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 The Good Life. |
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You Are Welcome Here Life is good. Let's share it. New Year, New Strategy For 2026, I launched a weekly topic rotation designed to help me stay d i s c i p l i n e d while ensuring that you, the reader, always know what to expect. Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire a million followers  and gain official WDC "influencer" status, and I often find myself seduced by whimsy. Thus, my blogging strategy continues to evolve.So, What Can I Expect? I'm glad you asked. For now, until whimsy strikes again, here's what you can expect: Subject Sundays I'll publish an educational and/or discussion-provoking article, probably on one of the following subjects:.  Music & music education The art and business of writing Owning & managing a small business Science & technologyMain Character Mondays I'll establish goals every Monday and touch base about family, work, health and leisure. Tuesdays through Fridays I'll work on and update weekly goals. When I check off completed writing goals, I'll share the fruits of those labors, if applicable. These posts are likely to include blurbs about my day and the occasional rant, although I try to post rants at "What the Fork?"  * I can only commit to one review per week. If you would like your short story to be in my reviewing queue, please send me a WDC review request. Check out my public reviews to get a sense of what to expect.
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| As a contest owner, I've been grappling with this. I've tried to remain neutral and avoid rules around AI use in my activities, but fairness is ingrained in my bones. I fully support (and enthusiastically encourage!) AI for brainstorming and wording suggestions. But, in my opinion, once it rewrites what you wrote - tightens your prose, increases your pacing, and changes the voice of the author - even if it doesn't change the story itself, those paragraphs are no longer your original creation. The story is - that's the human element - but not the text. IMO, there's nothing inherently wrong with AI rewriting your work - until you publish it with your byline and stamp it with © Copyright 2026 Brandiwyn🎶 v.2026 (tuozzo at Writing.Com), because can you really copyright text you didn't write? In a contest setting, other authors are now competing with AI - and if you didn't disclose the AI rewrite, then your competitors don't even know it. I found an attorney's YouTube channel and a video where she addresses copyrighting in publishing of books where AI was used . In it, she says (2:10-ish) that copyright "protects human creativity, not generated text," and that if you use AI to "brainstorm, outline or organize your own human-created content, then you can copyright the human-created portions of your work."I have no idea who this attorney is, and the video is 10 months old, so I tried to check US copyright law for myself: https://www.copyright.gov/ai/ Part 2 addresses copyrightability of AI-generated text. The summary of findings is on page 8 of the Part 2 report. Relevant bullet points:  Copyright protects the original expression in a work created by a human author, even if the work also includes AI-generated material. Whether human contributions to AI-generated outputs are sufficient to constitute authorship must be analyzed on a case-by-case basis. Human authors are entitled to copyright in their works of authorship that are perceptible in AI-generated outputs, as well as the creative selection, coordination, or arrangement of material in the outputs, or creative modifications of the outputsIn conclusion, that is where I'll draw the line for my competitive WDC events. My non-competitive events will remain neutral - use of AI, and to what extent, is entirely your choice. |
| I missed Main Character Mondays yesterday. Oops. At the music school, the hot water heater died. I got a quote from a plumber to replace it. It's up in the loft above the bathrooms, accessible by ladder in the music lab, and I swear the building was built around the stupid thing. It's surrounded by duct work and rafters, or whatever you call the metal framing that holds up the roof in a retail strip mall. The space was a coffee shop before it was a soccer store before it was a music school, so it had a 50 gallon hot water tank, where we really only need 20. So getting the new one in wasn't a concern, but I did ask about getting the old one out. Quote guy says to me, this isn't our first rodeo. Fast forward to installation today. It was supposed to take a couple hours. They started at 11:00, and at 12:30, they didn't look like they were super close to done, so I confirmed they would be done by 4:00 when the students were scheduled to arrive. They were clearing a clog in the old tank before they could remove it, but he thought it would be about an hour more. 4:00 was no problem at all, supposedly. So I left. Reception contacts me at 3:00. They can't get the old tank out because of all the framing and duct work. ...You don't say. At this point the clock is ticking, so they decide they're going to install the new one, but leave the old one up there, and we could worry about how to get it out later. I'm like, um, are you at all concerned that maybe the combined weight of the old tank plus the weight of the new tank plus water might exceed the weight of the old tank when it was full, which is what the support structure was designed for? (In case you're wondering, which I know you are, I asked during the quote if a permit was required, and rodeo guy said no. I said, even though we're changing the size?, he said nope and assured me that they were licensed and bonded and he knew what he was talking about.) The teachers decided to move the lab out into the lobby temporarily since the plumbers were clearly not going to make the 4:00 deadline. Amazingly, they managed to get the old tank out after all, so I don't have to have heartburn over the weight issue. Then the day got more fun, because the plumbers were unable to test the new water heater. That's because, right around the time they were plumbing it in, a water main broke in our plaza and we lost water to the store completely. According to the landlord, it would be restored by (either 9pm or 6am? Receptionist wasn't totally clear on which.) Which meant we also lost the bathrooms. So reception starts contacting all the students to cancel lessons for the rest of the night (third time in as many weeks, thanks to Snowmaggeddon and Minimaggeddon) and she's about halfway through that when the water comes back on. After the plumbers are gone, of course. So that was work today. I don't have students on Tuesdays, so I worked on the business website (michelletuesday.com, if you're interested - it's still purple) more and wrote my two poems for PromptMaster: For the prompt, "The most suspicious thing likely to make a librarian raise an eyebrow.": "Library Tryst" For the prompt, "Write a poem using a very limited vocabulary that is at least 8 lines long.": "The Band Director's Resignation" Y'all, Jayne truly is the PromptMaster. If you're not already participating, I highly recommend it. Goals are below. G'night, Michelle Goals for 2/10/26 - 2/16/26   Min 10 min/day on current novel Review work tasks list 3 days/week Two poems for "PromptMaster !" One short story for "The Bradbury" One themed blog post (music/writing) One review Current assignment for "26 Paychecks " Current assignment for "The Sprawling Ink Society" |
| One of the lesser frequently-asked question among prospective clients of my music school is, "How long will it take for me/my child to master the instrument?" Um. This question never ceases to baffle me. I try to look at it from the perspective of non-musicians who truly have no clue what's involved, but in my imagining, that only makes it worse. Looking from the outside at the task of studying an instrument, with zero music experience, it might seem almost insurmountable. Yet some inquirers seem to believe that learning music has an end date, like it's a crash course: Learn Piano in Just Twelve Weeks! And then you get your certificate, and you're an official Certified Musician. No. I had this conversation with a dad seeking voice and/or piano lessons for his 6-year-old child yesterday. I gave him my typical initial reply, which satisfies less than half the askers of this question: "The study of music is a lifelong endeavor." The parent acknowledged what I was saying, but tried to clarify what he was asking: "Yes, yes, of course. But how long until she can do it on her own?" I understood exactly what he meant the first time. What he really wanted to know is, How much is this going to cost me? He's just trying to budget, and I get it. Being a parent is expensive. I can't answer his question, though, because... it depends. It depends on how quickly your daughter learns. It depends on how much she practices, which depends on how much she loves it and how much you enforce it at home. It depends on whether she reliably attends her lessons every week, and whether you stay consistently enrolled or withdraw every summer for travel. Most importantly, it depends on your definition of mastery. That's my favorite part of these conversations - the client can't define mastery to pin down what their question even is. They flounder and reword and shrug helplessly and expect me to define it for them, for me to explain what the end of learning looks like - because isn't that the question they're asking, after all? Musicians with PhD's on their instrument are still learning. How long does it take to master a language? I don't know about you, but at age 50, I'm still learning English, which is my native language. How long does it take to master the art of writing? The mechanics of writing? The business of writing? The marketing of writing? We. Are. All. Still. Learning. Hopefully, I have successfully answered the question, and you now know exactly how long it takes to master an instrument. I'll close with a short (<2min) video about learning. With my apologies, it's a YouTube Short and cannot be embedded: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/zpR6AEKAZuc Educationally, Michelle Min 10 min/day on current novel Review work tasks list 3 days/week Two poems for "PromptMaster !" One short story for "The Bradbury" One themed blog post (music/writing) One review Current assignment for "26 Paychecks " Current assignment for "The Sprawling Ink Society" |
| I technically finished my story for "The Bradbury" after midnight (00:09? maybe), but I counted it, so here's the status of yesterday's goals: Goals for 2/2/26 - 2/9/26 Min 10 min/day on current novel Review work tasks list 3 days/week Two poems for "PromptMaster !" One short story for "The Bradbury" One themed blog post (music/writing) One review Current assignment for "26 Paychecks " Current assignment for "The Sprawling Ink Society" It's Friday morning. I have a packed schedule today because of all the rescheduled lessons from Snowmaggeddon last week. And now Mini-maggeddon is dumping more snow. I ventured out into it to meet the plumber at the music school, but after painstakingly making it past emergency vehicles and cars in ditches to the halfway point of my commute, I realized I forgot to reattach my insulin pump after my shower. I left it on the nightstand back at home. Soooo, I painstakingly made it back home and decided not to venture out a second time. Damn, this is a snowy year. I guess on the bright side, the bugs won't be as bad this summer? |
| Goals for 2/2/26 - 2/9/26 Min 10 min/day on current novel Review work tasks list 3 days/week Two poems for "PromptMaster !" - in progress One short story for "The Bradbury" One themed blog post (music/writing/etc.) One review Current assignment for "26 Paychecks " - in progress (1 of 3 complete) Current assignment for "The Sprawling Ink Society" Health Notes - My voice is coming back! After Botox injections in my vocal cords exactly 3 weeks ago, I've been weak and breathy - sometimes unable to speak even louder than a whisper. I've been wearing a personal amplifier that tour guides and fitness instructors use. The initial spike has finally worn off, and today, I was even able to speak loudly a couple times. - Left toes have been curled a lot today, probably bc I missed my 5pm dose of my Parkinson's med. Sleeping with the toe separator sock tonight. - Lost the 5+ lbs I had gained in Mexico in November, and I wasn't really trying, so keeping an eye on it. It's a good thing, unless it's a bad thing. I should have a lot more time tomorrow for knocking things off the list. G'night, everyone! Cheers, Michelle |
| I still haven't pinned down my blog topic rotation, but I may finally be closing in on my weekly goals list template for 2026. Goals for 2/2/26 - 2/9/26 Min 10 min/day on current novel (thinking counts) Review work tasks list 3 days/week Two poems for "PromptMaster !" One short story for "The Bradbury" One themed blog post (music/writing) One review Current assignment for "26 Paychecks " Current assignment for "The Sprawling Ink Society" Explanations thinking counts - the goal here is to keep it in front of me and not let my lack of progress lead to quitting. work tasks - rather than bore everyone with the nuts and bolts of my responsibilities, I just need a reminder to actually look at those responsibilities and watch for hot items. 3x per week = Tuesday, Thursday, Sunday. themed blog post - These types of posts require research (reading, listening, doing), which takes time. My original goal of one music post and one writing post was way too aggressive. I'm not opposed to dropping it to monthly if I still struggle to maintain the schedule. review - Likewise, this may drop to monthly if I can't keep up. It's OMEA Time The Ohio Music Education Association holds annual Solo & Ensemble adjudicated events for students and professional development conferences for teachers. My moonlighting educators who daylight in local middle and high schools often are required to attend some or all of these, as are my teachers who are currently pursuing a music education degree. And thus, did I end up picking up a ton of extra students last Thu, Fri, Sat, and yesterday (Monday). Tuesdays are usually free, but today, I have three hours of back-to-back lessons. Which means I need to get out of my PJs, take a shower and leave the damn house. That might derail my goals list for the week, or at least require me to voluntarily scratch things off the list. So it's probably a bad week to count on me for a review. On the plus side, we gathered and submitted all the required documents for the Bureau of Workers' Compensation audit, which is scheduled later this month, and everybody got paid yesterday (go, me!). What about you? How are you and February getting along? |
| Well, I did write a blog post today. It's probably still queued up on my laptop downstairs, unsaved, and I'm snuggled in bed. I'm not devastated. The post was unfinished anyway, because I ran out of time and had to get to work and teach all evening. But here's the gist. I wrote goals for the week and tweaked my theme rotation, moving "Self" Sundays to "Main Character" Mondays, because Mondays are too busy for the Music theme and are also ideal for goal setting. In my head on the way to work, I tweaked it more, combining Music and Writing into one research-based, intended-to-educate post per week. Stretch goals are good, but they need to be realistic, too. As for my goals for the week of 2/2/26, you're just gonna have to wait til tomorrow. |
| For today's episode of "Self Sundays," I started with a goals check-in. Quick Goals Check: One new novel chapter (or rewrite) per day. Incomplete.* One short story for "The Bradbury" " Incomplete.** Two poems for "PromptMaster !" Submitted. One review. Canceled this week, but tomorrow it'll be an empty box again. Complete my "26 Paychecks " Week 3 assignment. Pending.*** Do something with "The Sprawling Ink Society" Done. See also: "Happy February! Feb. 1 Ink Sprawlers Challenge" Organize/prioritize work tasks. It's complicated.**** Run payroll. Done. *Noveling No new words, but I did think about it - the story, the characters, the background - while brainstorming ideas for "PromptMaster !" and "The Bradbury" . I also revisited the global story arc (The Druid Archives) and started rereading background stories for my introduction in "The Sprawling Ink Society" .**The Bradbury We're closing in on the end of the week. I refuse to fall behind, so I may end up submitting a "See Spot Run"-flavored short that contains all the story elements (protagonist, goal, conflict, antagonist, climax, resolution) just so I get the practice in. Kind of like gymnastics conditioning but without the backflips. ***26 Paychecks I like to stay ahead, but for this assignment, I'm tempted to linger back and make sure nobody's port gets neglected. The good news is, I just shined up my own port, so the feedback on my recent renovations will be nice. ****Work Priorities No matter what other things crop up at work, priority #1 is always payroll if it's the 1st of the month, and I completed that on time. After that, the priority order is something I need to pin down, hence the checklist item. BUT two things jumped all the way up to positions 2 (we're being audited by the BWC) and 3 (I finally migrated my new website design, but all the individual pages still need a lot of cleanup), rendering the priority of everything else... well... low priority.  See you tomorrow for Music Mondays, and hopefully to report a completed short story. Musically, Michelle |
| A little late to be blogging, but my list has exploded, and I'm trying to collect all the pieces and glue it back together so it's at least recognizable tomorrow.. Website Revision I designed the revision months ago, but didn't implement it until last night. Now that it's implemented, it's taken over my life. There are so many tweaks to make. *thinks* There were more things on the list... *checks list* Quick Goals Check: One new novel chapter (or rewrite) per day. I'm writing a novel???? One short story for "The Bradbury" " Oh, yeah. That was supposed to be today. Oops. Two poems for "PromptMaster !" final January submission. What was I thinking?? One review. Ooh. That might fall off the list. In fact... you didn't see, but I just X'd it. Organize and prioritize all the work projects and tasks I've been avoiding to focus more on writing. Not exactly. I started organizing. The first project I stumbled across was the website. I went - Oh, yeah. I wanted to do that. So I did it, with zero thought for prioritization. And now it's front and center. Because that's how my brain rolls.Also, I added two things to the list in the past twenty-four hours or so: Complete my "26 Paychecks " Week 3 assignment. I have two weeks, so low priority today. Do something with this: "The Sprawling Ink Society" . I have ideas, involving a secret-santa type event where we read each other's work, maybe to review, but more be a sounding board. Then later activities with goals, which will be easier to pin down after we get to know each other and each other's projects. I don't envision this as a fast-moving activity. Anything we do there is faster than what we're doing now. I'm kind of waiting it out to see if we get any more interest first before bouncing proposals in the forum.And since it's the 29th, and payroll is due on the 1st... Run payroll. This will probably happen Sunday. My catch-all day. If I'm not napping with the poochies again.  And there you have it. The goals have spoken. G'night, everybody! Michelle |
| This blog topic was the brainchild of a consultation with ChatGPT, in which I asked, "Please provide me with a list of 100 vocabulary words that would make a narrative more whimsical and quirky". In an ironic meta example of whimsy, the list proved useless, but the dialog turned into an epiphany and a brilliant word bank idea I found very useful, indeed. If Not Whimsy, Then What? The conversation that followed is too long to publish here. The short version goes like this: I decided the list was too whimsical (I expected words like "quite" and "astonishing" and "frolic", but got words like "bamboozle" and "razzmatazz" and "sprocket"). We engaged in a discussion about the tone I was really going for in my current project, which is far less whimsical than I thought, and the origin story for this particular serial world, which is closer, but still not whimsy. If you're curious, ChatGPT thinks the tone I'm going for in the origin story is a combination of cozy fantasy realism, gentle irony, grounded wonder, and understated humor (um, is it me, or those labels leaning toward oxymorons?) ▶︎while the current project's target tone is grounded fantasy, earnest with sharp edges, and lightly cerebral. How do we know it's right? Your guess is as good as mine. ▶︎ Regardless of whether the suggested tones are right or wrong, they're far too nuanced (and multiple) to be found in a dropdown list on a submission form. Whimsical This whole discussion got me thinking about the word, "whimsical". Why did I have visions of walking canes and top hats, of playfulness and fancy, of imaginative creativity, of characters who are cartoonish and over-the-top adorable? What does whimsical mean, exactly? We're all writers here, and most of us  words. Have you ever encountered a word whose meaning you originally deduced from context clues, an incorrect definition imparted during childhood, or some other way that caused you to have it wrong for years or decades, only to have an epiphany later?Whimsical. Prone to whimsy. Doing things on a whim. So.... flighty and unpredictable? A life pantser? I can see how "unpredictable" evolved into "imaginative". But really, "spontaneous" is probably closer to the mark. Meanwhile, "playful" and "cartoonish"? How did those even make it into the bag? What I don't see is how ChatGPT - and Gemini, I ran a similar analysis there - thinks that the vocabulary appropriate for a whimsical tone would consist of words like dillydally, kooky and scoot. Haphazard, maybe, and bumble, but those are wonky examples gallivanting and making a ruckus with their quaint shenanigans. Verb Bank Needless to say, I've updated my mental definition of "whimsy". I'm not so sure the nuanced tone labels that ChatGPT diagnosed for my two projects are wholly accurate, but I didn't go there seeking labels. I went for words, and ChatGPT delivered. Eventually. Here's an exercise you can try at home: select a passage you've previously written. Extract a list of all the active verbs you use and turn it into a handy one-page verb bank, which you can reference during the edit stage to clean up weak verbs (was, had, seemed, etc.) One thing I liked about this exercise is that ChatGPT grouped the verbs into three categories, claiming that they cover 80% of your prose:  Movement and placement (open, cross, arrive, set) Perception and awareness (notice, sense, realize, suspect) Atmosphere and change (fade, hold, drift, linger)Creating a verb bank for the revision process gives quick, easy access to options to tighten your narration and improve active voice, while still sounding like you. The categories help find appropriate options faster. See you next week for another Writing Wednesdays Topic. Or tomorrow for a short story, personal recounting, or maybe a rant. Either way, I'll be collecting your homework. Literarily, Michelle |
Y'all, guess what?! I worked on my novel today.  Thank you, Snowmaggeddon, for shutting down my school for two days and forcing me to get bored enough to accomplish this.  You may be wondering what prompted my poll in the Newsfeed about your pronunciation of the word, "Query" (which I'm calling my "query query"). If you haven't yet voted, go here: "Query" Meet Mystic, riddling cat and envoy of Air: Seek not what is not yours to find, said the voice. Do question the thoughts in your mind, if you dare, but take care, for your Sovereign is there. Have you doubt, be you leery or thoroughly weary, then Mystic, true Envoy of Air, may you query. Penny pushed herself up off the floor, adjusted her glasses, and read through her notes. She added the earlier bullet points. Then she faced the window, prepared to look outside again, but it turned out not to be necessary. “Oh. Hello,” she said aloud to the black cat with golden eyes who stood precariously but quite confidently on the narrow windowsill - inside her bedroom. “Mystic, I presume?” That was an excerpt from my novel. Shit's about to get real in the Pennysphere. I was just curious about the percentage of readers who will recoil and go, WTF, query rhymes with very, not leery! Quick Goals Check: One new novel chapter (or rewrite) per dayIf you count 12:30am - 2:00am last night as "yesterday", then I accomplished this for both Monday and Tuesday. Since it's my goals and I get to pick, it counts. One short story for "The Bradbury" Two poems for "PromptMaster !" final January submission One review Organize and prioritize all the work projects and tasks I've been avoiding to focus more on writing Play games all dayOops... how did this get here?  Peace, Michelle |
| Warning: I'm about to get political. And then I'm going to talk about soup. It's a typical Music Monday up here in the Brandiwyn Blogosphere. I try to keep my virtual mouth shut on social media when it comes to anything political, for a couple main reasons: 1. I own a small business, which employs two dozen people. It makes practical business sense not to offend the people in my community - or in my employ - who support us. 2. I'm a legitimate fence sitter moderate. I rarely agree with anybody, and therefore, I piss off everybody. If I do open my mouth, it's probably to say, "But have you considered the other perspective?" I've been avoiding social media as much as possible for weeks or maybe months. It sucks me in, it riles me up, it wastes my time - and my time is precious and limited. But it's a vital part of my marketing strategy, so I bite the proverbial bullet and make appearances now and then. Today was an appearance day, since the weather has given a rare interesting-but-politically-benign topic to discuss. Despite recent social media avoidance, I am aware of current events, including the events of the last week in Minneapolis. Before I dive in: 1. I'm not a Democrat/progressive/liberal. However, I found Obama smart and compassionate, Trump an embarrassing idiot his first term, Biden weak, tongue-tied, and generally disappointing, and Trump during his second term utterly horrifying. If that makes me sound left-leaning, it's only because I appreciate intelligence in the leaders who represent me on the world stage, and I don't like bullies. My opinions on policy or the role/appropriate size of government definitely don't always align with those of the leaders I find least mortifying publicly. 2. I'm practical, and so I realize why most legislation is impossible to pass. The laws that do pass are never quite what anybody wanted. Solutions that meet the needs of everyone rarely exist.Therefore, I understand, for example, why we still don't have equitable healthcare in the USA. I don't blame anybody specifically for that, and I respect the often conflicting sides of the story. 3. I like numbered lists. All that said, I'm forking angry about the events in Minneapolis. I grew up an army brat, and my dad was an MP - military police - which means he was both in the military and a cop. I believe in defense, and in funding it. I am proud that my country has the strongest and most scientifically advanced military in the world - and the best trained. I'm already exhausted by this rant, so I'm going to cut this short and skip the part about how inadequate training of new ICE hires is the fault of their superiors. I'll jump straight to the part where a Facebook friend who is a vocal follower of Jesus is publicly arguing in support of the agent because the deceased "attack(ed) ICE agents who are merely doing their jobs". I disagree, but that's not the point. The point is that this person was (1) uninformed about what actually happened and had clearly not seen any of the videos - even the one in which the agent does appear to get hit by the vehicle, and (2) this person is talking like her death was justified rather than, you know, offering prayers of healing and comfort for her family or something a little more compassionate and Christ-like. Educate yourself, damn it. And be fucking kinder. Whew. I feel better. Now, about soup: We made soup. Bean soup, with the ham bone from the Christmas Honey-Baked ham, which has been in the freezer since December. We're still snowed in, we're still at DEFCON Snow Emergency Level 2, and the local schools are closed tomorrow due to frigid temps, so we (the music school) are, too. It's a soup kind of day. Warmly, Michelle |
| Recital Saturday's recital went smoothly. One student had an attack of performance anxiety, but she performed by the end of the session and did great! We finished and hauled all the instruments and gear back to the music school just in time for Snowmaggeddon to hit. We collected a ton of food (likely 150-200 lbs) but can't deliver it to the food pantry yet due to the storm, so it's currently all over my music-slash-exercise room (all nonperishable, so it's safe so long as I keep the poochies out of there).Novel: Stuck I figured out why I haven't added a chapter to my novel in almost two weeks now. One of my main characters is about to have a crisis, and I slowed down during the approach like the story and I were magnets with opposite poles pointed at each other. I know what needs to happen, but I can't spit it out. (It's technically more of an "I don't wanna" situation). So I used the nesting headers feature* in Google Docs to collapse all the chapters up until this crisis except for chapters featuring or told from the perspective of this particular character who's about to have said upcoming crisis. *see also: "Note: Check out my latest writing-related tech discov..." An Underdeveloped Character Here's what I discovered: When we first meet this character, she's experiencing a significant, life-changing event. However, that chapter is told from the perspective of a different character. Therefore, when my crisis character first starts telling her side of the story, said life-changing event has just recently happened... ...yet she comes home, greets the dog, pours some juice from the fridge and calls "I'm home!" to her mother in the basement. ??? Yeah, I'd say we're past the Ordinary World stage of the plot, and she's not frazzled enough. Or... at all. This character needs more of my attention. I think I'm going to need to rewrite all her perspective chapters up to the midpoint crisis and develop her better before I can tackle writing the midpoint crisis. Weekly Review Is complete. By request: Review of "A Different Route Home" Goals for the Upcoming Week - One new novel chapter (or rewrite) per day - One short story for "The Bradbury" - Two poems for "PromptMaster !" final January submission - One review - Organize and prioritize all the work projects and tasks I've been avoiding to focus more on writing What are your goals for the week? Literarily, Michelle |
| My meds kicked in. I accomplished a thing, and I feel better. (See my earlier rant at "What the Fork?" : "Rogue Fingers" ) I wrote a short story using combined prompts from "The Dialogue 500" [18+] and "The Writer's Cramp" [13+], which also fulfills my Week 4 commitment for "The Bradbury" [E].
I'm all about efficiency. Now, about that earthquake poem... and maybe my weekly Friday review? |
| This is ridiculous. I don't know if it's the Parkinson's or just general malaise, but I'm off my game today. My shoulders and trunk are swaying with dyskinesia. I can't focus. I've started and restarted this post probably a dozen times, but I'm determined to write something, to document why I didn't achieve today's goal, if nothing else. Today's Goal Today is supposed to be "The Bradbury Thursdays" - meaning, I have a short story to write. I know, today isn't over, and the story may still happen. I want it to happen. But... The Problem (Maybe?) I slept poorly most of the week until last night. According to my watch, I went to sleep at 22:00 (always my goal, but it almost never happens) and woke up at 8:07, which is more than 10 hours - but my watch claims I was awake for 2 hours of that. I'm not sure I believe it. But even 8 hours, if that's what it was, is a vast improvement from the 4-5 hrs per night earlier this week. So why is my watch giving me a sleep score of 66 (is that a D or a D- these days? Does my watch grade on a curve?) Meanwhile, my energy score is 79, and my watch offered this weird advice: "Your active time yesterday was 33 minutes, which is higher than your recent average of 11 minutes. This excess activity could lead to injury. Consider reducing today's active time to 10 minutes..." Reality Per advice from Robert Waltz  , I have alarms set at 9:05 AM (noveling) and 9:50 AM (blogging). I set a deadline of 12:00 noon to complete any daily writing tasks. I met zero of those deadlines today. My specific to-dos for today were: add a novel chapter; write a short story (The Bradbury); blog about short story. Novel Chapter: I played with formatting in Google Drive and posted about it on the NF. No new chapter yet today. Short Story: I worked on the Prize Prompt for PromptMaster! "  Week 3 Prompts Jan 19 - 25 2026" , and by that I mean, I researched earthquakes and brainstormed all kinds of possible angles for tackling the prompt. The Task Prompt is already complete - "The Money Pit" . While neither of these are listed in my official goals, I feel like it's writing, so I should get credit. On the other hand. it also feels like procrastination.Noon Deadline: This is to force me to stop writing tasks (because writing is a hobby) and turn my focus to the music school (which is my livelihood and the livelihoods of all my employees), but I direct you to my aforementioned lack of focus today. So here I am blogging at 3:19 PM when I should be reviewing payroll, promoting Saturday's Winter Benefit Concert (if we don't get snowed out), working on the Bureau of Workers Comp pre-audit questionnaire... Crap. I should probably go do that one. If I get a short story out today, I'll be amazed. But now you know why, and a year from now, I'll remember. |
| For today's edition of "Writing Wednesdays," I'm opening a discussion on the topic of poetry. Disclaimer I have never claimed to be a poet. As a writer, I consider myself first and foremost an author of long-form fiction (think, novel trilogy and higher.) I recently revised my bio to identify as a "Professional world-builder and prolific author of partially-completed novel drafts." I excel at the partial draft, y'all, but poetry has never really been my bag, baby. Lyrics Maybe surprisingly, given my actual vocation (music teacher, if you don't know), songwriting has taken second place to serial noveling. I do compose music, and I've written original songs with lyrics, most of which I've even performed in public, but lyric creation is not where I derive songwriting pleasure. My muse traditionally speaks to me in chord progressions, melody and arrangement; words are just a necessary piece of the puzzle - the grunt work, even. In fact, I've historically been more inclined to set someone else's words to music so I can skip that part. (Y'all know who you are. )Change Traditions change. I kicked off my second half of a century on this spinning planet last September and decided I'm allowed to change my mind. I'm not sure how or when it happened, but I learned how to appreciate - and even write - poetry, and lately I've found my muse talking in a new language: the language of imagery, of metaphor, of personification and alliteration. I blame WDC. But for the record, I partially blame WDC for souring me on poetry in the first place. I tread delicately here, because I'm sure some of my readers enjoy writing poetry... The Rub A lot of the poetry on WDC is mediocre.  Where do I get off, saying a poem is mediocre? Especially since I opened this blog post with the disclaimer that I'm not a poet. Do I even get an opinion on the matter? As with everything else in my blog, these are my opinions. As with any review you've ever received from me, take what you find helpful and trash the rest. In fact, pour accelerant over it and toss it in the incinerator for a fun ka-boom. I, myself, have read a lot of poetry on WDC ▶︎, in part because (admit it - you've done it, too) poems tend to be shorter than stories, which is convenient if you're trying to achieve a reviewing goal. And in nineteen years of reading and reviewing content on WDC, I've discovered a few things about poetry - and what makes it good. 1. Poetry is hard. Were you ever an angsty teen, scribbling your feelings in a journal? I was. Sometimes, it rhymed. Sometimes, it included some meter. I probably didn't know a single form back then. I'm not saying form is required. I'm not saying angsty teens can't write amazing poetry. I'm saying that I didn't write amazing poetry. I wrote my thoughts and feelings, usually in stream-of-consciousness form, but divided into lines, which I shoved into awkward rhyme. I'm talking, shoved, like I shove my six-foot knitted scarf into my winter coat pocket: a wadded-up, lumpy ball with loose ends hanging out. See what I did there? That's called imagery. It's also a simile. But you knew that. In my teen journaling days, a poem would be inspired by a single rhyme or assonance with a meter that felt melodious in my head. I would start writing in line and verse form instead of paragraph, and I'd squeeze those rhymes in that broke the meter or sounded really obviously forced. I've learned that you can't write a poem in one sitting. You can't. Poetry has to simmer, and then, actual work is required to compose, tweak, rearrange, throw out that whole stanza altogether, change the theme completely. That's when the wordplay begins. 2. Poetry is clever. You might need to research. Review your list of literary devices - all of them - and find the ones that jump off the screen at you - that's your muse talking. Then brainstorm. Experiment. Add layers. Then add more layers. You might also need to be prepared to kill that darling you desperately don't want to delete, because it's the thing that kicked off the poem in the first place, but sometimes, you have to shut up and do what your muse says. You know deep down that she's right. You just have to find a way to accept it. What I've found on WDC is that there are poems that look like they were written in one sitting with little-to-no simmer time, no extra work or time invested into playing with the words. And there are also brilliant masterpieces. 3. Poetry is like music. The masterpieces are the reason for my change of heart. If it's a true masterpiece, in my opinion, it reads like music. In fact, reading a poem aloud is one method I use to determine its brilliance. That might not jive with everyone because poetry is art. By definition, art is subject to interpretation. You could love something I think is just awful, and vice versa. But there are elements of poetry that make it poetry and not some other art form, and I feel like the rhythm of a poem, the music of it, is one of the critical elements. Conclusions Writing poetry isn't as unfun as I thought it might be. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what makes poetry poetry. Examples would be great. You're also welcome to debate my strong opinions on the subject matter.  |
| Most people know that Martin Luther King, Jr., civil rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was born the son of a Baptist minister in Atlanta. Did you also know how his musical upbringing connected MLK with his wife, Coretta Scott King and her family? The Bride Coretta Scott grew up in the small, segregated town of Heiberger, Alabama, where her parents owned a store. Her mother, Bernice, played piano at church. Coretta inherited her mother's musical talent: she was the leading soprano in the high school's senior chorus, played trumpet and piano, participated in school musicals, and even directed a choir at her place of worship. So it's no surprise that when she received a scholarship to Antioch College in Ohio from the Antioch Program for Interracial Education, she studied music. She also became politically active there, due to racial discrimination. The Groom Like Coretta Scott, Martin Luther King was also the child of a church piano player. He was memorizing hymns at age five and singing them in church by six. Later he developed a love for opera, sang in choir, and studied violin and piano. His mother, Alberta Williams King, served as the organist at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta for forty years. King's favorite hymns included "I Want to Be More and More Like Jesus" and "Take My Hand, Precious Lord". The Courtship Coretta transferred from Antioch in 1951 and met Martin Luther King when the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston awarded her a scholarship to study voice under the tutelage of classical soprano, Marie Sundelius. At first, Coretta wasn't interested in marriage, but they shared a love of music and a passion for civil rights. Eventually, she warmed up to the idea, but she had to come to terms with the likelihood that marrying a pastor would mean giving up her dream career in the music industry. And then, when they finally did agree to wed, they had to convince King's parents that she was right for King. The Engagement Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott announced their engagement in the Atlanta Daily World on Valentine's Day 1953 and married on June 18 of that year. Coretta did complete her degree - in both voice and piano - before the couple moved to Montgomery, Alabama in the fall of 1954. The rest is history. The Playlist I ran across this playlist published by Princeton in 2021, which highlights both music that Dr. King favored and music that was published posthumously in his honor. Enjoy: Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Jr. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coretta_Scott_King https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alberta_Williams_King https://www.ebenezeratl.org/our-history/ |
| Is it me, or are Sundays a little emptier around here than the other days? First, my progress against writing goals. Then I'll tackle the "Self Sundays" list: Family, Leisure, Work, and Health. Writing Goals  Blogged 5 of 7 days on WDC, but missed the topic "Writing Wednesdays" Novel progress - wrote a little earlier in the week, but I do seem to be avoiding* it Blogged Music Mondays topic at michelletuesday.com/blog Wrote and submitted short story for "The Bradbury" - submitted to "The Writer's Cramp" Completed "26 Paychecks " 2nd biweekly assignment Wrote and submitted a public short story review Extra Credit: Cleaned up my portfolio for several hours over three days Extra Credit: Randomly* wrote and submitted two poems for "PromptMaster !" and "The Contest Challenge" , so I guess I'm playing those games now, too "Arctic Wind" "Respite" * I suspect these two things might be related...? I'm calling this "sophisticated procrastination" - I make it look like I'm doing fancy things to avoid grunt work. Family - Keith starts a new job in a week. It's an internal lateral move with hopefully less stress. Leisure - Played entirely too much solitaire on my new Windows laptop. I don't even like solitaire. What wizardry is this? It's just another algorithm optimized to induce addiction. I have three of the five books I checked out at the library two extensions ago, but I'm too busy with writing projects and solitaire to read them. Work - It's January. We're working on taxes and enrolling like crazy, due to all the New Year's resolutions to "learn piano this year" and guitars received as holiday gifts that the recipients don't know how to play. - Our Winter Benefit Concert for GRIN (the local food pantry) is next Saturday afternoon, so we're busy with planning and extra rehearsals. - Just hired a new music theory teacher, so, resumes, interviews, and orientations happened. - The Bureau of Workers Comp has notifies us of their intention to audit us. We changed payroll companies last June, and initially our employees were set up with the wrong BWC job codes. The codes are important because they indicate the risk level, and therefore, workers' comp insurance premiums. My employees are all receptionists and teachers (code 8868, for "College/Schools - Professors/Teacher/Clerical Professional & Clerical"), but they were incorrectly set up with higher-risk job codes. I caught it because we were over budget, and the payroll company fixed the codes. I'm guessing that triggered an audit. So, that's fun. Health - Exercise: I have not stepped on the recumbent bike or treadmill at all this week. Exercise is the one and only thing that stymies Parkinson's. PD and Type 1 diabetes generally don't play nice with each other - Parkinson's causes tremor, which can disguise low blood sugar symptoms; low carb is ideal for diabetes, while protein interferes with levadopa (a key PD drug) absorption; and have you ever tried injecting yourself with a needle with shaky hands and uncontrolled tension in your muscles? Yet, for all that, PD and T1D both love exercise. - Diabetes: Had an endocrinologist (diabetes doc) appointment (virtual - I'm a big fan of "televisits") on Monday. I needed to get my A1C tested. I asked the doc to fax over the order. Meanwhile, I also had an array of blood and urine tests for my PCP in the form of a paper order, which I don't need for a month, but I'm not one to waste a trip. So I get to the lab, hand them my paper order and tell them I have an order from another doc on the fax machine. Reception desk says, "Make sure you tell them at the window that you have a fax order, too." I take the paper to the window, tell her I have a fax order, too, and she gives me a number. I wait to be called. Then I go in, get stuck, the phlebotemist draws three vials and give me a cup to pee in. Then I go home and wait as the results start pouring in - urinalysis results, cholesterol... but guess what result I did NOT receive?  That's right: A1C. The one I went there for. The good news is, the doc didn't have my result and couldn't yell at me for being over 7.0 again.- Parkinson's Disease: Had Botox in my larynx on Wednesday for vocal dystonia. Today I can't speak above a whisper, and that will last hopefully no more than a week. Yes, it's ironic, but here's what's happening: Dystonia is a neuromuscular disorder that cause involuntary muscle tension. Ask any voice teacher: tension is a singer's enemy. Botox paralyzes the target muscle, forcing it to relax. As you can see in my nerdy graph, the Botox paralyzes the crap out of my voice for a few days (where the graph spikes up in a sharp, skinny point), then it settles down and lasts for a few months before it starts wearing off. Hence, I get the injections quarterly. That's what's up, y'all. Catch you tomorrow for Music Mondays. Hope to see you then! |
| My Friday review goes to my favorite among my Cramp competitors. I highly recommend it. It's hilarious. Although, for the record, I read all of them, and there's honestly not a bad one in the bunch. Fierce competition today. Also, I learned from John  's story (which prompted a bit of Google research) that it's Lunar New Year's Eve today, kicking off the Chinese New Year. 2026 is the Year of the Horse. Happy New Year, if you celebrate.   Here is my Review of "The Great Noodle Rebellion - 523 Words" |
| I've been posting everywhere but my blog, so in case you missed any of it, here's what you missed. A nerdy pre-appointment analysis for my doctor, including math, spreadsheets and graphs: "Note: And they said I'd never use my biomedic..." A formal complaint about my inability to maintain a schedule: "Schedules" My completed Week 2 assignment for 26 Paychecks: "Task 2: Stalled!" A short story for The Writer's Cramp and The Bradbury, which is also a background story for my stalled novel: "The Adoption" Pardon me while I frantically throw on some clean clothes and head out so I can hopefully make it in time for Storm Machine  's lesson! It's been a busy one. |
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