Friday Fun

Well, it's Friday, ape-friends. Which means it's time for the weekend!

This is a good thing, but the bad thing about the weekend is that it means we're one step closer to all the weekdays. But I'm going to close my eyes and pretend they're not there. Just like when my mom takes a photo of me.

If I ignore the camera and my mom, they don't exist

But anyway, onto the fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Insecure Writer's Support Group

Time for IWSG!

I am honestly shocked that's it's already August.

I mean, what the hell? I know time is relative and all that, but where did the summer go? Seriously! I feel like we JUST got out of winter.

But the good thing about August is it means it's time for the MN Renaissance Festival and the MN State Fair. I will attend both events multiple time and eat too much food and complain about the terrible summer heat.

Other things are going on, of course. Mainly, a lot of writerly things.

Writerly things on my plate:

• Must tackle and complete all edits for ALL THAT REMAINS from my lovely editor
• Must try and finish WIP (this is the goal set to me for this semester by my wonderful MFA Mentor Laura Ruby)
• Begin (and hopefully finish ASAP) sequel to ALL THAT REMAINS.

So, yeah. I mean, it's only three things, but they're not little things. They're just like, oh I don't know, write entire novels and revise entire novels and all that fun stuff.

So, maybe I'm feeling a bit insecure about that. I mean, these are problems to HAVE, amiright? And I'm up for the challenge. I also think there's a good chance that maybe I'll be some sort of maven of productivity and manage to juggle all three of these balls at once.

But there's also a chance I'll drop them all.

Time will tell I'm sure.

In Which I Return From Residency

So I'm back from my MFA residency. Obviously since I  blogged last week and junk.

Residency was great! I got to catch up with any and all friends I hadn't seen for 6 months.

Mainly, these nerds:

But also peeps that aren't in the same class with me. There was also an incoming class and it was fun getting to know the newbs.

Workshop was frickin' awesome, as usual. My workshop instructors were Laura Ruby and Jane Resh Thomas. Tears were cried, but there was also a lot of laughing, and, most importantly, some amazing crits from my fellow workshop peeps and the instructor. I can only hope I gave as well as I got.

Then midweek or so it was time to get our new mentors. I had to say goodbye to the amazing and awesome Anne Ursu, and circle 6 new names for instructors I would want to work with. Then there would be a secret meeting (lovingly called The Sorting Hat) and we would be assigned new mentors based on whom we'd circled and what we wanted to work on this next semester.

I'm going into second semester, which is a lot like first semester except we're expected to write a ten page paper besides our three 5 pagers. This it to start preparing us for the 30 page Critical Thesis we'll have to tackle next semester.

But, Anne made me write a 10 pager last semester so I'm well prepared for that.

So after I circled my names and wondered who I'd get, I was assigned to lovely and talented Laura Ruby!!

I'm so so super excited to work with her, especially after having her as my workshop instructor. Going into the program I was really hopeful I'd get to work with her at some point, so I'm glad I do.

And that's a nutshell of what happened during residency.

How are things going with you? Fill me in on your summer!

Friday Fun

Can you believe it's already August, ape-friends??

This summer is going way too fast, which means I need to start sunbathing a lot more in order to sustain me through the cold, dark winter.

Because it's coming, ape-friends. Oh yes, in Minnesota, Winter is always coming.

So let's have some fun!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wednesday Weird: The Dybbuk Box

A dybbuk box is a wine cabinet that's purportedly haunted by a dybbuk, a malevolent spirit from Jewish folklore, capable of haunting and possessing a person.

A particular dybbuk box became famous (there's a book written about it, and it inspired the 2012 movie The Possession) when it was listed on ebay with a frightening backstory.

In September 2001 an antique buyer hit up a Portland auction, where the belongings of a 103 year old woman were being sold. The woman's granddaughter told the antique dealer that her grandmother had been Jewish and the only member of her family who had survived a concentration camp. When she emigrated to the US she only brought three things with her, one of which was her wine cabinet.

The granddaughter told the dealer that her grandmother always kept the box hidden and said that it should never be opened because it contained a dybbuk. She requested that the box be buried with her, but that went against Jewish tradition, so her family didn't comply.

The antique dealer bought the cabinet. Inside he found some old pennies, a lock of hair, a goblet and a candleholder.

He placed it in his workshop in the basement. Almost immediately strange things started to happen, including lights flickers, light bulbs shattering, strange smells (like cat urine) coming from nowhere, and terrible sounds emerging from the basement.

Because the dealer was either dumb as fuck, or smart(?) he gave the box to his mother, who shortly after had a stroke. At the hospital she spelled out a message: H-A-T-E-G-I-F-T.
He tried to gift it a few more times, but it was always returned to him because the recipients either didn't like it, or felt it was ominous.

The dealer began to sleep poorly and have nightmares. He would also catch glimpses of shadow people darting around. Once, when he was doing research about the box online, he fell asleep at his desk. When he woke, he felt breathing on the back of his neck. He turned and saw a large shadow flying away from him down the hall.

That's when he decided to list the cabinet on ebay.

It migrated to different owners before Jason Haxton, author of the book about the box and curator of a medical museum in Missouri, purchased the box. He resealed the box and stored it at a secret location, which he will not reveal.

So there you go! I haven't seen the movie, but I remember the previews and it looked pretty good. Thoughts? Theories?

In Which I Deal With The "To Be Read" Pile

So my little local library closed.

I actually don't use it that often. I do most of my library visits on Sundays (Sunday is my day o' errands) and the White Bear Lake library was closed on Sundays, so instead I'd hit the bigger one the next town over.

So yes, the WBL library closed down a few weeks ago. But for good reasons! They're rebuilding it, zazzing it up, making it awesome. Yay!

But because that will take some time, they sold everything in the old library. Everything.
Books. Movies. Book shelves. Chairs. Tables. Desks.

Library carts.

As soon as we realized they would have library carts, Twin and I were all up over that.

We both had huge stacks of books "to be read" on our end tables. If we could snag a library cart, we could move our piles onto that!

So off we went!

They had different sizes at different prices, so we snagged a mid size one.

Three shelves meant one shelf for my TBR pile, one for Twin's and one for books that either need to be shelved or sold or lent out.

It wasn't much to look at. So we decided to spruce it up with some spray paint.

Yvie says, stop dealing with that cart and start throwing the Frisby

 

 

Tula says, if I won't throw that toy for her, she's going to nap in the yard.

So there we go! Now our end tables are cleaner and our piles better organized. Will it help? Who knows. But at least it looks nice.

 

 

In Which I'm At My Residency

As the title says, I'm off for my second residency for my MFA.





I'm super excited and I know it will be so much fun, but that means no blogging until I'm back, probably the week of the 21st, or maybe even the 28th.

Have a great few weeks and I'll catch you on the flip side!