Monthly Wrap-Up: February Edition

February has been both an exhaustive and exhilarating month. I have probably accomplished more in the last 29 days than I have in years. Here are just a few of my writing highlights:

• 29 Horror Tales
• 6 Drabbles (100 word stories)
• A solid month of small stones
• A new blog share called Hump Day Poetry

I have been participating in the following challenges and blog hops:

• Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG)
• Haiku Horizons
• Stream of Consciousness Saturday
• Friday Fictioneers
• Sunday Photo Fiction
• Writespiration
• Weekend Coffee Share
• Saturday 9
• Celebrate the Small Things
• Song Lyric Sunday
• Monday Musings
• The Sandbox Writing Challenge
• Share Your World
• Thursday 13

I also wrote some new poetry and haiku during the month, as well as some poetry that won’t be published on any of my blogs. I am saving those for my chapbook.

In stats:

• 102 new followers on Promptly Written
• 120 new followers on A Whispered Wind
• 27 new followers here on As the Fates Would Have It

I followed 403 new blogs on WordPress this month, 96 new blogs on Blogger and 3 new blogs on Weebly. Most of those are in anticipation of the A-to-Z Challenge in April.

In other news, I bought the following books in February:

• The Martian by Andy Weir
• Red Planet by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Green Planet by Kim Stanley Robinson
• Blue Planet by Kim Stanley Robinson
• The Martians by Kim Stanley Robinson
• AMBER WAKE: Gabriel Falling (The Razor’s Adventures Pirate Tales) by P.S. Bartlett & Ronovan Hester
• Mind Over Easy (Ted Saves the World #2) by Bryan Cohen
• Portal Combat (Ted Saves the World #3) by Bryan Cohen
• The Light, the Dark & the Ugly (Ted Saves the World #4) by Bryan Cohen

Currently I am reading:

• AMBER WAKE: Gabriel Falling (The Razor’s Adventures Pirate Tales) by P.S. Bartlett & Ronovan Hester
• The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury

Upcoming News for March:

I will be writing a month-long Noir-style serial over at A Whispered Wind

Well, that about wraps up my month of February.

What have you accomplished in February? Share your thoughts with me in comments.

 

 

 

02.29.16 – End of Day Notes

What I did today: Sleep was a fitful endeavor. My feet continued to burn and ache long into the night. I think I finally fell asleep around 3 am. Thus, I was late waking up this morning and probably would have remained asleep if there hadn’t been a knock on the screen door. The interloper was sent away and since I was now up, I remained up. I dove into my writing and managed to get all of it completed. The sun was bright and it was warm-ish today, so I sat out on the front porch for a bit. Now it is time to complete my notes for my upcoming story tomorrow.

What I learned today: My life is quite content and I am comfortable in my own skin.

What I am most proud of today: I finished all of my Horror Tales for February. 29 stories. Plus an extra Leap Day story. Life is good!

What did you do today? Learn any lessons? Have a reason to be proud? Share your thoughts with me in the comments!

#MondayMusings – Where Has the Love Gone?

Lately, I’ve been reflecting a lot on Loving-Kindness and Compassion. I’ve been researching some of the people who’ve inspired me over my life and most of them, in one way or another, practice these.

With the current political climate in the US, I wonder if any of the candidates on both sides of the aisle even know what these words mean. I see so much mudslinging and hatred coming out of the mouths of these would-be leaders. Where is the compassion for all life? Where is the love for those not like one’s self? None of these so-called great men or women even touch on these subjects. They choose to divide us by telling us all of the things that separate us from one another. It is no wonder that I am ambivalent about even voting these days. I’ve resolved that until there is a candidate who stands for love and compassion and runs a clean candidacy, then I will exercise my right not to vote.  I just cannot choose a lesser evil when they are all equally evil.

I long for the days of peacemakers like Martin Luther King, Jr., Gandhi and Robert Kennedy. Perhaps I am merely a dreamer. Perhaps these great men were mere angels sent here to guide us and found us not worthy. Perhaps this is why there are so few great peacemakers left in the world. And perhaps this is why I am drawn toward Eastern Philosophies and these practices of Mindfulness, Loving-Kindness and Compassion.

I would love to here YOUR thoughts on this. Please share them with me in comments.

---

 

I am also linking this to Inspire Me Monday

Come join us and share something Inspiring today!

Share Your World – 2016 Week 9

for Cee’s Share Your World

Have you done something you truly want to do today? Yes, I wrote this story and this one too. I’ve been anxiously anticipating both of them for weeks now.

What can you help the world with? by practicing loving-kindness and compassion every day

If life was ‘just a bowl of cherries’… which fruit other than a cherry would you be..? I would be a coconut. Hard outer shell, soft and sweet flakiness inside. You have to work to crack my hard, darkened outer shell, but once you get in, you will find a crazy sweet personality on the inside.

Quotes List: At least three of your favorite quotes?

• “Thou art to me a delicious torment.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. … We need not wait to see what others do.” ~Mahatma Gandhi
• “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why… I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?” ~Robert F. Kennedy

Bonus question:  

What are you grateful for from last week – for last week, I am grateful for all of the wonderful bloggers who have joined me on my journey of writing, for their likes and comments, for the dedication to my blogs.

and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? Tomorrow I begin a new writing journey. Into the dark, sinister world of Noir literature. I will be writing a WhoDunIt for the entire month of March. I am both excited and a bit nervous about the whole ordeal, but I like the challenge of it.