Hi! I'm Kimberly. This website is my online home and commonplace book. A large language model called it "a digital diary that no one asked for." This front page houses a complete stream of all of my short notes, blog posts, and photos.

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Welcome!

๐Ÿ“ I’m doing a writing project currently and I set a goal of 10000 words but ran out of planned stuff to say at 5000, so today I added this to the document:

Because Iโ€™m not sure how to get the next 5000 words of this book out of me and because I donโ€™t want to read anything Iโ€™ve written until I hit my 10000 words, my goal now is to just freewrite 250 words about [the project’s topic] every day. Then maybe in that 5000 words there will be something that fits with the other 5000 words that I can use when all 10000 words are outside of me and Iโ€™ve stepped away for a bit and can come back with an editorโ€™s eye.

๐Ÿ”– Read What Is Mental Load? (And Why Is It Important?) by Randi Donahue (The Good Trade).

It feels a propos that I read this sitting in the dentist’s office a couple yards away from where my kid is getting sealant on his 6-year molars.

I’m lucky to have a partner who carries a lot of this load, but list-making and note-taking also help me immensely.

๐Ÿ“ I wanted to respond to Lars-Christian’s post asking what the point of daily writing is. Here’s what I said:

I wanted to let you know you’re not alone. With big creative projects, so many of us hit a point where it stops feeling worthwhile.

As Austin Kleon says, problems of output are problems of input. If you feel stuck, maybe reading something new would help.

Finished reading: Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole ๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: Kiss of a Demon King by Kresley Cole ๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: Dark Desires After Dusk by Kresley Cole ๐Ÿ“š

๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ I tore through this one so fast. I think it might partly be because the heroine is a PhD candidate.

Finished reading: Dark Needs at Night’s Edge by Kresley Cole ๐Ÿ“š

My favorite Immortals After Dark book so far. A burlesque dancer becomes a ballerina, ends up a ghost, and falls in love with a vampire who is trapped in the New Orleans Gothic manor that she haunts. ๐ŸŒน๐Ÿ‘ป๐Ÿฉฐ

Finished reading: Wicked Deeds on a Winter’s Night by Kresley Cole ๐Ÿ“š

๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ as always. Werewolves continue to not be my thing but I love witches.

Finished reading: No Rest For The Wicked by Kresley Cole ๐Ÿ“š

Listen, all these Immortals After Dark books are ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ, okay? That’s just what’s up. I like this one better than the one that came before it, definitely more my vibe.

I added “Citizen of Romancelandia.” to my bio everywhere.

๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ—จ๏ธ “This union was supposed to be for eternityโ€”it followed that their courtship would be extended.” - Kresley Cole, No Rest for the Wicked

See, that’s why W and I were together for 10 years before we got engaged. ("‘Til death do us part" is for quitters.)

Hello, Internet! I hope you have a great day today.

๐Ÿ“š This is your reminder that The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond is out today!

Book cover for The Frame-Up by Gwenda Bond

Taking a break from academia

I’m taking a deliberate break from all things academia and academia-adjacent.

I spent the past 2 years working on a big project as the key academic personnel on the project. It’s not done; when my contract ended, I had to hand it off to my colleagues. (We couldn’t extend the contract for administrative reasons.)

I’m sitting on a couple of freelance academic opportunities but as I think about pursuing them, I know it’s just not time yet. I can feel internal resistance and it’s telling me that after being in an academic headspace for more than 8 years, it’s time to do something different for a while.

Do I plan to come back to these freelance gigs and be available for academic contract work in the future? Yes. Do I plan to return to FanLIS and fan studies more broadly after I fill my well? Absolutely! But right now, that’s not where I’m at.

It’s kind of like taking a sabbatical.

I’m currently doing Leonie Dawson’s 40 Days to a Finished Book ecourse and I love this that she said:

It’s a collage of words.

You don’t have to start at the beginning and write until you get to the end.

(If you use the link above to buy the course, I may get a commission.)

Finished reading: A Hunger Like No other by Kresley Cole ๐Ÿ“š

Incredibly high spice level, all the chili pepper emoji ๐ŸŒถ๏ธ! A Valkyrie/vampire hybrid and a werewolf (there wolf) fall in love. I’m reading this as I listen along to the first season of Fated Mates.

Finished reading: The Truth About Dragons by Julie Leung ๐Ÿ“š

A 2024 Caldecott Honor winner.

Finished reading: Two New Years by Richard Ho ๐Ÿ“š

Winner of the 2024 Sydney Taylor book award.

Finished reading: Nacho y Lolita/Nacho and Lolita by Pam Muรฑoz Ryan ๐Ÿ“š

Pam Muรฑoz Ryan won the Childrenโ€™s Literature Legacy Award. This was where NoveList Plus recommended starting with her work.

Finished reading: Fox Has a Problem by Corey R. Tabor ๐Ÿ“š

Reading my way through this year’s American Library Association Youth Media Award winners. This won the Theodor Seuss Geisel Award for the most distinguished beginning reader book. It’s super cute.

Now I’m thinking about Odo’s maintenance of his humanoid form and how it can be read as an analog for neurodivergent masking. Like, he’s really trying to give back what he’s getting but it’s hard, okay? Faces are difficult. ๐Ÿ––๐Ÿป

๐Ÿ––๐Ÿป Odo is DS9!Data. (And I know, Data is TNG!Spock.)

Finished reading: Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas ๐Ÿ“š

A sizzling historical that has two refreshing leads: she’s a writer, not a bluestocking. He is a gambling club owner, not a duke.

What are you obsessed with right now? For me it’s the podcast Fated Mates, all things romance book-adjacent, and Parisian vibes.

The personal brand paradox wepresent.wetransfer.com

When a person aspires to be a brand, they forfeit everything that is truly glorious about being human.