Here I am again, reading and commenting on the sixth post from Rat in the Walls, the blog I wrote during the final year of my brother’s battle with ALS. The post is titled “Empathic Alchemy,” and you can read it below the video.
Title: Empathic Alchemy
Blood is sometimes thicker than gold.
Posted in Caregiving, Video, Writing
Tagged ALS, caregiving, changing yourself, empathy, enduring, fatal illness, rat in the walls, sibling relationship, understanding, writing
Here’s the fifth Rat in the Walls post that I wrote about my brother’s battle with ALS. The post is titled “Gravity on Jupiter.” You can read the text of the post below the video.
Title: Gravity on Jupiter
Sisyphus had it easy.
He had control of his muscles. And he only had to push his rock uphill on Earth.
People with ALS don’t have that. It’s like Jupiterean gravity is squashing them flat.
Their rocks aren’t moving anywhere, up or down the gravity well.
Posted in Caregiving, Video, Writing
Tagged ALS, caregiving, gravity, Jupiter, muscles, rat in the walls, Sisyphus, writing
Long time, no posts, because June disappeared in a fog of caregiving for my Mom and Dad. Now that it’s July, it’s time for another reading from Rat in the Walls, where I blogged about my brother’s battle with ALS during the last year of his life. The actual post (from April 1, 2007), is printed below the video.
Title: Paranoia
Paranoia runs deep. But it doesn’t run well.
It gimps along, lurching from side to side, like Frankenstein’s monster.
Jaundiced skin. Beautiful eyes.
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “writing”?
“Creation, exploration, discover, joy, hope.”
–Rosalie Dobbs (Writer)
“My writing desk in my office; four bookcases overflowing with books.”
–Daphne Chennault (Author)
Chief Thief
“Telling stories either ‘professionally’ or for fun, like fan fiction.”
Sheryl R. Hayes (Author)
Alterna-Teas (short story in anthology)
www.sherylrhayes.com/fiction
“I want to do it right now.”
–Adrienne Foster (Author)
Bay Area Ghost Hunters
meetup.com/Bay-Area-Ghost-Hunters
“‘Writing’ is first. 🙂 Then, ‘waking.’ Waking up and writing. Right after a pot of coffee.”
–James Beach (Author)
Two-Fisted Jesus Tales
twofistedjesus.com
What’s the first thing you think of when you hear the word “fan”?
“The abbreviation of FANATIC! Perhaps not the most knowledgeable, but likely to be the most passionate. (And perhaps not quite sane.)”
–Anonymous fan at BayCon 2017
East Bay Linux Users Group at eblug.org
“A small piece of equipment that has blades which spin and move air.”
–Anonymous fan at BayCon 2017
“Creative enthusiast.”
–Jean Martin (costumer, editor-in-chief, dancer, singer, actor, photographer)
creativeavocations.com
At BayCon 2017, a science fiction and fantasy convention that’s taken place annually in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past twenty-five years, I cornered people in the hallways and asked them to participate in my One Question, Many Answers series.
Fans
Fans answered the following two questions:
Authors
Authors answered the following two questions:
Every couple of days over the next week or so, I will post answers to these questions, along with people’s names or pseudonyms and links to publications, passion projects, or charities that the fans and authors want to promote.
I’m going to start with a few of the authors’ answers to the first question.
“That I should really be writing and not doing whatever it was I had been doing.”
–Anna Rose (Author)
A Darker Shadow by Jake Keplin
“Being a god, creating a world to make it my way and finally have the control that real life never gives.”
–Meg Elison (Author)
The Book of Etta
megelison.com
“My desk, coffee, morning, being cold, knit hats, penguins.”
–Tyler Hayes (Author)
“The One About Jacob” (short story)
Here is the second video from Rat in the Walls.
For the original post (the second on the Rat in the Walls blog), look below the video.
Title: Body Blocking
His illness is written on my body.
Eating excessively for the past six months, I’ve gained forty pounds, accumulating layers of fat. I tie my intestines in square knots, turn my emotions into sausages, blocking, holding on.
As if I become heavy enough, weighty enough, I might anchor him in place.
Jana Denardo is hosting me on her blog this week. I say stuff about space opera, as well as promote Beneath the Skin. http://jana-denardo.dreamwidth.org/249133.html
(I apologize if my posts seem spammy of late. I’m on a blog tour. At least the posts on each blog are different, even if they all have the same image of my book cover.)
Posted in Writing
Tagged beneath the skin, dystopia, romance, romatic science fiction, science fiction, space opera, writing
My guest blog post for Antonia Aquilante is live! In it, I burble joyfully about space opera and Beneath the Skin.
http://www.antoniaaquilante.com/blog/guest-post-beneath-the-skin-by-carolyn-hill
Antonia is the author of The Prince’s Consort, a MM paranormal romance from Dreamspinner Press.
Posted in Writing
Tagged Antonia Aquilante, beneath the skin, romantic science fiction, science fiction, SFR, space opera, writing