Today I received a very special antique from my mother in law.
His name is Oliver, and he comes from my husband’s grandmother’s aunt’s mother.
He needs some love. But until I can find someone who can fix him up properly, he’s perfect just as he is. Either way, he’s going to be the crown jewel of my writing room, and will stay in our family.
Here’s hoping I can do him justice.
I have a loving family, amazing friends, and a Life Plan.
It looks like I’m finally getting my shit together. Whoa.
“Picture Pippi Longstocking and swedish movie director Ingmar Bergman having a love child. That’s me.”
Mia Mäkilä is one of those artists that manage to catch you off guard.
I don’t even remember now how I came across her work. I bookmarked it, figuring I might go back if I “had the time.”
Meanwhile, those distorted cartoonish figures have been haunting me. Her work is unique; you can see a piece and instantly know it’s hers. She uses bright comic colours, but the darkness still manages to seep through.
It gives me the most delicious chills.
“Newspaper Freak”, by Mia Mäkilä
Click image to visit her site;
some art contains nudity.
I posted about my new tattoos a couple weeks ago. They’ve healed up beautifully; the colour on the typewriter came out exactly like I wanted.
So! The big healed reveal!
(I forgot to mention: the stars are about ten years old and desperately in need of fixing. I know. And as everyone on the entire internet says, I swear it doesn’t curve like that all the time!)
And…Harriet the Spy! I’ve always been a big reader, and when I was a kid Harriet the Spy was one of my favourite books. She wanted to be a writer, just like me, and I loved the idea of sneaking about looking in windows and learning about people. (Okay, creeping, but let’s not split hairs here.)
Anyway, I’ve told myself for years that I’d get a Harriet tattoo the first time I got published, and I couldn’t be happier.
(I got her on my inner bicep, opposite the typewriter. I’d thought about putting her on my outer shoulder, but I realized she looks somewhat like I do. And I didn’t want to pull a Steve-O.)
“Urban exploration (often shortened as urbex or UE) is the examination of the normally unseen or off-limits parts of urban areas or industrial facilities.”
Often haunting, urbex photos show the abandoned, the decayed, the forgotten.
Old hospitals. Rusted theme parks.
Empty insane asylums…like those on Dark Passage’s Hospital Hopscotch.
Frightening? Or beautiful?
(Images not reproduced here, per photographer’s request. But check them out on her site, they’re worth the click.)
Hey, did you know you can follow this blog by email? There’s a wee clicky, over there on the right, below all those awesome horror stories. Sign up and you’ll be first to know when I’ve added a new story, a scary video, or weird arty things. Because let’s be honest, here, I have the most erratic schedule ever and you have a life.
Also wayyyyy down at the bottom of this page, on the left this time, there’s another button if you want to add me to your RSS feed.
If you don’t have a feed reader, Google has an easy-to-use reader here.
And to my dark little darlings who are already stalking me, have yourself some unsettling, NSFW art. And my thanks ❤
Check out this delightful little short: Bedfellows
I’m glad I saw this in the daylight.
This weekend flew by too fast, as weekends do.
I spent an enormous amount of time doing writerly things: writing (of course), cover design (ask me about recolouring an image pixel-by-pixel), formatting, editing, exploring some publicity options and looking for freelance work.
Do I feel like I got enough done?
Never.
There’s such an incredible amount of behind-the-scenes work for indie writers. If I want someone to read my stuff, I have to polish it myself, upload it myself, advertise it myself, proof it, read and reread it myself.
Is it worth it?
Absolutely.
One day I hope to make this my living. One day I will. But not if I let the little things drag me down and overwhelm me. I have to want it more than the tiredness, the lack of time, the frustration.
If this looks like complaining, don’t worry. It’s not. I don’t have enough time or energy to complain. This is just me laying out the obstacles and vowing to crush them to dust.
Need a bloody little gift for your darkest Valentine?
Click to see the silver version
from The Great Frog, London
Check out the tiny rubies! When you want to tell her you bleed for her…
(via Huffington Post)
No matter how many times I watch this video, it still gives me the creeps. There’s just something about the timing, the anticipation…even now thinking about it makes me shudder.
sniderwriter 
