I’m ready. Balls-to-the-wall, sleeves rolled up, let’s do this. New life, startinnnnng…. NOW.
(photo from tumblr)
Author: Stefanie Snider
Novelist, wife, vengeful harpy.
That Whole “Balance” Thing
Here we go again.
I haven’t written anything in a few days. Scratch that, it might be approaching two weeks at this point. Two weeks without fiction or journalling. Two weeks of barely even maintaining my planner. Two weeks may not seem like much, but two whole weeks without creating anything is like drowning. Not only does it feel awful, but with every day that slips by it gets harder and harder to get started again.
It’s not even a block, not really. It’s… an absence. Whole days pass without even the inkling to pick up a pen or to open a text program.
Bizarrely, I’ve been super productive lately in other areas. I’ve been baking up a storm, knitting a very secret Christmas gift, deep cleaning and streamlining the house. But the more I seem to get done in my day-to-day life, the more it seems my career is suffering. It’s completely unacceptable.
I’ve decided that enough is enough. One whole year of my five-year career plan has slipped by, and I’m not where I thought I would be. I’m not where I need to be. But today starts a new month. I’m considering December a practice run before the new year kicks in.
In four years I don’t want to look back and realize I let myself down.
This is it.
(photo by Colin Harris)
Real Life Horror: Video of Simi Valley Sherri, Manson Family Member
“You do something, you do it, it’s done… Y’know, what can you do? [laughs] It’s done.
Y’know, sniffle about it another five years? What can you say? I’m sorry, [laughs] y’know, big deal.”
Excerpt: “Annabelle”, a Horror Story
I never really loved that child.
I mean, she was an easy birth. And when she got a little older, and I could start putting little bows and ribbons and things on her, she was cute enough.
But I knew right from the start she was evil.
It wasn’t one of those things you could see easily. Hell, I had a hard enough time seeing it myself.
When we’d go out to the market, she’d be sweet as pie. All the old women would come over and tug on those blonde ringlets. They’d caw like ravens and pinch at her cheeks. She’s got these dimples, see, that make the little grannies just about weep with adoration.
I used to tell those biddies they could take her home with them, if they loved her so much. They always giggled from behind their dentures and shook their smiling heads. I wish, just once, that one of them had realized I wasn’t kidding.
I caught the first hints of the demon in her when she’d cry out in the night. Most children, see, they wail. Their little chests suck in all the air they can hold and force it back out, loud as a foghorn through the darkness. Annabelle was different. She hissed. It sounded like a basketful of snakes let loose in her room.
I started turning down the baby monitor. Then I shut it off. Before long, I was closing her door and sleeping with a pillow over my head.
Of course I took her to the doctor; what kind of mother do you think I am? He checked her front and back and upside down and said there wasn’t a damned thing wrong with her. I wanted her to startle at his touch, to cry out so he could hear what I’d heard. She sat there instead, half a hand shoved in her mouth, and the doctor didn’t suspect a thing.
So I bundled her up against the Fall wind and wheeled her back home in her stroller. The strangers we passed all cooed at her. I think that was part of her witchcraft, being able to fool them all like that. They didn’t feel what I felt…
There’s something different about Annabelle. Something unsettling. Something…demonic.
Mommy’s little monster is here.
Annabelle, short horror from Stefanie N Snider
“Do You Own an Amazon Kindle?”
As an e-book writer, it’s heartening to see that 41% said yes. But I worry about those 2% in the middle there…
Schrodinger’s Kindle?
Short Horror Film: Too Late
Too Late from SIDE FILMS on Vimeo.
Clever.
I did this comic a few years ago for an arts magazine Missy and I, along with a few friends, were producing. Unfortunately the comic isn’t very funny and it’s even a little confusing. There is something about it that I do like. It makes a point that I think we often forget. Our monsters have to be invited into our lives. One of the biggest monsters I can think of is fear, particularly unnecessary fear. Fear does a lot to destroy our lives. It can control every decision we make, cause us to live alone, cause us to fight unnecessary battles with self generated enemies. It can even cause us to freak out and inflict harm onto others, or to lose all hope and end our own life. Fear is a huge monster, but it has to have our permission to come in. It has no control over us that we…
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SniderBaker
I made these tonight using this recipe, which is super easy and remarkably tasty. If you’ve never made bread before, start here!
Zombie Weather!
The fog outside is ridiculous! Fog is my favourite weather, by far. When it’s as thick as it is tonight, it’s hard not to expect the lurching undead to creep out of the wisps, arms extended, questing for brains…
Really I think I love it because it’s so uncommon. A good fog, a real fog, like the one tonight, happens here maybe once a year. It’s so heavy that I can barely see the house across the street.
It gets the cogs in my mind going, picturing all the dastardly deeds that could be happening right beside you, muffled and hidden…
(photo by my dude)
sniderwriter 