Trying on a new epithet: librariacafan.

Still drafting the first chapter, but it has a cover and a summary…

The Watchers Council had made certain promises. First, that Rupert Giles would have no trouble getting his cover job as the new school librarian at Sunnydale High School. Second, that this role would require minimal actual librarianing, which was a good thing, as he had been rather distracted during his library studies coursework what with all the simultaneous advanced Watcher training. And third, that he would not have to deal with teenagers other than the Slayer herself.

The Watchers Council had lied.

Miserable human beings who you wouldn’t want to spend a second with in real life are capable of making something great that is beautiful or useful to you.

Making a note to myself to come back to this Austin Kleon blog post and write about it in relationship to connected parenting.

I’ve fallen down an internet rabbit hole! My current work = reading about cosplay. Cosplay is part of fandom, and I feel disconnected from fandom so I started listening to Fansplaining to get me back in touch, and that took me to Wattpad, and then I started reading a Wattpad blog post that linked to Fanlore (which I already knew about but have never explored in-depth) and now I guess I’m going to just die of starvation while reading all of Fanlore? But also, please stay tuned for details about my upcoming fic, Rupert Giles, Actual School Librarian.

Why Do I Have to Choose Between Being a Writer and Being a Mother?

We need narratives about women artists that don?t position family and craft as mutually exclusive

electricliterature.com

I read this piece today and felt inspired, so I’m curating a monthly newsletter about creative mothers.

I could learn to repair drywall and fix sinking bathroom tile but for now I’m just going to believe handypeople are magic.

Just submitted my first draft of my first chapter of my comps lit review to my committee for feedback, so it’s probably time for another high five.

You can tell I’m approaching middle age because I think of my car as my new car and I just got an email from CarMax saying I bought it 5 years ago today.

I found this Man Repeller post via  the Holisticism newsletter. (One of my favorite reads every week.) It captures one of the important ideas I’ve been working with for several weeks now.

As I was trying to settle on a word for 2019, I went looking to a couple of oracle decks for inspiration: Lucy Cavendish’s Oracle of the Mermaids and Oracle of the Dragonfae. I didn’t find my word there, but I did pull one card from each deck that caught my eye and seemed like it captured some energy I wanted to live in 2019.

From the Oracle of the Mermaids, Sanctuary:

and from the Oracle of the Dragonfae, Melusine:

I didn’t know until I read the card descriptions in the deck guidebooks that Melusine is actually the mermaid depicted in Sanctuary. So I chose Melusine twice.

Who is Melusine?

If you’re big into mermaid mythology, you know her already. And even if you aren’t, you probably do, because this is her, too:

You can read her legend at Wikipedia if you want. But here are the two things I’m taking away from Melusine:

1. That I do need to enforce more boundaries. I'm lucky to have a lot of family support, so I do get a fair amount of me-time as compared with most moms of young children, but I don't use it wisely and I want to start doing that.
2. That I need to really lean into being myself. In any version of the story, Melusine and her loved ones face the consequences of keeping a part of yourself hidden as well as of not respecting boundaries. Enforcing boundaries and being yourself can be balanced, and I want to work on that balance.