A haven for creative people living with mental illness. This is the place where you can tell it like it is, not yet another place where you have to pretend to be someone you've been told you should be.
Friday, July 19, 2024
Fat Friday: Handsome Sam's Closet
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Monday, July 15, 2024
Who the Hell Said You Could Write?
I honestly thought I published this post three days ago. I think I'm losing what was left of my mind.
I can’t recall
I later learned that my father hoped I would become a professor of Middle English because of my early interest in the subject. I was a precocious
Scarier still, I
These days I find myself wishing I could
I can’t do that, though. I don’t have any sort of time machine or portal spell that will allow me to journey to the past and talk sense to my
I grew up in New Mexico. I learned to hate fire ants early on. I’m surprised I haven’t written a horror story about fire ants yet. Or maybe I’m not. I really don’t care
I’m
Word Nerd Bonus
If you'd like to see a comparison between the first draft of this post and the finished version, hop over to Readers Roost.
https://ornerybookemporium.blogspot.com/2024/07/shameless-self-promotion-inspiration.html
I removed 50 filler words and restructured sentences and paragraphs to enhance clarity and readability. Both versions of the post convey the same message, but the second one does so more efficiently.
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Wednesday, July 3, 2024
Insecure Writers Support Group 3 July 2024
July 3 question - What are your favorite writing processing (e.g. Word, Scrivener, yWriter, Dabble), writing apps, software, and tools? Why do you recommend them? And, which one is your all-time favorite that you cannot live without and use daily or at least whenever you write?
This post contains affiliate links
I have Scrivener. It's a quality program, but I find it difficult to
As it happens, I
I discovered the benefits of AutoCrit's many free workshops and pro member
Follow my link to
QuickWrite isn't productivity software, but I use it often as an adjunct tool. I mostly use it for tasks such as generating title ideas (for some reason, I suck at this) or creating a story prompt for me to hone down all the wild ideas that start circulating in my head when the time comes to write a new story. You can check it out here and see if it can help you too.
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
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Friday, June 7, 2024
The Big O: Overwhelmed, That Is
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Wednesday, June 5, 2024
Insecure Writers Support Group 5 June 2024
June 5 question - In this constantly evolving industry, what kind of offering/service do you think the IWSG should consider offering to members?
Why are you asking me to do this "thinking" stuff so early in the day? It's still three minutes before the crack of noon! 😉
Anyway, I've narrowed it down to a list of ten items.
1. Book marketing and promotional services
2. Author branding and platform building
3. Manuscript editing and proofreading
4. Publishing consultation and guidance
5. Industry networking opportunities
6. Book cover design and formatting services
7. Distribution and sales support
8. Author website and social media management
9. Reader engagement strategies
10. Book launch event planning
11. Copyright and legal assistance for authors
12. Self-publishing support and resources
13. Author workshops and training programs
14. Translation and foreign rights representation
15. Author mentorship programs
You could compile a bank of volunteers and also a directory listing professionals who specialize in the above services. For instance, I am a line and copy editor who is a member of ACES. Volunteering my services would help me connect with potential repeat clients, so it would be a win-win situation.
In the meantime, anyone who is interested can check out my services and prices through the following link.
https://ornerybookemporium.blogspot.com/p/ornery-literary-services.html
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Thursday, May 2, 2024
Insecure Writers Support Group 1 May 2024
May 1 question - How do you deal with distractions when you are writing? Do they derail you?
I'll just answer this with brevity in a way that explains everything.
I have ADHD.
Distraction is my middle name.
However, I can also be hyperfocused.
So, to sum things up, the answer is yes and no.
It's the story of my life.
Oh look, a squirrel!
Anyway, sorry I'm late with this. I had a bad reaction to the latest COVID shot, was running a high fever, and was so weak I needed help to put laundry into the machine and to make some Jello for my woozy stomach.
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
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Saturday, April 27, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 26: Zeroing In
This character's name is Zero Two Darling. She's what came up when I did a search for zeroing in on Pixabay. She's a human klaxo sapien hybrid, and you can read more about her here.
https://darling-in-the-franxx.fandom.com/wiki/Zero_Two
We’re zipping to the end of this challenge and also to the end of the month. I need to zero in on not being a slavedriver with myself because it zaps the zest from activities I have a zeal for.
I’m also sticking a fork in the Camp NaNoWriMo challenge for April 2024. There will be another Camp NaNoWriMo in June, and I’ll do that one too because I’m a masochist.
It’s 10:30 and I need to get my Zs.
I hope I sleep better tonight than last night.
It seems sleep and I are seldom on the same page.
~Ornery Owl Has Zpoken~
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter Z](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaQlEK4-VjYLpNPFqwM3oJmDzCycjoxkblFw3GvoFQU_Uuhk2Y7k_ei_r26P-l0qO5ZYhpgVNMuI0FhANUuUDzkSIvy5_vXsTNI1bbn8-udIMZCjJXyQxR105lCYH6gqGwUC3MPzoXfzGTwSJCI4T-eikWzI2JIEeBI_hnu6ZKzS7u2OC5-o5go8Sog3_V/s320/z.jpg)
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Friday, April 26, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 25: Youth
The days of my youth are long behind me, but the things that happened then still affect my life. I suppose this must be true for everybody. While reading William Shatner’s autobiography, I noticed that he and I have something in common: difficulty establishing and maintaining friendships.
Like me, Bill (I think he’d be all right with me calling him Bill) had a difficult childhood, always having to defend himself from bullies. Unlike me, he has been very successful in other areas of his life. He never seems to have slid into self-loathing as I did. Is this the difference?
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter Y](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiUuza196xXqNshZfyfYKz7JrOi3uN3N9cvfFy3WmsZAXUmahOEctHExOV2DRsnTxt_PeBHR3lqXUDbcahfFvTVEJvuV1C6CY2_-FoBhyphenhyphenUa5xctWHppVNwflIcPdkfrNcUMobDsfj0RfVk6cFKPexSTEA42w62x7nU_mYs8cBA6W00cS_A310Xh6Kn5gxF/s320/y.jpg)
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Thursday, April 25, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 24: Xenomorphs Forever
I stopped writing in 2007 due to fallout from my disastrous first attempt at becoming a published author. When I started writing again in 2012, I only intended to write Aliens fan fiction for myself because people suck and Xenomorphs are wicked cool.
Fan fiction is real writing. Even the cringeworthy self-insert fics I wrote as a young teenager and would have to kill you if you discovered them.
Writing fan fiction saved my life more than once, no joke.
Much of what I write these days could be classified as Cthulhu Mythos fan fiction.
I’m absolutely okay with that.
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter X](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXhv5XYTRRO_FPV5mVXjl3efIeM4uEaRBsXEMG3jzk4d8lEa7aCK6Yt8QCgTrBQeh3X6txqWQb_jcvo5Rlmk_7_nd-0IHk-iFmkjSUrqwl01cVN37dta9hUACtLQu2rY_Y2cLGZ5rX5TXZal5u1MAkeiS9G-SJiKpW93MwcyMNnjxKTI5rT2VlxEgPrRfp/s320/x.jpg)
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Wednesday, April 24, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 23: Weird
I’m my own special brand of weird.
Back in school, I wasn’t smart enough to belong with the academic nerd brigade, but I was too nerdy to belong with the self-proclaimed rebels without a cause.
I’ve been trying in vain for decades to find a niche in which to fit, only to learn time and time again that I don’t fit in with any of them.
I’m an acquired taste that most people don’t acquire.
Even when people don’t treat me poorly, I’m aware that they’re just being polite.
I’m a curiosity.
Sometimes studied, often ridiculed.
I don’t belong anywhere.
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter W](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwBOgSps2USW8b3qF_MnfEenvWQNVK7Z7lQVX9c71Otbl8yucyADPOc6qeqjjrreZ_-UivNthcUAmLcSynMpbGUiPZtBnegc3ApihNv6Fp8vmlrBvhRlbDEDzeKzOcd_raxpfBKDzwQCzdO-Xr-uGPID-OwejMAtx7dEpZ9XPjJFjXeuBpSfkqmcwD2dJO/s320/w.jpg)
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Tuesday, April 23, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 22: Vanity
I struggle with the belief that artistic pursuits are self-serving vanity. I sometimes find myself thinking I am exaggerating my disabilities to get out of working a “real job.” However, I always struggled with trying to keep myself from having a mental breakdown when I worked a “real job.”
I was never able to work the sorts of hours that my family approved of. I would become severely depressed after a couple weeks working day shifts. I usually opted for jobs with evening and night hours. The types of jobs I worked were always physically demanding, such as health care.
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter V](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQcZSVz0nRmquzb-U-CT0UKzT2_HALlBfrT1mUbIcuuSMsyC3a7rm04-Nmi-TH6Ia1jRzbVF3e4f243tygD-KUr2MwDeZZMU9cHtTToh5bQb33wT4VwhG6TR5igpXaNPkLHO-J7WbAN8jofoZYk6TXmsQtxqrr7K_PtWc5rbLtlXP-IgFtgC2J6ULjSU2D/s320/v.jpg)
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Monday, April 22, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 21: Ugly
I’ve been called ugly many more times than I could possibly count. Admissibly, I am far from a paragon of physical beauty. It is likely I could aptly be described as looking like the back end of a bus. However, I feel it is necessary to pose a question. Is someone’s lack of perceived attractiveness an acceptable reason to belittle and ridicule that person, turning them into a scapegoat for your own feelings of inadequacy?
Is having a plain face and a body perceived as being either too fat or too thin, too short or too tall reason for disdain?
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter U](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdz3DzWKfJy1sac5lYzr0-CodTVSUfrukZvcK-NEhOsjbqC0ssshbmkA3f6ji4_k6zVLhrPbsjvqxV2r2YpG2WuVPvyLKnClopCEacqC9xdSajlrLE2dgVYhABtbhzIJk9gRsLJxM0pBIcjEYOu7ylKOTPWKClHG-Q8uzkr84kXAjobMw-tguw3RbClRj7/s320/u.jpg)
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Saturday, April 20, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 20: Tricky
When I was younger and believed God/the Universe/whatever was on my side despite the mountain of evidence to the contrary, I reckoned I would one day magically turn into a confident and clever person with an impressive and unexpected solution for any problem. There would be aces up my sleeves along with my arms! I could pull a rabbit out of my hat at the drop of the hat! I would be some sort of female amalgamation of Gambit and MacGyver!
That was the fantasy.
The reality is I’m a bumbling numpty with a cool tattoo on my left calf.
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter T](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgba_3qAyhsA7c8aD65qiofM8BHeoHYRLTUF1oN0g5iQMae7u8Gt-U_1q0tbffhmhIhbvQwBPgXfh8Btw8frl2K7WkY0sJrKuD-kuw0MCDtxGPFAdYTt17f1nN2M10n_ifD05HvKDIxzH7YCsiOxDw7ZeFeKlpVWc9dq-ND_XMVQpeyjRJXhv6p3BadEUHO/s320/t.jpg)
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Friday, April 19, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 19: Salmon
Like a salmon, I’m always swimming upstream and bears are always trying to eat me. Sometimes anglers try to catch me too, but as soon as they get a load of how beat up and decrepit I am, they throw me back. They know I would taste terrible. Bears don’t give a damn. They aren’t known for their sophisticated palates.
According to this post, I may be more salmony than I realized when I decided to make this self-deprecating joke.
Deep thinker, highly emotional, like holistic approaches. Sounds like me!
Perhaps I also smell like a lox bagel.
~Sexy Salmon Has Spoken~
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter S](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX7RO02W9cqkZSGSLGqqiKTP7eDxtb26U8UILfXeJA9iiJ5cEnU3hhaovsocCvEroFP9L6OsxocCdUPZyPmSNlQEFOjDiLUocuMBnUD3XLqg7h0-M_qocLn-o17HysqO-n3UDzxyoA-xQULjtmVh0PDUqpdqBwxcWKSjglijlCy1-1Va6ZUjheG80z91bf/s320/s.jpg)
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Thursday, April 18, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 18: Really Unreal
This image is really on point for the post I just created on my poetry blog where I discuss a Haibun I wrote about wanting to be someone else.
https://poetryofthenetherworld.blogspot.com/2024/04/april-pad-challenge-napowrimo-2024-day_18.html
I wrapped up a meeting with a couple other members of the First Coast Romance Writers group a little over an hour ago, and I feel emotionally dysregulated. It wasn’t anything they did, it was that same feeling of realizing that I’m just so completely different from most people. I always feel like I’m having to try to pass for normal when I’m quite simply not. It’s exhausting and discouraging.
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
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A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 17: Quite Quick and Quirky
Quickly create a quirky drabble with plentiful quantities of items starting with q.
Sometimes focusing on creating quite a quantity quickly ends up making me go off the rails.
My tendency is to shame myself when I can’t tow--er--toe the line.
I honestly haven’t quite recovered from last year’s NaNoWriMo.
I started out quite strong, but by the end, I just wanted to quit.
I’ve been struggling with my writing this year.
I’ve been trying to bring back the joy of creation rather than relegating myself to being a quickly typing monkey hoping something will quell my anxiety.
~Ornery Owl Has Spoken~
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter Q](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTNu1rALwUQeID2QwC-tT9BoJG2c2RV0dqKumYG9FtlwO2bYh1K6pROVF8lgjcbA4aQnc2lDZNLmlLLumpPDzUrz2K1LNDMNg2rmJEmCXY8ELaHH8wL570A6jSoweQCw1qXRA5UExbPg7kWkuxtALzqPtG9yb5ImhjIWQKwR4OJh1Hsg_-UvGdhyphenhyphen7hjKTr/s320/q.jpg)
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Wednesday, April 17, 2024
A to Z Challenge 2024: Day 16: Power and Pickling
We are experiencing high winds, and the power went out at around six in the morning. It was down for about an hour and a half. I perceived this as being the perfect time to pickle some beef for jerky.
Actually, I’m marinating the beef, but perfect time to pickle was too perfect an alliteration to pass up.
Oh phooey.
I just remembered that I forgot to buy both pickling spices and cucumbers to make actual pickles.
Pickled beef really is a thing. As are pickled eggs. I’ve never eaten either one.
My fingers smell like liquid smoke right now.
![#AtoZChallenge 2024 letter P](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPVrabSKeIO2Bu1D_P-BlJYLSKODv1LscC04GGSBA2pzCshWisGCCzOrYXUpqyzPHbnJJ5Hss5VVnjp3jcMLLD3dk2wCZRyf6glu5I1qFUK73TAiuZtMgt1dDJWUB2tjDA5TAP-aeq8p3AZEz3mSFi6Yqjwpvda2JoG6rIRNdgdI2ceSbP2lH8B8GglPBF/s320/p.jpg)
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