Kimberly Hirsh

Finished reading: Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell 📚

I really enjoyed this! Sad boys falling in love in space.

📺🍿 How I Met Your Mother co-creator Craig Thomas wrote about the influence the movie A Christmas Story had on the show.

I replied with this:

This has me thinking about the voice-over narration in The Wonder Years, beautifully done by Daniel Stern. A Christmas Story (which for years my dad would put on for its 24-hour marathon) came out in 1983. The Wonder Years ran 1988-1993. What other films and shows use this device? (I think maybe 8-Bit Christmas does?) Are they all doing the same thing with it? What does it do that stories without flashback voiceover don’t? I would read the heck out of a smart pop culture essay about this.

Finished reading: Whiteout by Adriana Anders 📚

Like if The Thing, that Antarctica episode of The X-Files, and a Michael Crichton book all had a baby with a romance novel. So, you know, pretty great.

🔖 Read HTML Is Actually a Programming Language. Fight Me by Tim Carmody (Wired)

Carmody and I came to HTML within a year of each other, both via Netscape, and I love this love letter to my favorite programming language (yes, I love HTML more than BASIC). Count me in as part of HTML’s posse.

Finished reading: The Earl Takes All by Lorraine Heath 📚

A wild premise deftly handled.

Finished reading: Falling Into Bed with a Duke by Lorraine Heath 📚

Lorraine Heath knows the job. Minerva Dodger is a delightful heroine.

💬📚📝 “…a story’s as much house or garden as song.” Jane Alison, Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative

I’m very psyched that a local romance lover is launching a mobile romance-focused bookstore. She’s launched an Indiegogo to help her get over the finish line. Please consider contributing!

Finished reading: Romancing the Beat by Gwen Hayes 📚

A very useful and straightforward book about romance novel structure.

📚💬📝 “…what are we writers but Machiavellian manipulators of a stranger’s emotions?” Gail Carriger, The Heroine’s Journey

Finished reading: The Heroine’s Journey: For Readers, Writers, and Fans of Pop Culture by Gail Carriger 📚

This is a great book about story structure that helped me understand, among other things, why Jean-Luc Picard is my favorite Star Trek captain.

Finished reading: A Duke Worth Falling For by Sarah MacLean 📚

I love Sarah MacLean so much.

Life is a lot right now. I give you permission to take a harm reduction approach to literally anything you need to. Taking some supplements is better than taking none. Eating unhealthy food is better than not eating. You’re doing your best and I see you.

I haven’t been writing much lately, something that has special irony since on Sunday I took Sarah MacLean’s Start Your Romance Novel Today class. (Reader, I did not start my romance novel that day. Or rather, I started playing with several ideas for romance novels. But did not get any words down.)

I haven’t been writing for REASONS and reasons, but I think it would be good for me to blog a bit.

It’s just a hard time right now, you know? I subscribed to too many newsletters with action alerts. I think I need to scale back to just Bull City Indivisible. It’s just that they recommended all these other ones. But now I get overwhelmed and don’t read any of them, and that’s no way to be active in my community.

I hadn’t really thought of migraines as a condition where I have flares, but I’m beginning to, because I get these status migraines that go on and on. I’m seeking better treatment for them than I ever have before, and that’s promising, but still not enough.

I’m going to go put away laundry soon. That’s a thing I can do that will make my and my family’s world a little better.

I’m a big pile of meh today.

Finished reading: The Worst Best Man by Mia Sosa 📚

Cute rom-com with a heroine who has put walls around her heart and has to learn when to open the gate and let someone in.

Finished reading: To Catch a Raven by Beverly Jenkins 📚

Another awesome heroine.

💬📚 “You wouldn’t be a writer if reading hadn’t enriched your soul more than other pursuits.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “Don’t be afraid of your material or your past. Be afraid of wasting any more time obsessing about how you look and how people see you. Be afraid of not getting your writing done.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “Lighthouses don’t go running all over an island looking for boats to save; they just stand there shining.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Finished reading: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott 📚

A classic for a reason.

Finished reading: Anything You Want by Derek Sivers 📚

💬📚 “I don’t think you have time to waste not writing because you are afraid you won’t be good enough at it, and I don’t think you have time to waste on someone who does not respond to you with kindness and respect.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “… everything we need in order to tell our stories in a reasonable and exciting way already exists in each of us.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “Take the attitude that what you are thinking and feeling is valuable stuff, and then be naive enough to get it all down on paper.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

💬📚 “Writing is about hypnotizing yourself into believing in yourself, getting some work done, then unhypnotizing yourself and going over the material coldly.” Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life