Medusa of Troy

Habit

2026-04-14T02:51:28Z

Today has been consumed by ... stuff. Health stuff, work stuff, political stuff, personal stuff. Not much time to write or think.

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Sunday, Sunday

2026-04-13T03:36:09Z

I had light plans today. Farmers market, coffee, reading, maybe some writing, a touch of knitting, Instead, something held me at bay. Not a wolf - wolves are dangerous, as are many feral creatures, but I like wolves and I don't want to ascribe more negative connotations to them than they already suffer.My arachnophobia made putting another creature, however much I hate it, as a fitting metaphor for my monster of the psyche. And then it found the creature: the octopus. Arms for ennui, anxiety, depression, fear, ADHD, etc. etc.

The octopus stole my sleep, my desire to get up, even the idea for a short story that came to me in the phase between wakefulness and not. I don't tend to remember my dreams, but this wasn't a dream, it was a wandering thought. Will I ever get it back?

But I gave the octopus its due for a bit before fighting back: getting up, doing ablutions, getting out for coffee and sun and the first few chapters of Naomi Novik's Spinning Silver. And gradually, the inky darkness cleared, the arms loosened and I could dive into adulting and feel myself.

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Writing is a muscle

2026-04-11T22:03:43Z

Okay, no, writing is a skill. But it's also a muscle - it needs to be used and primed and kept in shape. And I've let mine become atrophied. Here's hoping this might be a way of building it back.

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How to Help A Hungry Werewolf by Charlotte Stein

2025-01-06T04:50:17Z

I like How to Help A Hungry Werewolf a lot but it took me a bit to get into its groove. For instance, I thought Cass would express more anger. And that Seth would grovel more, especially at the beginning. Use your words, I kept thinking. But then I realized/learned why they didn’t and couldn’t at that point, and not just because they are magical.

Slight spoilers ahead …

Both Cass and Seth are victims of parental neglect and bullying. Both of them suffer from trauma based on the bully and neglect. And that trauma has arrested their emotional development. They both have trust issues and they have virtually no one to express those issues to outside of each other. Magic plays a part in this but isn’t the whole story. They are stuck, teen hearts in adult bodies, and while they are definitely grown up in a lot of ways, they are incomplete.

HTHAHW does a lot to allow Cass and Seth to heal themselves and each other. And it’s truly hot and riotously funny in parts, achingly tender in others. I inhaled this book, to be honest. Sequels would be nice. And Cass and Seth developing their own coven/pack of dear friends and solid friends would be so up my alley.

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Improv Poesy

2010-10-02T00:53:31Z

A couple of years ago, at a party in/for the East Bay, there was a guy with a little portable typewriter, selling poems he would write before your eyes. You could specify the subject, but I didn't.

Clouds of Today

tomatoes the case for the letter e
at the end of your name is born
in syntactical accuracy we wont
be kept silent forever but we
are willing to listen to the
summer if she offers us
fruits from her eden

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Moving issues

2010-09-26T00:39:31Z

1) I'm moving from LiveJournal to here ... slowly.

2) I'm moving from the Bay Area to Seattle ... less slowly! Oy. So many things. Many of which will be thrown out, recycled and given away.

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Huzzah

2010-09-20T04:16:10Z

And I have a dreamwidth account! It's so ... pink.

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