things to do. I’m writing this on Sunday, and I have a hundred other things I need to do today. But I’m taking the time to write this, because it’s fun. Because I want to. Because it makes me feel bright.

Prioritize

When you have a thousand things that need to be done, you’ve got to realize that you’re not going to get it all done. Sorry, that’s just how life works. Especially when you’re a full-time caregiver. If you think you’ve got the perfect day planned in which you’re going to get everything done, something’s probably going to break. Or someone’s going to get sick. Or you probably forgot a doctor’s appointment.

Again.

So when you’re making the to-do list for the day, list your goals by priority. For me, I start with the things that need to be done to keep everyone (including my plants) alive and well. Doctors, meds, meal planning, watering schedule, doggy nail clippings. These are always the first things on my to-do list.

Then come the things I need to do to progress on my current projects. This will look different all the time. Sometimes I’ve got a blog post that’s due. Or I need to get words on the page for the current book. Or I need to get short stories submitted.

Then, I worry about things like house cleaning or laundry. Unless I’m completely out of clean underwear.

You’re going to run out of time. You’re going to run out of energy. Prioritize like hell, and make sure the most important things get done.

Time management, realistically

Time management should also be looked at as energy management. I spend some time every Saturday to see what can get done when.

Look at your schedule for the week. What days do you have work? When are you doing your grocery shopping, picking up meds, scheduling doctor’s appointments, going to the bank?

When do you have days that will not be productive for good reasons? For instance, this week was Mabon, one of the eight sabbats in the wheel of the year. We also have a local Fall Festival on Saturday. I plan for those beautiful, life-affirming days. No progress will be made on any projects that day. I’ll be living life, taking pictures, and loving on my family.

Make sure you’re planning for rest times. Make sure you’re not planning to be productive every minute of the day. Plan in time for joy, for rest, for unproductive loafing. Plan for bubble baths and movie nights.

Measuring in minutes

I want to write most days. Some days I can carve out a whole hour to work on my current book. Sometimes I can fit in ten minutes.

My homecare is usually shoved into minutes. And you know what? It gets done.

Take ten minutes to pick up your home. Spend ten minutes writing. Stretch for ten minutes. Read for ten minutes. Will it be as good as if you took an hour a day? No, of course not. But it will be a damned sight better than if you didn’t do anything at all.

Art inspires people

When it’s hard to keep going, we remember our why. This is my why. I’ve said over and over that art gets people through hard times. In my darkest times, books have saved me. It happened again last year, reading We Used To Live Here while sleep-deprived, caring for my husband when he came home unable to even sit up by himself. We watched Futurama and Shrek. We indulged in stories, and it helped heal both of us.

I want to be that. I want to write the story someone reads while sitting in the emergency room. While waiting for a doctor to call. While waiting for a job offer that might or might not come. I want my stories to be the bright few minutes in someone’s dark day. And when I feel too tired to open my laptop, this is the why that drives me to at least get in a few hundred words before I go crash out.

What’s your why?

So that’s it. There’s nothing magical. I mean, I am a witch, and I do believe that a cup of tea and a good candle can help most things. But most of it’s just making a plan, making the time, and making it happen.

What about you? What keeps you writing during hard times? Let us know in the comments.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. You can support us by liking this post, sharing it and commenting. You can also support us on Ko-fi.

Station 86 Volume 1 is coming! You can get your very own copy on October Second.

0

Let’s talk about Book Goblin

Hey everyone. Um, I think we need to talk about something.

A popular writer on Instagram, Elisabeth Wheatley, recently announced that she’d rewritten several of her popular novels, taking out the spicy scenes. These scenes are now ‘fade to black’. Here’s a link to her detailed post about this decision. She says she’s doing this because she’s uncomfortable with oversexualization in our society, especially since the birth of her daughter. I want to highly recommend that you go read her own words on the situation before you start getting opinions.

Because my God, people have opinions. People are losing their damned minds in her comment section. They’re getting rid of her books. They’re roasting her on Threads. Let’s not do that. Instead, let’s have an actual discussion about this situation. Here’s what I think.

Now, I do need to start with some disclaimers. First off, my opinions are my own and don’t represent the opinions of any organizations I belong to.

Second, I haven’t actually read Wheatley’s books. I don’t like romance; we’ve established this. Spicy or not, I want dragons, ghosts, and sci-fi fun. Not meet-cutes and accidental love in arranged marriages. I am 100% following her for Book Goblin content. I love that character.

Third, I have only ever written one spicy scene in any of my books. And that one was meant to physically upset my male readers with the mental image of having someone’s tender man bits suddenly surrounded by sharp, sharp crystals. (Sorry, guys. To my male readers, did it work? Was that scene in Nova as upsetting as I wanted it to be? Let me know in the comments.)

Fourth, I am myself a Christian Witch. So I love Jesus, and take ‘As it harm ye none, do what thou wilt’ to heart. I have no moral issues with sex scenes or adult consentual porn in general. If everyone’s grown and having a good time, it’s alright by me.

All that being said, I am going to come to Wheatley’s defense here. Unless she posted somewhere and I missed it, she’s not endorsing other writers taking the spice out of their books. She’s not shaming other authors. She’s certainly not shaming readers who like spice. She is saying that she’s uncomfortable writing it, and her morality is pointing her in another direction.

This is something I honestly wish more people would practice. We all have our own moral compasses. For instance, I recently stopped eating beef. I don’t eat lamb or octopus either. Cows and sheep are too innocent and trusting. And octopuses are a bit too smart for me to feel comfortable eating them.

I am not saying you should stop eating beef. I’m not going to rail against the sins of Burger King or throw red paint on a McDonald’s CEO. I made a personal decision. Wheatley also made a personal decision.

However, I’m also going to come to the defense of some of the people criticising her. Right now there’s a push towards conservatism in our society. And that really scares me. Censorship scares me. I don’t like the thought of an artist censoring themselves because they’re afraid someone is going to disapprove. It feels gross. I’m worried that if we start down that path, the list of things we can’t write about is going to get longer and longer. Which means the list of things we can’t read about will get longer and longer.

I hate the puritanical restrictions on women especially. They say that we should hide ourselves, cover ourselves up. They say that we’re not allowed to feel sexy or enjoy sex and our bodies on our own terms. They view sex as something we endure, that we give to our husbands, rather than something that should be enjoyed by everyone involved. They compare us to chewed gum, licked cupcakes, linty duct tape.

Viewed through this lens, alongside the tradwife movement, I understand why people are very concerned about a well-known author removing sex scenes from her books.

In the end, though, I think the people who are angry aren’t really angry at Wheatley. I think they’re angry and scared at overall changes and bad actors within the community and the world at large. I don’t think that it’s about Wheatley’s choice specifically. And in fact, I think that she handled this situation very well.

First of all, she’s made it clear that if you want the spicy original versions, they’re still available. And if you bought the spicy version of the ebook and want the fade-to-black version, she’s apparently sending those out for free; you just have to email her. She’s not doing this to force you to buy the same book twice. She’s giving options. As I mentioned above, she’s not forcing her morality on other people.

I honestly love that she came out on Instagram and posted about this. She started out giving very clear information for her readers to either have the spicy version or the fade-to-black version of her books. She has not, at least as far as I’ve seen, responded to any of the hateful comments people have been leaving her. She said her piece, and left it at that. Good for her.

In the end, I think everyone’s getting a little too worked up. We shouldn’t be dogpiling on a woman just trying to live by her own moral compass. There are plenty of people out there who want to censor books. Who want to tell us what we can and cannot read, wear, and do. Let’s save our anger for them. They actually deserve it.

And if Elisabeth Wheatley sees this, I’m with you, Book Goblin. We don’t write the same genre. But we’re both just out here trying to tell our stories and live our lives. For Bookhalla, sister. For Bookhalla.

As always, I want to know what you think. Leave your (polite) thoughts below.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. You can support us by liking this post, sharing it and commenting. You can also support us on Ko-fi.

Station 86 Volume 1 is coming! You can get your very own copy on October Second.

0

The weight of a woman’s pen

“I’m a writer. I don’t cook and I don’t clean.” Dorothy West.

When I was a kid, my grandmother had a hysterectomy. I don’t mean when I was a teenager. I mean when I was a kid, like ten. And my mother sent me to stay with her for a week during my Summer vacation to take care of her. When my mother had a hysterectomy a few years later, I took care of her, too.

My writing has always come after caring for someone or something. I’ve written while potatoes boiled, at laundromats, while in doctors’ waiting rooms and on the public bus. I’ve gotten up early to sneak in writing before anyone would need me.

I have always had weight on my pen. Weight that many women probably find quite familiar.

This won’t be news to most of you, but women’s aspirations are often put on the back burner. We work our passions while babies nap, while water boils and meatloaves bake. We are often the default caregivers of children, parents, and in-laws. So if we are to write, we’ll do so once everything else is done.

This happens to me all the time. As you might know, my Darling Husband had a stroke about a year and a half ago. He is physically and mentally disabled. He needs care, some days more than others. So writing often comes in stolen moments. I barely wrote the first year after his stroke; I just didn’t have the time or energy.

Men don’t seem to have this problem. Or, I should say, men are less likely to have this problem. Lots of modern men are good at this. If you’re a man and you do an equal share of the housework, make your own doctor’s appointments, take equal care of your kids and elderly relatives, and pick up after your damned self without needing a list, that’s awesome. You’re a competent adult, and we love to see it. I’m kind of assuming that if you’re a man and you’re reading this, you are in fact one of these competent adults because I generally assume my readers are wonderful people and I love you all.

Let me tell you, though, that is not always the case.

One of the most galling things about the division of homecare is hearing some (not all) creative men talk about their partners. And, I hate to say it, but the first one that comes to mind is my man, my hero, Stephen King.

In his book, On Writing, he talks about his wife, Tabitha. And he obviously adores her. He makes it clear that he was only able to write while they had three little kids and they were both working because she was picking up the slack around the house. However, he points out that she had writing aspirations as well.

Well, fuck that! Tabitha King is an author. She’s been a published author since goddamned 1981 when her novel Small World came out. And I only found that out literally five minutes before writing this sentence because I looked it up! She’s published eight novels! On Writing came out in 2000, at which point Tabitha had already published seven of her books. And he sure didn’t mention that!

Stephen wrote novel after novel while working full time and doing a shit ton of coke. She wrote novel after novel while working, raising children, caring for a house, and dealing with her coke-addicted husband. Not to mention being incredibly supportive of his career. Put some respect on her damned name!

Over and over I hear men in the writing field talk about how much they depend on their spouses so they can write. I don’t often hear women say the same thing. Yes, some husbands fit that supporting role. But more often you hear men talk affectionately about how much their wives support them, without sparing a thought for how they can support their wives back.

Even so, the weight on the modern woman’s pen isn’t as heavy as it used to be. Consider Shirley Jackson, one of the greatest horror writers of all time. We all know the sort of marriage she had. Imagine what she might have done if her pen were a little lighter. If she’d had someone to cook dinner and look after the children. What might we have seen from other famous women writers? How many more amazing works would we have if women didn’t have this extra pressure on their time?

This needs to stop. This pressure needs to be removed. We need our pens to be lighter. But if that’s to happen, we women need to start having some real conversations with our partners, and with each other. In that spirit, I want to speak directly to my fellow women right now.

If your partner isn’t sharing in domestic labor, it might be time to have a real conversation with them. That’s going to look different for every couple. But it’s better than doing all the work and growing resentful that your own dreams are being buried under laundry and vacuuming.

We also need to stop posting these dumb, weaponized incompetent videos of men. It just encourages other women to put up with bad behavior because ‘all men are like that’. The fuck they are. My husband is half paralyzed, and he still helps out around the house to the best of his ability. My roommate is twenty-four, and he does equal parts of the housework.

Now, let’s also talk about how we talk to and about ourselves and each other. We do not have to have perfectly clean houses. We don’t have to make meals from scratch every night. We don’t have to have everyone over for holidays, cook, clean, and be perfect hostesses. We can ask for help from our families. We don’t have to take care of everyone. We shouldn’t expect perfection from ourselves. And if you have friends or family members who expect that perfection from you, maybe that’s not your problem. Maybe it’s time to respectfully tell your mom, sister-in-law, or judgy friend to go to hell.

This is something I’ve really struggled with. Especially since my husband’s stroke.

This is about to get real real here, so please be kind.

For the first few months after my husband’s stroke, I barely slept, let alone wrote. He needed almost constant care. He couldn’t sit up, couldn’t feed or clean himself. I didn’t leave the house for more than fifteen minutes for months. I was scared to take a shower with the door closed. I was terrified to leave him alone.

People offered to help. To sit with him. To run errands for me. And I would just say that I was fine. I had it covered. Because I did have the necessary things covered. He was clean, fed, and cared for. The house was put together.

But I wasn’t writing. Hell, I wasn’t reading. I could barely let him out of my sight.

Then, I did something drastic. A friend needed a roommate. I needed help. So we moved in together. I let other people stay with my husband. I let other people cook and clean. We’re talking about hiring a housekeeper. I stopped doing every single thing for my husband, and only stepped in when he actually needed help.

More than all of that, I’ve come to accept that the house might just be a mess. And that’s okay. It’s not a moral failing. Right now as I write this, there’s a massive pile of clothes that need to be folded and put away. There are dishes in my sink. The lawn needs mowed. I’ll get to it, or someone will. My writing comes first.

It’s time to take some weight off our pens and see what we can really do.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. You can support us by liking this post, sharing it and commenting. You can also support us on Ko-fi.

Station 86 Volume 1 is coming! You can get your very own copy on October Second.

1

Station 86, the physical book!

Earlier this year, Grady Hendrix announced that he wasn’t coming out with a new book until 2027. As he usually graces us with a book a year, this bothered him. So, he published a novella under a pen name across the pond. That novella is called The Rednexorcist, published under the name Frank Sloane.

Yes, I ordered a copy. Yes, I’ll be reviewing it on Weird Wyrlds. (And by the way, I just reviewed Dead But Dreaming of Electric Sheep by Paul Tremblay. It’s a fun review, and a very fun book.)

I don’t have a novella to publish. I don’t have a novella written right now. And while I could write one, this would only delay the launch of the book I’m writing right now. And since I’m still working on the rough draft, I don’t really care to delay it any more.

Instead, I’m doing this. I’m launching Station 86 in physical form for the first time.

Now, I love a good physical book. My overly burdened bookshelves will tell you that. But Station 86 has always been, except for book five, a collection of novellas. So, of course I didn’t want to ask you all to buy a novella for physical book money. So, I’m putting them together. Seeming and You Can’t Trust The AI are coming out in Volume 1 on October second. Volume 2, which will include Virus and Station Central, will come out in February of 2027.

(Unrelated spoiler: that might not be the only release in 2027. Stay tuned.)

Eventually I hope to release an audiobook version as well. But I might need to get Kickstarter involved with that one, since I will not be using AI and will hire a voice actor.

I want to thank all of you for sticking around while I write new books. And while my posts have been super late. This year has been busy as hell, launching a new site and helping the Darling Husband recover from his stroke. But so far, it’s been a decent ride.

Stay tuned.

0

Why I’ll probably never run out of content

This month marks the twelfth anniversary of Paper Beats World. Don’t worry, this isn’t going to be some long emotional nostalgic post that I cry while I write. That’ll be later this month. Today, I want to acknowledge something that is kind of my super power. It’s something I aspired to as a child, and I think I’ve achieved it.

I have yet to run out of content for this blog. And honestly, I don’t think I ever will. I also don’t think I’ll ever run out of ideas for books or short stories. I have rarely, if ever, looked at a blank page for long.

Did you ever read the mystery series The Cat Who by Lillian Jackson Braun? The main character, Jim Qwilleran, was a journalist. He prided himself on being able to write 1,000 words about anything. Reading these books as a kid (yes, I did have a weird childhood), I decided that’s something I wanted to be able to do, too.

More than that, though, I have a crippling fear of running out of things to say. But it turns out this isn’t a superpower anymore than writing is. It’s a skill, and it can be learned.

So here are the things I do to make sure I never run out of ideas. Some of them are actionable; you can start doing them today. Some are a bit more philosophical. Try one of them, try any of them, try all of them. See what ideas you come up with.

I write everything down

I’m one of those people who always has a notebook with me. And I write things down. Things that I notice, that are interesting or infuriating. Thoughts I have while reading, or riding the bus. I never assume I’m going to remember, because I can promise you I won’t.

My notes are never pretty. They are not usually very interesting. They probably wouldn’t make sense to anyone but me. But they often lead to observations that are later made into stories or blog posts.

I freewrite

Yes, I’m banging this drum again. Freewriting is the number one best thing you can do for your writing. It’s often in these unstructured times when I come up with some of my best ideas. Sometimes it’s a fix for a problem in my current novel. Sometimes it’s a brand new story idea or some revelation I want to explore more in a post. Sometimes it’s some deep emotional realization, but that’s another post for another time. The point is that there are often good things to be gained from letting your brain off the leash.

I hang out with people older and younger than me

My roommate is a Gen Z person. He helps me keep an eye on what younger generations are up to these days. I also talk to a lot of older people in my day job.

This is a gift. Different generations see the world through entirely different eyes. I learn things from people both older and younger than me all the time. And this leads me to realizations and lessons I’d have missed if I was only hanging out with people my own age.

For a while, I struggled learning things from people younger than me. I had a bit of a chip on my shoulder. I think that came from not feeling as though I’d established myself yet. I didn’t feel like I’d shown the world what I could do. Now that I’m 40, and consider myself to have at least a little bit of success, I’ve humbled my damn self a lot. And that’s only benefited me.

I keep up with the news

To a point. If I didn’t put some barriers on how much and how often I pay attention to world affairs, I might have taken a bath with a toaster by this point. But I do pay attention.

The state of the world makes me angry. It makes me scared. And it gives me things to write about.

Art imitates life. If you’re an artist, it’s your job to capture part of the world you live in and explain it in your art. There will be history books later that will give us facts and figures (and death counts). We are here to tell later generations what it was like to live these days. What it’s like to wake up, go to work, go grocery shopping, do the laundry and wash the dishes while ICE agents are kidnapping people and our ‘president’ is stealing everything not nailed down and picking fights with other countries like a drunk after happy hour.

I consume things that cause a spark in me

I watch a lot of YouTube. A lot of writing content, of course, and horror content. I love me a good three-hour-long deep dive into urban legends. But I also watch things that just catch my interest. I like watching Answers With Joe, for instance. I like Mickey Adkins, a therapist. I also like this woman who’s a mortician. And I’ve been following the manager of a legal brothel on Instagram for forever.

Interesting things are interesting. And a writer can be inspired by another shiny thing that catches our eye. We’re kind of like cats. Or people with undiagnosed ADHD.

I love learning about new things. Useless things that I will never have to know, but are fascinating. These all feed into my writing. And, frankly, my overall enjoyment of life.

I live

I am forty years old, and I have seen things. I have done things. I have experienced good and bad days. I go on trips, go to the doctor, cook food, and sing along to music in my kitchen. I watch good TV, listen to new music, and investigate new hobbies. I have endured horrors. I have lost people who were my entire world. I have met new people who stole away my heart. And I am always eager to experience something new. Preferably good ones, but we can’t always be so lucky.

Writers cannot write in a vacuum. Many of us fantasize about quitting our jobs and going on writing retreats. I’m tempted to say that if I didn’t have quite such a full life, I might write more. These posts might be on time more often, and I might publish more than one book a year.

But I don’t think I would. I think that if I shut off that valve of living, it would strangle the creative valve. Writing doesn’t come from just pure imagination. It comes from experiencing life. All the great, glorious, and gory moments together. Every tear I shed has worked its way onto the page. Every love, every laugh. My work is an amalgamation of things that scare and delight me. If we’re honest, I think we’re all like that.

So that’s it. That’s how I’ve yet to run out of content, and probably never will. Now, it’s your turn. What do you do to come up with ideas? Let us know in the comments.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. You can support us by liking this post, sharing it and commenting. You can also support us on Ko-fi.

3

So, 250 years

Tomorrow is the 4th of July. And, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, it’s America’s 250th birthday. And our girl is looking rough. Almost as rough as the front lawn of the White House right now.

You already know that I’m a pretty liberal person. I hate the current administration and just about everything it’s doing. I’m a bisexual woman and witch. To be completly frank, I think we’re just a short goosestep away from facisim. And if you feel like I feel, celebrating Independence Day probably feels gross right now.

At least, that’s how I was feeling. But, here’s the problem with that. I am an American. I carry the New England ocean in my eyes and the Appalachian dirt under my fingernails. I am an American. And I am proud to be an American.

Not in a ‘Murica, love it or leave it sort of way. More in a ‘We The People’ sort of way.

I am proud of us. Our people, and our history of civil disobedience.

I grew up hearing stories about Vietnam protests. I was a kid when I first learned of the Kent State shootings. I was baffled by the thought of college students being murdered for protesting. Weren’t we supposed to protest? Wasn’t that part of what it was to be American?

It is, in fact, part of what makes us American. And I’m damn proud of that.

I’m proud of the brave protestors at the Stonewall riots. I’m proud of the people in Minnesota who protested against ICE and protected their neighbors. I’m proud of every single person on college campuses protesting the ongoing war in Gaza.

We are protestors. We always have been. We started this country by throwing tea in a harbour. And that patriot spirit lives on in us.

I am proud most of all of our writers. We have produced some of the most amazing writers the world has ever known. Some have been protestors as well, and some have just written honestly and deeply about how they’ve seen the world. Maya Angelou, Nellie Bly, Shirley Jackson, Lois Lowrey. Charles Ortleb, who founded The New York Native. Modern authors like Tananarive Due who remind us of our past. Authors like Upton Sinclair and Thomas Bell, who wrote about the horrors around them unflinchingly. There are a thousand more I’m forgetting, a thousand more I don’t even know about, and a thousand after that who are just getting started.

We can’t really love something unless we see it. All of it. I am well aware of our shared history. Of all the blood spilled on this land. I live on land originally inhabited by the native Lanape tribe. I live on land where there were bloody battles and Residential Schools. I live where people have been worked to death to rip coal from the ground.

But I also live where people have fought for freedom. Where we’ve aspired to mighty ideals that we haven’t yet reached. Where we stand up for our neighbors. And I’m proud to be an American. I am proud of my fellow Americans, not some false dream of pink houses.

So if you’re like me, and you’ve had a hard time feeling patriotic, here’s what I suggest. Do something patriotic. Stand up for your neighbors. Stand up for the immigrant, the LGBTQ+ community. Protect people of color. Protest when you can, however you can. Find joy in the little moments, even in these dark days. Visit your library, take food to your food bank. Shop small. And vote! For God’s sake, vote.

Happy Independence Day. Let Freedom live in your heart and show in your actions. Let’s work together to build a country we can all be proud of. Hopefully it won’t take us another 250 years to do it.

0

A WordPress.com Website.

Up ↑