Well, kind of, anyway. It’s been an interesting year, this 2026, aside from all the *waves hands in panic* that everybody here in the US is dealing with, I’ve also been really trying to lean into having FUN with my art. If I had to pick a word to describe this year’s theme for creative endeavors, it’s
Those of you who get either the digital or limited-edition physical copy of my monthly newsletter, The Oddscope, will recognize a lot of the stuff here, because I’ve done a surprisingly good job (for me) of keeping up that venture. I think it’s the mixed-media. I cut and paste, I collage, I draw, I doodle–which means each month, I’m EXCITED to put it together and see what weird form it takes.
Somehow making it sloppy and wild and weird is exactly what I needed to get myself to the page and actually look seriously at what I accomplished each month. It’s been a great way to force me to take note of achievements and progress, which otherwise I would let slip into the murk of my memory.
So now I’m looking at how I can bring that energy a bit more to this website, and in part, I think that means more drawings, more photos, and more
Because who doesn’t like to try to decipher my scrabbly handwriting?
June is always a challenging month creatively. There are a lot of unusual school event days that disrupt my morning routines and end up leading to a bunch of scheduling shifts, which I find especially difficult. My exercise routine gets interrupted, my daily habits that keep the house running smoothly tolerably fall apart, and I tend to get somewhat stressed out.
So I do a lot of knitting to keep my cool, which does work, but is also kind of a time suck in the middle of the day. So I made my “Could Do” list which is a checklist of all the creative-type things I want to touch everyday, namely: 1) writing, 2) reading, 3) drawing, 4) knitting, 5) submissions work, 6) monthly project, 7) piano practice. Doing a little bit–any little bit1–will result in getting a shiny start sticker for a PERFECT ART DAY which I cannot dispute and say, “Yeah, I mean, I guess, but…” I did ALL THE THINGS, so it’s PERFECT, and that’s that. (If I get a star for a perfect creative day AND a Pokémon sticker (these ones!) for my daily chores, THEN I get to buy myself a book, but this is a rare confluence).
At any rate, it gets me to remember there are things OTHER than knitting that I actually want to do, and so far, it’s worked really well. It’s been interesting to find that when I’m drawing/painting a lot, I write less, and when I’m writing more, I draw less. It’s a weird binary that I can’t quite understand, because I’m not a happy person when I don’t write, and while I can go longer without doing art before I start to crack, I do eventually crack, so I need to engage in that regularly, too. It’s something I’m studying about myself at the moment.
THIS MONTH’S PROJECT is PROJECT: PIPE-FLUSH, which is a (quite) ambitious challenge for me to get a bunch of ideas out of my head ASAP, or more specifically, once a day, every day, aside from weekends. In short: 22 rough drafts by the end of the month.
THAT SOUNDS CRAZY, but in fact, I’m aiming for drabble to flash fiction length work, so between 100-1000 words generally, with a few absolutely going over because I can’t not. I’m also making sure I remember this is a GAME challenge. I don’t beat myself up if I don’t get a day’s flash done. It happens. Like this past week, I had one kiddo home for 4 out of 5 workdays, and a birthday part on the fifth day for the other one, but I managed to get two <500 word stories written, and one that clocked in at close to 4k. Did I get frustrated that I didn’t get all 5 stories written? No. Will I try to get all five done this coming week? You betcha!
Will they all be publishable? Ehhhhhhhh, we’ll see. Probably a few of them will be solid enough to polish up and get out to various markets. A good chunk will probably be ones I’ll put up for my upcoming FRIDAY FLASH summer project (where I post a flash story here every Friday for fun and to keep my hands on writing while the boys are home). Now I kinda want to call the summer feature the SUMMER FICTION DRIVE-IN, because somehow that sounds fun and summery. I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
In brief other news:
- My short story, “Two Nights at the Dollhouse,” is out in Luna Station Quarterly, which you can get here!
- And if you’re a member of the Creepy Podcast Patreon, you can still listen to my short story about the struggles of being a reactive dog owner, “The Walkers,” over there!
- I’ve also got a few new zines (and some very silly ones!) up on my Etsy shop, The Placebo
- I forgot to mention, that my HIDEOUS SELF-PORTRAITS VOL 1 was accepted to ZINE MACHINE for their SUMMER EDIT! I cannot wait for this issue to come out–it’s so freaking cool what they’re doing!
Here’s to a fun summer, some flash fiction, and some more regular posting!
- I WILL DIE ON THE EM-DASH HILL. The AI can have it when they pry it from my cold, dead, human hands (which they’re going to struggle to do for quite a while until they’ve developed decent robot hands or hacked someone’s neural node to control their physical body!). In fact, if you feel the same way, you can check out my AI-defiant zine, IN DEFENSE OF THE EM-DASH, on my Etsy shop! ↩︎