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What the ACA has meant to me
Before the ACA took effect, I paid $300 per month in premiums for an insurance plan with a $5000.00 deductible and no co-insurance until the deductible was met. I do not get insurance through my day job (with only two full time employees, it would cost my employer and myself and my coworker far more to…
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Photo Credit: Lauren Finkel Photography Flickr via Compfight cc The Comfort of Formula
I try to avoid formulaic stories when I write. Formulas are the opposite of original, after all, and originality is the thing we all strive for. When I intentionally use a trope, it is usually for the purpose of subverting or poking fun at it. As a consumer of media, however, I occasionally find formulaic…
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Photo Credit: Ken Kistler Photography No New Projects
I’m bad at finishing things. This is, I’m aware, a symptom of one of my sundry mental illness diagnoses, the constant starting of new projects and then losing steam/interest midway and abandoning them. It’s part of why I’ve always been more successful at writing short stories than anything longer form. But I’ve got a new…
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When Your Brain Rebels
I wasn’t doing great last week. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes my brain isn’t so much trying to kill me as it is trying to make me just not exist, or turn that existence into moving through an empty fog, where even getting up and doing anything seems to take monumental effort. That the House voted…
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American Gods Episode One
I’ve loved Neil Gaiman’s work since first stumbling on him in partnership with Terry Pratchett in Good Omens – a novel that I like to call a Gateway Drug to both authors. Gaiman’s writing often made me feel like he had a window into my own mind. It’s good to know you’re not the only one…
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Productivity for the Hopelessly Unproductive
I am hopelessly unorganized. Not just the typical level of lax organization either. I am scatterbrained and easily distracted, so I have trouble remembering things I need to remember to do. Or pick up at the store. Or. Well, anything I have to remember, really. There isn’t a productivity system out there that I haven’t…
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This Is My Captain America The Story of a Comic Book Fan
Somewhere around 1994 I walked into my first comics shop. I and my friends had traveled to the nearest college town to visit the arcade and go to the movies, as our little country town had next to nothing to entertain a bunch of kids on a weekend afternoon. I was a high school freshman,…
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Gaming For Anxiety Relief
I’m a big fan of Jenny Lawson a/k/a The Bloggess (if you deal with mental health issues or care for someone who does, you should REALLY read [amazon_textlink asin=’1250077028′ text=’Furiously Happy’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’meadhbh-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’2b94be5d-25eb-11e7-a930-6bd49afac93e’] ) and as a result, I tend to spend a lot of time hanging out in the #BloggessPals hashtag on Twitter just…
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#ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear
Joann Harris (author of [amazon_textlink asin=’0140282033′ text=’Chocolat’ template=’ProductLink’ store=’meadhbh-20′ marketplace=’US’ link_id=’0f712fd9-2457-11e7-8403-6d541317d711′]), started a little hashtag on Twitter Tuesday morning that’s been trending all day: #ThingsOnlyWomenWritersHear. I may have been glued to it a while. Sometimes it’s nice to know you’re not alone. The most common thing I get is “Wait, you write sci-fi/fantasy? Not romance?” I…
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Photo Credit: DaPuglet Flickr via Compfight cc Write Things You’ll Never Publish
Only about 33% of what I write is ever actually intended for publication. I know what you’re thinking: “But Mavey, darling, there’s only so much time in the day and I need to get paid.” Don’t we all. With a full-time job, half a dozen pets, a handicapped mother that I’m the primary caregiver of, and…
Got any book recommendations?