About Me

Chickens

Autumn

Last year, someone living in the area got some chickens, then told me all about how good they are for gardens. I suspect that she imagined they’d carefully pick their way through the plant rows, eating pesky bugs and leaving fertilizing poop, so I burst her bubble by saying, “They will eat your vegetables.”

Come to think of it, that woman hasn’t spoken to me since, lol.

Actually, they don’t stop with vegetables. When you set up a chicken run, expect *everything* to die inside of it. And if you want to use the poop as fertilizer, then you need to compost it first — otherwise it will burn the plants and kill them.

Chickens aren’t a romantic pet in the slightest.

On that note: chickens are mean.

Really mean.

Our flock has taken to bullying one in particular, and I’ve had to separate her from the rest. This is actually a really common problem, and if left unchecked they won’t stop until the poor chicken is dead. Our little dear had a bloody comb when I pulled her from the coop, and was absolutely terrified of the others.

Interestingly enough, having a rooster prevents bullying, because he will manage the hens and keep them on their best behavior. Unfortunately, we aren’t allowed to keep roosters in our area because of the noise. Personally, I don’t think that they are any worse than dogs, but that’s how it is.

Chickens are fun, though. They’re definitely worth it if you can put up with everything. Just don’t expect them to maintain your garden for you.

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About Writing

Exploring What ifs

Autumn

I confess, when it comes to writing I often feel like I’m inserting things that most people are never going to notice.

Which is how The Scion Suit became a love triangle.

It’s not the stereotypical “Which guy will she choose?” sort of thing, though, because of the branching timelines. Carol never attempts to pursue both men in the same story arc. She’s not remotely the sort of character who would even think about doing such a thing, considering that she starts out completely asexual.

Aaaand I’m not remotely attracted to the sort of woman who plays/exploits multiple men. It’s a quirk of mine to write female characters that I would marry if I were a man, which drastically changes how everything plays out. Hence why Carol’s romantic prospects both make around $80~90k a year, and will never buy her any expensive cars or jewelry, lol.

Instead, it’s more about exploring a number of “what ifs”.

What if Carol’s human nature overrides the Commander?

What if Carol never gets back into the Suit?

What if Hartmann is the antagonist?

What if Lambert is the antagonist?

But since I’m not bluntly labeling each timeline with my underlying reason for writing it, I figure that most of my themes are going to slip by unnoticed. People are going to assume that I’m aiming for “Team Hartmann” vs “Team Lambert” and not realize that one of them works with the Commander, while the other fights against it.

Not to mention, Carol starts off as a blank slate, and the final shape of her personality depends on which man she interacts with the most, versus how much time she gets in the Suit.

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About Writing

Carol, again

Autumn

A bit of random trivia is that Carol was actually the name of the main character from the first novel I ever finished … when I was 14.

I technically still have the file, but it’s encrypted so it can never come back to haunt me, lol.

As you’d expect from a novel written by a 14-year-old, the main character was a Mary-Sue. She had unlimited magical abilities, fell head over heels for a handsome prince, but was tragically the daughter of The Evil Antagonist. So. Epic.

But, because I’m a MAJOR weirdo, I didn’t name her anything AWESOME like Silver Raventhorn or whatever.

I named her Carol.

Yeah … I dunno.

I guess I had a pragmatic streak back then, too.

My current Carol, with The Scion Suit, is not in any way related to or inspired by the original. I recycled the name because it fit as normal and average.

And maybe also as a nod to my teenage self.

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Video Games

Tamagotchi

Autumn

My 9-year-old made these stinkin’ cute Tamagotchi twins, then immediately had to marry them off.

I got a screenshot first.

About Me

A Rant About Adult Conversation

Autumn

I absolutely hate the stereotype that all stay-at-home moms are desperate for adult conversation.

Since I live in Utah, I mostly get this from Mormon men who seem to be desperate to prove to me that I chose an inferior lifestyle, compared to overwhelming joy and glory that comes with being underpaid and exploited by money-grubbing companies. Honestly, if I wasn’t so shy, I’d retort with, “Has your wife stopped beating you yet?” since they’re mostly a bunch of sissies married to hyper-controlling bullies. Why else would you go out of your way to be so condescending, if not because of insecurity?

Anyway

“Adult conversation” is usually excruciating, and for some bizarre reason it frequently revolves around Disney’s latest movie. Seriously. All the moms get together and immediately ask, “HaVe YoU sEeN dIsNeY’s LaTeSt MoViE?”

No.

I hate Disney.

I think that they’re one of those money-grubbing companies that exploits nostalgia for big profit. You know who said, “This movie would be so much better as a live action remake?” No one. So why did you all run out to watch a bright blue Will Smith desperately trying to imitate Robin Williams?

Answer: Nostalgia.

But that’s not the sort of thing that I’m allowed to conversate about with “adults”, because it tends to frighten and overwhelm them.

The only acceptable response is: “iT’s ReAlLy GoOd.”

And the script is so effing boring and brain dead that I don’t want to bother. I’m not the sort that makes mouth noise for its own sake.

With kids, on the other hand, I can say, “I like yellow flowers,” and we’ll play a game of listing off every yellow flower we can think of. It’s far more interesting and entertaining than “adult conversation.”

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About Writing

Carol

Autumn

In this post, I’ll be discussing spoilers for The Scion Suit. If you haven’t read it, I recommend you click the link and enjoy a free story.

The big reveal at the end of The Scion Suit is that the main character, Carol, is a “seed” for a bio-mechanical alien race, and she has a chip implanted in her brain stem that allows her to connect and interface with her mechanical body — aka the Suit. The idea behind her characterization is that she starts off as literally half of herself, and is consequently a fairly boring and one-dimensional individual. The more time she interfaces with the Suit, the more she develops into a full person.

With writing different story branches, I’ve had some time to emphasize that Carol doesn’t have much going on. She has no obvious hobbies or preferences, and can’t figure out how to occupy herself when she’s left to her own devices. Heck, she gets abruptly plucked out of her life and doesn’t miss anything about it.

I’m going to go ahead and confess something here:

I feel like I’m writing a normal, average real life person.

I want to believe that real people are more rounded than that, but unfortunately one of the poignant lessons of 2020 was that, when stuck at home with no where to go, a huge number of people will spend all day watching Netflix and not much else.

How disappointing.

But I guess that since this is my little fictional world, I can pretend that everyone is far more interesting than they are in the real one.

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