I've been told that I haven't blogged in a while an I need to. Firstly, here's why:
https://hawkandyoung.com - 6 free short stories and their shiny new covers!
https://hawkandyoung.wordpress.com - New author interviews, articles, and pleas for your help.
https://www.patreon.com/hawkandyoung - Support me and my co-author's writing endeavors!
https://rejectedmanuscripts.org/shortfiction/son-of-hades/ - vote for our short story to make it into an anthology!
I've been entering lots of writing contests, too. There are still 2 entries out waiting for rejections. :P
Soon I have to get back into my classroom and transform it for a new school year full of new challenges. I'm taking my summer break and LOVING the most out of it!
People ask me, 'do you have any big summer plans?' Well no, and while we sort of wanted to go to Holiday World this summer, which is like a 200 dollar day trip, we've had 2,000 dollars in medical bills to pay with 3 more on the way of an unknown amount.
Yes, with insurance. Except for the dog's heartworm treatment, we do not have pet insurance.
Blessings though, there was a time when 2,000 dollars would have been the end for us. We continue to struggle, yes, but it is not completely insurmountable. We will crawl out from under this and be okay.
But let's not dwell on the numbers, rather, let's look at us being healthy and making the most of our days.
Sunday the weather was perfect for a swim. Afterward I made a fire in the fire pit and there were no biting bugs, a cool breeze, and partly cloudy skies. It was perfection.
While I woke up with a headache today, I could sleep in. That small luxury alone is a huge blessing. I could read a book in comfort and not even get dressed. I could take a bubble bath or a nap. This is the kind of day I dream about having during the school year when I'm working and the weather changes and I feel crummy but I have to go to work and deal with my students also feeling crummy.
Before that happens, I want to use up the coupons in my wallet. I have all these little free food coupons I was gifted before I left school to places I don't normally go. Let's try something new! It could be a week of 'never leave your city' or 'staycation' trips where I and the boys pretend to be tourists in our own town. If they would go for that.
I want to keep having mini dates with hubby. Even though I sometimes complain that we never go where I want to go because we can't afford it, or he wouldn't enjoy it so I can't enjoy something I would have otherwise enjoyed (like parades, air shows, zip lining, or theme parks), I still enjoy talking to him about our book series, going to places, and being with him. He tells me that he takes me places just to be with me. If I can't go to Monday night Trivia, even though everyone else there is either his family or his friends, he says he won't go without me. I need a friend to go with me to some of those other places that he won't.
I want to paint a picture and color an adult coloring book page.
I want to read a bunch of books in my library. I'm reading Game of Thrones right now.
I want to work my butt off writing. Things are getting rejected, things are getting accepted. I'm making tons of new writer friends on Twitter and getting some awesome words down on "paper" every day.
Some days I wax poetic:
Hold onto me
and I'll hold onto you.
If I feel your grip
slacken a little in mine
My grip will fail
We'll both drift off into space
Angry, Baby
It's an angry day
dream in anger
Frustrations fall on deaf ears
It's an angry month
nightmares reign
Timelines don't sync up
Been an angry year
Money spent
Hopes faded to dark
What comes after anger?
Acceptance
Bring on the numbness
Or haiku:
Our story book ends
Dusk rainbow soft before night
New story begins
Sometimes I ponder myself and my values:
You say there is freedom in not tweeting what you were gonna say, but I shudder to think that you are dishonest with me. I get that some things are better left unsaid, but if it would change the course of history for the better, even brutal honesty has its place.
Sometimes I go back to high school:
I watched you open your locker from across the hall. You pulled out my note, started to unfold it. Your buddy jumped on your shoulder and you silently slid it into your pocket. My heart beats 'keep reading', 'keep reading' as I walk to class.
Sometimes I raise the temperature:
At a loss for words, your dripping chest emerges from the hot tub. "Join me?" Slowly, I strip off my clothes and take your hand to step into the bubbles, my temperature rising with more heat inside that out.
The offer dangled before him like the apple of Eve's sin. He wanted so badly to taste it, but hadn't yet decided which he would regret more, having done it, or having not. His head said turn away, but his body lusted forward. His heart was torn.
Beneath the brim of his black fedora, two brown eyes smoldered. My breath caught in my chest. A slow smile crept across my mouth as a blush colored my cheeks and I forced my eyes down. "You like my hat?" I wanted to fling myself at him and connect my lips with his.
Sometimes I'm random:
The plane began a tail spin, dropping out of the sky. My heart dropped with it as the pilot ejected. News media claimed the pilot was fine, but I looked at the bruised face attached to the hand I held in the army hospital, willing him to wake.
Gazing in wonder at your tiny fingers and tiny toes, thinking about how people congratulate me for making you, but you were not made by me. You are beautiful, full of hope and promise. I did nothing but carry you and I will carry you for the rest of your life.
Puckering up is lips in thought, he cocked his little head, then declared, "It means you have to say you're sorry?"
"While you should apologize for a mistake, it means you have to try again."
"Re-sil-ien-cy"
"Kids have it. Adults don't."
And then I dream:
I saw you and I found my feet flying towards you, huge smile bringing tears. First I hugged you, held you, felt your warmth and strength as some tears leaked out. I sniffed and blinked, backing up to look in wonder at your face. Was this real?
https://hawkandyoung.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/ellysian-empire-united-under-one-banner/
https://hawkandyoung.com - 6 free short stories and their shiny new covers!
https://hawkandyoung.wordpress.com - New author interviews, articles, and pleas for your help.
https://www.patreon.com/hawkandyoung - Support me and my co-author's writing endeavors!
https://rejectedmanuscripts.org/shortfiction/son-of-hades/ - vote for our short story to make it into an anthology!
I've been entering lots of writing contests, too. There are still 2 entries out waiting for rejections. :P
Soon I have to get back into my classroom and transform it for a new school year full of new challenges. I'm taking my summer break and LOVING the most out of it!
People ask me, 'do you have any big summer plans?' Well no, and while we sort of wanted to go to Holiday World this summer, which is like a 200 dollar day trip, we've had 2,000 dollars in medical bills to pay with 3 more on the way of an unknown amount.
Yes, with insurance. Except for the dog's heartworm treatment, we do not have pet insurance.
Blessings though, there was a time when 2,000 dollars would have been the end for us. We continue to struggle, yes, but it is not completely insurmountable. We will crawl out from under this and be okay.
But let's not dwell on the numbers, rather, let's look at us being healthy and making the most of our days.
Sunday the weather was perfect for a swim. Afterward I made a fire in the fire pit and there were no biting bugs, a cool breeze, and partly cloudy skies. It was perfection.
While I woke up with a headache today, I could sleep in. That small luxury alone is a huge blessing. I could read a book in comfort and not even get dressed. I could take a bubble bath or a nap. This is the kind of day I dream about having during the school year when I'm working and the weather changes and I feel crummy but I have to go to work and deal with my students also feeling crummy.
Before that happens, I want to use up the coupons in my wallet. I have all these little free food coupons I was gifted before I left school to places I don't normally go. Let's try something new! It could be a week of 'never leave your city' or 'staycation' trips where I and the boys pretend to be tourists in our own town. If they would go for that.
I want to keep having mini dates with hubby. Even though I sometimes complain that we never go where I want to go because we can't afford it, or he wouldn't enjoy it so I can't enjoy something I would have otherwise enjoyed (like parades, air shows, zip lining, or theme parks), I still enjoy talking to him about our book series, going to places, and being with him. He tells me that he takes me places just to be with me. If I can't go to Monday night Trivia, even though everyone else there is either his family or his friends, he says he won't go without me. I need a friend to go with me to some of those other places that he won't.
I want to paint a picture and color an adult coloring book page.
I want to read a bunch of books in my library. I'm reading Game of Thrones right now.
I want to work my butt off writing. Things are getting rejected, things are getting accepted. I'm making tons of new writer friends on Twitter and getting some awesome words down on "paper" every day.
Some days I wax poetic:
Hold onto me
and I'll hold onto you.
If I feel your grip
slacken a little in mine
My grip will fail
We'll both drift off into space
Angry, Baby
It's an angry day
dream in anger
Frustrations fall on deaf ears
It's an angry month
nightmares reign
Timelines don't sync up
Been an angry year
Money spent
Hopes faded to dark
What comes after anger?
Acceptance
Bring on the numbness
Or haiku:
Our story book ends
Dusk rainbow soft before night
New story begins
Sometimes I ponder myself and my values:
You say there is freedom in not tweeting what you were gonna say, but I shudder to think that you are dishonest with me. I get that some things are better left unsaid, but if it would change the course of history for the better, even brutal honesty has its place.
Sometimes I go back to high school:
I watched you open your locker from across the hall. You pulled out my note, started to unfold it. Your buddy jumped on your shoulder and you silently slid it into your pocket. My heart beats 'keep reading', 'keep reading' as I walk to class.
Sometimes I raise the temperature:
At a loss for words, your dripping chest emerges from the hot tub. "Join me?" Slowly, I strip off my clothes and take your hand to step into the bubbles, my temperature rising with more heat inside that out.
The offer dangled before him like the apple of Eve's sin. He wanted so badly to taste it, but hadn't yet decided which he would regret more, having done it, or having not. His head said turn away, but his body lusted forward. His heart was torn.
Beneath the brim of his black fedora, two brown eyes smoldered. My breath caught in my chest. A slow smile crept across my mouth as a blush colored my cheeks and I forced my eyes down. "You like my hat?" I wanted to fling myself at him and connect my lips with his.
Sometimes I'm random:
The plane began a tail spin, dropping out of the sky. My heart dropped with it as the pilot ejected. News media claimed the pilot was fine, but I looked at the bruised face attached to the hand I held in the army hospital, willing him to wake.
Gazing in wonder at your tiny fingers and tiny toes, thinking about how people congratulate me for making you, but you were not made by me. You are beautiful, full of hope and promise. I did nothing but carry you and I will carry you for the rest of your life.
Puckering up is lips in thought, he cocked his little head, then declared, "It means you have to say you're sorry?"
"While you should apologize for a mistake, it means you have to try again."
"Re-sil-ien-cy"
"Kids have it. Adults don't."
And then I dream:
I saw you and I found my feet flying towards you, huge smile bringing tears. First I hugged you, held you, felt your warmth and strength as some tears leaked out. I sniffed and blinked, backing up to look in wonder at your face. Was this real?
https://hawkandyoung.wordpress.com/2018/06/14/ellysian-empire-united-under-one-banner/