Happy book birthday to Kill Three Birds by Nicole Givens Kurtz.
This book is one of my favs of 2020 so make sure you go pick it up right now!
Tools for Social Media
Social media can be a truly draining experience at the best of times. So I’ve been working on adjusting the amount of time I spend on social media and how I am using it. I wanted to share the tools and techniques that have worked for me.
Delete the apps from your phone.
I’ve removed twitter and facebook from my phone. I can still use my broswer to log in but its not as convenient so I’m less likely to do it. For me, I’ve kept facebook messenger and instagram because those are still useful for me, but do what works best for you.
2. Block social media
I open a new tab and automatically start typing twitter or facebook into the url box, even if that wasn’t what I wanted to do! Habits move me on auto-pilot and suddenly it’s been an hour and I’m doom scrolling twitter still. What I’ve finally found is that I need external help to block the sties.
I’ve come at this with three main apps I’m using:
Forest App- On my phone, this wonderful app keeps me from just scrolling through instagram. It allows you to plant a beautiful plant and watch it grow. The trick is that if you navigate away from that app, the plant dies. You can set it from anywhere between 10 minutes to two hours. I set it to two hours when I get into bed and it stops me from getting on my phone when I’m trying to go to bed.
SelfControl- This mac only software is amazing and terrifying. It’s the big dog and the most effective. SelfControl will block the websites you specify for a range of time. It locks it down. You can restart your computer, delete the app, etc. and the lockdown remains until the time is up. It’s incredibly effective and free.
Work Mode- A chrome extension, Work Mode is perfect when I am on my chromebook. Blocking all major social media sites with a simple click, the extension is effective and unobtrusive. The only issue is that it is also sometimes too easy to unblock the sites with just a click as well.
I’m using these digital helpers and techniques to help limit my time on social media and keep it from destroying my mood and my productivity.
The gorgeous cover of Kill Three Birds!
Mystery Taking Flight: Kill Three Birds by Nicole Givens Kurtz
I was lucky enough to get the chance to read an early copy of Nicole Givens Kurtz’ neweest book, Kill Three Birds and review it for Speculative Chic!
First, the world of Aves is detailed, vivid and unique. This bird-based society defined around different roles based on bird type creates a strange and fun world. The details of this society are revealed slowly throughout the book, and I ate up every one of them. It’s a fascinating look at birds in a way I’ve never thought about before.
Prentice is a hawk, someone who investigates crimes, and she’s been sent to a small town to help find a killer. When a young woman of a prominent family is found dead and then two more bodies turn up, it’s clear that the hawk has a murderer on her hands.
She navigates through the inner circle of the bird society — the church, headed by a dove — to the fringes of society where crows skulk and chickens peck into a bloody order. Prentice has to deal with the expectations thrown onto her as a hawk, a grieving and volatile family, and the threat of more bodies showing up if she can’t find the killer.
You can read the full review here.
Hoping in the Dark
Right now it seems hard to be optimistic about the future. I've struggled to be positive or even excited about what the rest of the year holds. There has been a lot of pain, chaos, loss and struggle already this year.
What I keep remembering is that is okay and healthy to not be positive all the time. That way leads to toxic positivity and that's no good for anyone because it ignores pain and hard truths in front of us. Pain can often tell us when something is wrong and that is a vital voice to listen to.
I have no idea what the future holds or where we go from here. What I hold onto is that I know of so many amazing people fighting for changes, so many healthcare workers making a difference and saving lives and so many artists spreading creativity around the world. The actions of every day people give me hope because it helps me feel less alone in the tumbling of a world that feels strange and scary.
I'm holding on to the people I love and creating the things I love as my dock in the dark waters of 2020. Take my hand and we can hang on together.
This is my latest pep talk from my Newsletter which I have finally sent out! If you're not part of the newsletter, you can sign up here.
Camp NaNoWriMo!
July is just around the corner and that means that Camp NaNoWriMo will be kicking off soon!
What is Camp NaNoWriMo? Inspired by NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) held every November, this camp offers the chance to try to complete a word-related goal throughout the summer. The goals are more flexible for you to set yourself (rather than the standard 50,000 for NaNoWriMo) and are open to all sorts of projects.
Because of the flexibility and customizable nature of the camp it can be a great launching point! I’m hoping to use the month of July to get started on some new projects!
Here’s one of my favorite YouTube channels, Heart Breathings, talking about Camp NaNoWriMo for her.
If you sign up, let me on so we can cheer each other on!
The Kickstarteris live now!
Lucky Potion Oracle Companion Planner!!
OddMixMarket is one of my favs and I was thrilled to help with writing intrepretations for the Lucky Potion Oracle Deck. Now he's put together an amazing companion to go with it!
I'm a bit planner obsessed so I am so excited about this. With the beautiful artwork from OddMixmarket, a weekly layout with space for goals, habits and even tracking your water, this companion is gorgeous! It also contains some snippets from my Lucky Potion intrepretations to give you something to meditate on for the week.
The kickstarter is live now and runs through July 15th so if you're into oracle decks, awesome art and planners, don't miss out!
Festival of Magic Review on Speculative Chic!
My review on an amazing DnD one-shot adventure is now live on Speculative Chic!
Running Dungeons and Dragons games while on lock-down has led to an increased number of games, so I’ve turned more and more to pre-written one-shot adventures. This is the latest adventure I have run, and let me say that rarely have I enjoyed a game more.
The premise is simple: a Festival of Magic is returning after tragic incidents and needs some extra protection to make sure that things go off flawlessly. Your group of adventurers is hired on to keep an eye on things.
Then the flaming octopus shows up at a bar.
Read the review here.
Black Lives Matter
Just in case, it's not clear I stand: Black Lives Matter.
If you're looking to get involved and do the work, I suggest starting with some of the great resources on the official Black Lives Matter website
Con-Tinual
Are you missing conventions? I know I am.
2020 was the year I planned to return to attending conventions on a regular basis so I’m bummed that isn’t able to happen.
However, some friends have some up with a great option to help ease that pain, a virtual non-stop space for nerds to gather, talk and share. Authors talk about books, vendors share their items and debates about the best Star Trek episode linger on.
It’s like a convention right on your Facebook feed!
Join in the fun on the Con-Tinual page and I’ll see you there!
(I’ve just realized my last few posts all are about Cons (ConCarolinas, Control and now Con-Tinual) so that’s fun.)
Control
Control is one of the hardest things for me to let go of. I like being able to control things. Not in an evil dictator sort of way but in a way that means I know what is going to happen. You do X task and y happens. I want a simple formula that works with known results.
So why in the world do I write, right?
Writing is one of the fiels where you have the least amount of control. I cannot garuntee anything. I can't control how well a book sells or if a publisher or agent likes my work. I can't control the number of five star reviews or how many people give a book a bad review. I can't control what the markets will do or what the next hot genre will be with 100% accuracy.
At times it is incredibly frustrating and difficult at times. It makes it hard to really decide what to work on at times. It's easy to get lost in the 'nothing I do really matters, so what bother' kind of nihilism.
What I have found helps is to focus on what I can control, however small that might be.
I can control my writing, showing up for the work on getting words onto the page. I can control the time I spend staring at social media and doubting myself. I can control how much time I spend being inspired by other creative work. I can control how I am taking care of myself (and the answer to that question is usually very poorly. I am working to get better at self-care.)
What matters is that I am turning my focus to the things I can do, not what is totally outside of my control. I can't change Amazon adjusting the way royalty rates are handled or that another writer is able to easily create 10,000 words a day. What I can and must focus on are the things that I can do.
Look small and focused on where you can make an impact and start there.