It’s Okay to Love Stories With Holes in Them
“But, Mary, haven’t you said before that obvious holes in stories isn’t good?” Huh, and I thought no one read these posts. 😉 Indeed, I have said this, and I stand by it. Having a…
media and books
Actually, the Strongest Character in The Lion King Is…
**SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Disney’s 1994 animated The Lion King, as well as the 2024 live-action Mufasa. 🟪 🟪 🟪 I had a Lion-King weekend. Friday night, we watched the 30th anniversary…
#IdRatherBeGaming: My Odd Relationship With LitRPG
One of my most amusing memories of grad school comes from the semester Kevin Hearn, author of the Iron Druid Chronicles, was the guest speaker. Someone asked him if he read romance novels, to which…
A (Or Three) Cinderella Stories
Show of hands: Who else remembers when the 1997 Cinderella starring Brandy came out? *Glances around* ✋ Right, moving on. I did, indeed, see Brandy’s Cinderella when it came out and enjoyed it in the…
I Figured Out How Time-Travel Works
Sadly, no flux capacitors or DeLorean are involved. Rather, I experienced some time-travel watching a movie this weekend. Title is Aunt Mary, and it starred Jean Stapleton of All in the Family fame as an…
Consistency Is Key (Or at Least Nice to Have)
**SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for Toy Story 4 (which I’m sure many people have seen by now, but I wanted to give the warning anyway). 🟪 🟪 🟪 I saw the Toy Story…
Sharing a Song (And Linking it to Writing)
I’m doing things a bit differently today because life is busy, and my brain is just focused elsewhere. In a couple of weeks, I’m presenting at the Editorial Freelancers Association EFACON with a session on…
Grammatically Correct Evil
Greetings, friends. This will be brief because it is several hours late. I’ve just returned from a two-week vacation that was very much needed. As a result, I took last week off but wanted to…
Different Does Not Mean Unrelatable
Shortly after the #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement got going in 2014, I felt stumped. Granted, I was very new to the book world then, but I was also someone who’d been reading avidly for two decades and…
When Cliffhangers Work (And When They’re Just Annoying)
I first heard the Wicked Original Broadway Cast recording in 2024, and within the first few seconds of “Loathing,” I was hooked. It became my favorite musical and has stayed so until today. When I…