Midlife Updates (Oct 2023)

OCT = Pumpkins and Preptober!

This season, the powers of light have bestowed upon our region…an additional Municipal Liaison. *insert hysterically happy tears here* In case you missed the three years of failed updates over here (cough, cough), I’ll fill you in:

LIFE HAS BEEN WEIRD! And busy. And…shutdown-y. 

And if all that wasn’t enough, I decided a toddler and a new business weren’t keeping me busy enough in 2021 — so I applied for (and was accepted into) the lay preaching class in my diocese. It was a two year long commitment to learn how to faithfully and accurately deliver the gospel according to the lectionary calendar, as well as how to minister to our communities in the ways that best aligned with our gifts. It was amazing, and…not a walk in the park.

Now I finally feel like I can give energy back to my writing in the way I always meant to previously, and sometimes actually was able to do.

I have been mentally planning my November NaNoWriMo project, which is even less #pantser of me than usual. I still don’t have anything written as far as a plan, outline or characters but considering that I haven’t written anything for my own heart and soul in the last four years, I’ll take it.

This year’s project will be a fantasy genre novel with themes of love, death, identity, mental health, and time/lines. I haven’t decided yet if it belongs in the as of yet unnamed anthology of recent years’ works. I guess we’ll find out when we start laying words to the page.

See you soon,

KHS

#WIPtember v.2020

Welcome to WIPtember. If you’re new to this concept, I’ll give you a little lowdown: prompts, daily ones.

I started this endeavor last year, but never finished. I got completely overrun by NaNo Prep and abandoned ship. But this year, nay nay I say. We shall finish.

So, let’s go. Day One. Seems a little odd to do an intro on *my* blog, when you clearly could click my Bio link, but for the sake of continuity…

WRITER INTRO: Aging punk rocker with two adult kids and a toddler, living in rural New York. I used to write to fight the patriarchy. Now, I write to keep my sanity. My style is paranormal voyeurism.

Camp NaNoWriMo April 2020

April 1, 2020 – Wednesday

No fooling…It’s that time again!

I will be posting regular motivational content at the #FLXwrimo Instagram, as well as our Facebook group. If you need the links, send me a DM or comment!

April is the 1st of two Camp NaNoWriMo events every year & they are much more laid back than November’s nano event. Pick a goal of any size and smash it!

This time around, I’m editing my nano2019 work-in-progress which is a paranormal fiction novel about a family in the Finger Lakes of Upstate NY (what?! How odd! Haha) that finds its members each challenged by a medical event that blurs the lines of reality, dreamscapes & the afterlife.

If you need an escape from social distancing and Covid19 talk, may I suggest you tell your story?

Exciting News!

Exciting news! I was just made a NaNoWriMo Municipal Liaison for the Finger Lakes Region!

If you’re in the area and either already a WriMo, or want to become one, look us up on the forums!

In case you’re not familiar with NaNoWriMo, let me expand on this a little.

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month, and is a free program and community for writers of all experience levels. The basic goal is to write a complete first draft novel during the month of November. It’s a community effort of group write-ins, word sprints and mentoring, both online and in person. It is a growing experience and a safe space for creative expression.

NaNo is broken up into regions for promotion, support, and other benefits. The Finger Lakes region is basically Cayuga, Ontario, Seneca, Tompkins, Yates and Wayne, NY counties. The ML is the coordinator for the Regional events. During NaNo (November) & the camps (April & July) they organize meet ups, write-ins, social events, etc. They are also the moderator(s) of their regional forum.

I’m still unpacking all of the information, but I wanted to shout this out. More to come, soon!

KHS