A friend tweeted that they had complicated feelings about writing awards (like the Hugos which just happened last weekend) but that they deleted their thread about it because they didn’t want to be judged for not being 100% happy. And I thought, “I’ll take this bullet.” Someone you don’t like Read more…
A friend of mine had recently gotten into cycling, and asked me, “I’m confused. Isn’t it that the lower a gear is, the more you have to pedal to move forward?” “Yes,” I said. “And higher gears allow you to go faster because each pedal push will turn the wheels Read more…
I first heard the phrase “A stitch in time saves nine” from the book by that name by Madeleine L’Engle, so it’s no wonder I assumed it had an esoteric and possibly magical meaning. I remember asking someone to explain it to me — my older sister? My mother? It Read more…
We have a salad vending machine at work. It was the cause of some excitement. “It’s like magic!” a co-worker said. “Robots making salad!” Except, every morning, a cafeteria worker was dicing up the ingredients to the machine’s specifications, and another worker came and filled the machine and cleaned it. Read more…
I am oddly proud of this click-bait-y headline, but I won’t bury the lede: It’s chores. Wait, wait, here me out! This is something I have stringently tested, a hypothesis I wanted to prove wrong, desperately, so I have done my due diligence, and the conclusion keeps repeating as valid: Read more…
As writers, we get to set everything up so that nothing is our hero’s fault; the villains are just BAD for no reason, and that can feel pleasurable. But, it’s a dangerous thing to do. Here’s why. Real evil comes from people like… me. Yes, me. Let me explain. Who Read more…
It may surprise you to learn that 99% of my anxiety at events is “what if I don’t recognize someone and they’re sad because I didn’t recognize them?” This has been my top worry since I was little Miss One Pro Story Sale. No, since before that. Since I was Read more…