Category: About Me

The Rules:

• Thank the blogger/s who nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
• Write a post to show your award.
• Give a brief story of how your blog started.
• Give two pieces of advice to new bloggers.
• Select up to 15 other bloggers you want to give this award to.
• Comment (or pingback) on each blog and let them know you have nominated them and provide the link to the post you created

Thank you Kat, from The Lily Cafe for the nomination!

The story:

I’m currently in writing binge mode, which (true to the stereotype) is making me ditzy about everything else. So, forgive me for the weird things that I’m inevitably going to say.

I created my blog during the summer of 2012, while my husband and I were living off-grid with our first newborn. I was in an alternate world back then — talking to trees to predict the future sort of stuff — so I can’t for the life of me remember why I did it; I just know that “Autumn Rain” was intended to be highly symbolic and infused with magic for my lifelong desire to be a writer. I sure wish I knew what was going through my mind, but I trust that I set myself up with the right thing.

Ultimately, I traded psychic ability for a laundry machine, because my body couldn’t keep up with the amount of physical labor that was required with the resources that were available. Consequently, I now eat too much junk food, exercise too little, and rarely have a clue what the breeze is trying to say. I’m always telling myself that I know better.

I didn’t post at all until 2017. By that point I had three babies, and I realized that the planets were never going to align and give me space to focus on writing — I had to carve some out for myself. So I started Light Eternal, and published occasional posts to my blog. In 2019, I decided that it was time to become serious about it all, and started updating regularly. It’s amazing how many superfluous activities I was able to cut out of my day in order to find the time, and now I’ve got a good routine going.

Hey, I told you it was going to be weird.

My advice:

1. JFDI

Life is never going to be perfect, and the work is never going to be done, but don’t ever let that stop you.

2. Blog about what you love, because you love it.

The goal shouldn’t be monetization, because then you’re setting yourself up for burnout. This is something that I say about fiction writing as well: you are your most important audience, and your main focus should be on keeping yourself entertained. Basically, have fun.

I’m going to skip out on nominating anyone. I have a neurotic character named Carol who needs to have some adventures in a mechanical Suit from outer space, and quiet time only lasts for so long.

Normally I don’t blog about super personal information, but I’m in the mood so why not.

This last week I developed a blood clot in my leg. It’s a superficial one and responding quite well to basic home treatments, so I’m not very likely to die (though it is still painful). Honestly, I’ve known for my entire life that I inherited poor circulation in my lower extremities, but I kind of assumed it would never amount to anything worse than chronically cold feet. At least while I’m still in my 30s, you know? But blood clots does explain why I would periodically get fingerprint-sized bruises in random spots on my legs.

The event managed to hit me right in the emotions.

Unfortunately, a few days prior to this happening, my husband commented that I’ve been getting a lot of migraines lately, and I had an “Oh shit” moment. A number of things that I had attributed to a combination of stress and sleep deprivation could actually be signs of mini strokes, so I’m pretty freaked out. If I’ve been getting blood clots in my legs, then there’s a chance of getting them in my brain. I do not want to have a stroke and turn into a vegetable. I like being the way I am, and using my mind as much as I do. Everything I want in life revolves around being a functional person.

Angst angst angst.

At the very least, I did let a few of my usual habits slip over the winter, so hopefully getting off my butt and back into daily exercise in will help improve my health, with a strong imperative of “DON’T BE LAZY AGAIN.”

I am not remotely thrilled at being prone to this sort of problem.

All right, I’ve been in a mood lately.

I can’t help but feel that time is running out, and there’s some large scale comeuppance in the works.

Could be anxiety, or even wishful thinking.

My last oracle card reading was actually extremely positive. As in, “You’ve been biting your tongue for awhile, but now is the time to co-create with the Universe!”

And the dark part of me mumbles, “You always say ‘co-create’. It doesn’t mean anything.”

But the description for one card explicitly named another card in the spread, so there was definitely some magic afoot.

You know, I used to never be skeptical. My husband and I survived 2011 on a mixture of miracles and penny fumes, and you’d think after that I’d never question anything again. Unfortunately, the human spirit is prone to fear and doubt, especially when things have been good for awhile.

But who knows.

I just can’t stop the feeling that time is running out, and it’s becoming enormously distracting and agitating.

I think this egg is the winner, but no one will claim responsibility for it.