Jan 12 2024

New Year, New Goals!

Author: Jamie DeBree

Don’t you just love the fresh feel of a new year? I’ve been a bit busy, hence the lateness of this post, but better late than never. And I have been making progress on my goals already, which is the important part.

January is probably my favorite month. It’s my birth month, which may have something to do with it, but it’s also a new start, and often cold and snowy, which means plenty of time to hole up inside with hot drinks and warm blankets.

I’ve had some rough starts in recent years, but this year feels different. Better. Like it actually *wants* to be a good year, rather than just another obstacle course of challenges (or at least a somewhat easier obstacle course, anyways).

Regardless, I’ve decided to take it easy on the goals this year, and while some are fairly lofty, they should all be attainable even if I fall off track here and there. Nothing too rigid, nothing too demanding, just things that will eventually get done if I’m even 75 percent solid with my routines.

If you’ve been here for a few years, you know that I make a decent sized list of goals, and then pick three to dub actual “Resolutions”. Resolutions are the top priority – they get the first pick on the daily/weekly/monthly schedules, and they get more of the focus than anything else.

All the other goals are just “goals”, and I work on them after I’ve gotten the Resolutions taken care of for the day/week/whatever.

This year, my big three are:

1. Improve my handwriting through daily practice
This one stems from my increasing inability to read my *own* handwriting, which has just gotten worse over the years as I’ve moved most of my documentation and communication online. I decided I should do something about it, and I have to say, I’ve actually been enjoying the daily practice sessions so far (and yes, my handwriting is improving, slowly).

2. Pay off as much debt as possible.
I am a spender, not a saver. My family was poor when I was young, but unlike a lot of people in that situation who tend to be very apprehensive about spending money later in life, I enjoy spending now that I have money, and I have a too-cavalier attitude about not having enough (mainly because I know I can deal with not having enough if need be, not that I particularly enjoy it). However, I also realize the value of living within one’s means, and of saving and investing as well. And while I make a good living now, I’ve overspent far past my own comfortable limit lately, plus I’m paying off medical bills, and I need a new pair of glasses (not cheap, even with my insurance). It’s time to be responsible and pay down my debt/build up some savings. *sigh* Boring, but necessary.

To that end, I’ve found a new budgeting/finance software – Moneydance – that is somewhat more sophisticated than what I’ve been using (but not too much), and will allow me to do my weekly balancing a bit easier, but also to get a good snapshot of all my debt and our investments in the same spot. While I’d rather not see all my debt in one spot (depressing!), I need to. Knowing it’s there and having to look at those balances every week is motivating to me to get it paid down. So, much like doing a weekly balance/budget was motivating to me as far as getting a handle on my finances, this is the next step.

3. Write a minimum of 50 fiction words per day.
Fifty words is only a good paragraph or two, but it’s the daily practice and repetition I’m going for here. For the past several years, I’ve had a hard time with longer fiction, because I often don’t have the mental capacity for it after working all day (the hazards of a job that requires a lot of troubleshooting and puzzle-solving). So I decided that this year, I’m going to focus on short form fiction. Fiction of a length that can fit on bookmarks and inside cards. And if I happen to get some work done on my longer drafts too, that will be great, but short is my focus for the year.

So far, I’ve written at least 50 words every weekday (though not the weekends yet – I’m still working on scheduling that), and most days, over a hundred words once I get going. I’ve got three micro-stories written and waiting to be put in cards, and another good start that may well end up as an actual story with a bit of editing.

This writing resolution goes with one of my lesser “goals” this year, which is to create cards and bookmarks for sending/selling. I’m still waiting on a bit of equipment to come in for that, but I’m excited, because I’ve wanted to get back into paper crafting for awhile now, and using it as a publication outlet for my micro-fiction is the perfect way to do that. Limited edition cards and stories – it feels like a nice artisan way to continue writing and publishing. I hope to have the first cards done by the end of the month.

So those are my big three resolutions for the year. If I can accomplish these, and hopefully some of my lesser goals as well, it really will be a year of creativity, art, and growth. I can’t really think of anything that would be better!

Do you have any specific goals to work toward this year? Or are you just going to wait and see what happens?

Either way, I hope your year is off to as good a start as mine, and that it will be a year of health, growth, and prosperity for us all!

Recommendation
I came across this video on YouTube last weekend, and while I’ve been doing artistic things for as long as I can remember, I found this interesting and relevant to this year’s creative goals. Check it out if you have some time, and let me know what you think:

That’s it for this week! If you have a favorite thing to share, or want to recommend a book, TV show, video or podcast, comment below, email me at jamie@jamiedebree.com, or catch up with me on Facebook or Instagram.

Dec 01 2023

Connections & Cards

Author: Jamie DeBree

Admin

I know these posts have been sporadic lately, so if you’re still reading along – thanks! I’m moving the weekly posts to Friday, at least for the rest of the year, so this will be the new posting day. Hopefully it will fit better with the time I have available to write these.

Also, I’m going to be changing blog themes in the near-ish future, but I will do my best to make it as quick and unobtrusive as possible. Hopefully that will fix some of the formatting issues I’ve been having, and I’ll update some things that should have been updated quite awhile ago. Stay tuned!

Hangin’ Out

Not too long ago, I had a conversation with a friend via FB Messenger that was quite enjoyable (I much prefer one-on-one conversations to group convos), and after it was over, I realized that one of the bigger general life perspectives she shared with me was exactly what I needed to understand one of the characters I’m writing more fully. I don’t know that I would ever have gotten that so clearly (or at all) if not for that one-off, impromptu conversation that started as something else entirely.

A week or so later, I finally met a person in “real life” that I’d known online for awhile, and it hit me that she also has a unique perspective shared with one of my other characters (and also that we have a fair amount in common, and that I’d like to chat with her more). I shamelessly messaged her to set up a time when we could meet and chat. We did meet, and had a nice chat, and agreed that we should do such things more often.

I…am not good at getting together with people. I’m busy (like everyone else), and lazy (like some other people), and it’s *work* to find the time to actually plan a chat, work it out between schedules, then go and actually have the chat. I was trying to remember how I did it when I was younger, and a lot of my socializing back then was either movies or shopping. Two things I don’t actually do very often anymore (at least not in person). Movies really aren’t very conducive to conversation, but when I was young, it was never “just a movie”, it was a group of us, at the movies, and then in a restaurant booth late at night dissecting what we just saw (along with solving all the world’s problems over fries, as one does).

As for shopping…yes, we bought stuff, but we were on high school/college budgets, so it was more window-shopping than actual purchasing. Trying on silly hats or clothes, checking out the latest gag gifts at the mall, enjoying an Orange Julius while trying to avoid the perfume-sprayers like the plague – it was all just a way to spend time together and be “in” the community.

My husband and I used to get together with other couples occasionally – mostly guys he knew from work and their wives, but those events have fallen off over the years. And we haven’t invited anyone over in quite a long time either – partially due to the dogs (we’ve had several in a row that can’t really be kenneled safely), and partially just because it takes time to clean house and actually entertain. A few of my friends live out of town by a good hour or more, which makes it difficult to mesh our schedules for a get-together.

But, I haven’t tried much, either. That little chat in a coffee shop was the first time I’ve invited anyone to do anything in *years*, and I did it right away when I thought about it because I didn’t want to talk myself out of it (which is how out of practice I’ve gotten).

There’s something to be said for getting together as a smaller group, and another thing to be said about chit-chatting one-on-one. And anti-social as I am in general, I do see the value of being social, and cultivating a “friend group” (in person – socializing IRL is definitely different than socializing online). I just have to remind myself of that value when I’m being lazy and not wanting to give up my time.

All this to say, I’m going to try harder to set aside some social time once every 4-6 weeks or so. It may just be getting together with a friend for a chat (or a wander through the antique mall), it may be a group gathering of some sort (watch party? craft night? repotting session?), or maybe it’ll be a couples thing with…another couple. I’m going to need to replace my couch before I have people over (I mean, it would be a great discussion starter, but it’s seen much better days), so it’ll be several months before anything like that happens, but I think it would behoove me to spend some time cultivating a few in-person relationships.

Quarterly house parties, anyone? We’ll see.

How are you at staying in touch with friends? Not just online, but in person? Do you make an effort, or are you a “wait until someone calls” person, like me?

Writing News

I am currently working on polishing up the story I’ll send out with Christmas cards this year. I think that will probably take me to the end of the week.

I’ve also been thinking a lot about how I want to move forward with my writing. I seem to have the capacity for shorter fiction more than longer at the moment, so I’m toying with the idea of writing micro and flash stories for cards and bookmarks next year, rather than continuing to beat my head against novel-length works. These will be cards and bookmarks I make myself – so it will merge two arts/crafts, and put the focus more on creating specialty items in small quantities rather than trying to reach a global audience with a larger work.

That’s not to say I won’t still be working on my novels, but my current lifestyle really doesn’t support that kind of work, and I don’t want to stop writing altogether. I like writing short, and this will be a good way for me to keep writing and actually be able to *finish things*, which is helpful in motivating me to keep on with the longer form fiction.

So, I’m kind of excited about that. And at the end of the year, who knows? I might have enough short form fiction to publish a nice collection, too!

Recommendation(s)

Check out Jamie Brindle Books on Etsy for a general idea of what I’m thinking with the cards. There are a few other book-card writers there as well, if you browse around a bit. Fun, eh?

What do you think? Would you be interested in sending someone a card with a micro-story inside?

Apr 11 2023

Planning for Temporary Incapacitation

Author: Jamie DeBree

I’m having surgery next week.

This is something I’d hoped to avoid indefinitely, but…best laid plans and bum genetics (with a little “boisterous young dog” thrown in for good measure) have made it inevitable. Much like everyone else in my family, my gallbladder has given up on our relationship early, so it has to go before it becomes any more toxic.

One of the cool things about being a writer is…this whole experience is story fodder. Not just the surgery, but everything leading up to it, everything that comes after, and all the different emotions and thoughts that are floating through my head right now (along with those that aren’t).

While I’m knocked out, the surgeon is also going to do some exploring to see if he can find the cause of the pain I’ve been having in my lower right abdomen as well. Appendix? Scarring? A twist in my intestine (which would be rather ironic, considering this all started with a big dog paw to the gut)? Hopefully he’ll figure that out too, and if he can fix it at the same time, all the better.

Needless to say, this has me thinking about Advance Directives and a will. Yes, I know this is a very routine procedure (well, the gallbladder removal is), and techniques are such these days that people rarely have issues with it, but letting a group of people I barely know knock me out and poke around in my insides warrants a bit of advanced planning, methinks.

Last time I was in the emergency room being evaluated for a potential appendectomy, they sent someone to give me an Advanced Directives packet, which at the time, I thought might be a little dramatic. But being only a week out from having one of my organs removed has me taking it a bit more seriously.

So, I’ve decided to fill out the paperwork, which consists of a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, and a Living Will Declaration. This will tell everyone what my wishes are if the unthinkable happens, and I end up unable to make end-of-life decisions for myself (Living Will Declaration) or assign my husband the power he needs to make decisions for me in the event that I can’t make treatment decisions for myself (DPOAH). It will also keep people I *don’t* want making those decisions from making them, which is almost more important, IMO.

I thought I should also write up a quick and dirty personal will, just because everyone should have one, regardless of where they’re at in life, but I’ll admit, I’m at a bit of a loss as to how I want to leave things. Most of my stuff just isn’t going to be important to anyone but me, and my dogs are the only things I care about making sure they’re taken care of if I were to suddenly die.

I’m sure I’ll think about it over the next week or more, and maybe eventually I’ll settle on something. It’s not as important to me as the other at the moment, simply because if I die, my husband will be there to take care of the dogs and keep or sell my stuff. But I suppose it would be less of a headache for him if I lined things out anyways.

I don’t think any of us want to think about our own mortality (I know I don’t). But the fact is, none of us are immortal, and things happen that we don’t expect.

Even if I don’t die from the unexpected (let’s hope not, anyways), I also have specific wishes about what happens to me while I’m under anesthesia or heavy medication, and it seems like a good idea to make sure that’s all spelled out and left with someone I trust, rather than leaving it all up to chance for family members to fight over at a time when no one should be fighting (I mean, we all know they will anyways, but no sense in making it worse by not leaving explicit instructions).

Do you have Advanced Medical Directives lined out and on file? What about a personal will? Are you a control freak like me, who wants to make sure people know what you want in the event you can’t speak for yourself, or are you more the “they’ll figure it out” type?

Any bets on whether I’ll see a “real bright light” on surgery day or not (yes, this is a trick question)?

Mar 01 2023

It’s All Just Stuff…Sort Of

Author: Jamie DeBree

**Yes, this should have posted yesterday. I got distracted. Sorry!

Crates of books that have been in storage for nearly 20 years now.

Last summer, I wanted to clean out our storage unit so I could reclaim the hundred plus bucks a month I’m spending on rent for that. Things happened, injuries occurred, weather intervened, and I made exactly one trip to get stuff before the project fell by the wayside.

Now the storage unit company has decided to raise prices for the second time in as many years, and I’m *so* over it. The prices go up on April 1st (ha!), and I plan to have our unit vacated before that happens. So I’ve been making weekly trips, filling up the car each time and bringing everything back to the house for sorting and either assimilation, donation or sales.

The schlepping boxes has been going pretty well (and it’s a great workout, too). The sorting and finishing? Not so much. Mostly because I have time to get a load of boxes, or I have time to sort through stuff, but not both, given everything else that needs to be done in a weekend (you know…chores). But pretty soon, I will have no more room for boxes of stuff at the house unless I get rid of some of the extra stuff, so…yeah.

I have a plan, sort of. I currently don’t have time to get all the chores done on the weekend, because…extra chores with the storage unit clean-out and new aquarium projects. So Monday nights are “finishing nights”, wherein I finish anything leftover from the weekend. This week, it was watering plants, two loads of in-progress laundry (one needed to be put away, the other dried and put away), and making dog treats.

Tuesday and Thursdays are workout nights, so nothing there. But Wednesday and Friday are open, so I’m going to spend an hour each on both of those nights sorting through boxed stuff, and deciding whether to sell, donate, or keep each item. My goal is to list at least three items for sale online every week, and to have a donation box ready and in the car by the end of Friday night to drop off each Saturday morning on my way out to do errands.

I told my husband we need to set up a “Little Free Library” out front. We live near a church and a school (so lots of traffic and off-street parking by people who don’t acknowledge the huge parking lot closer to the buildings), and also on a street that gets a lot of walking traffic, so that would be a good way to cull our library a bit, since I definitely do not have room for *all the books* (which is really, really sad). Since he probably won’t get that done anytime soon (if at all), I’ll probably be donating a good chunk of books to our local rescue mission store as well. Most of the books in the boxes will stay…it’s the newer books on the shelves that will probably need to be thinned out a bit.

I hate getting rid of books. Hate it with a passion. But…space is finite, so…it’s time to buck up and just do it. I honestly have a lot of things that could be cleaned out. I tend to be a I tend to keep a lot of things just because I like the aesthetic, and I really don’t have room for all the stuff I think I need to keep. Sometimes even things that bring us joy just take up too much space.

Who knows? Maybe all this cleaning, sorting and clearing out will extend to the stuff that’s already in our home. Bring on the spring cleaning, right?

Feb 21 2023

Ever Forward

Author: Jamie DeBree

We have a local bookshop here (linked below!), and I’ve been a supporter since it was just a conception. When it opened, they agreed to carry my print books, because I’m a shareholder (so basically, I bought shelf space…and then I literally bought shelf space for awhile too). I think I gave them two copies each of Tempest and Desert Heat, the first books I published. My memory is sketchy, because it’s been several years, but I think they may have sold one of those at some point, plus a copy of Indelibly Inked which they ordered directly from me when someone requested a copy, because at the time, I was only publishing paperbacks through CreateSpace (which is now part of Amazon Kindle). Independent bookstores don’t like ordering books through Amazon, which is completely understandable.

A couple years ago, I thought I should publish those books through Ingram so they’d be easier for independent bookstores (or bookstores in general) to order. So I took Tempest and Desert Heat out of expanded distribution at Amazon, in anticipation of setting up print copies at Ingram. I had to wait a bit for them to be delisted from places that weren’t Amazon, so I could register the ISBN with Ingram as well, so I waited, and then set up the title record for Tempest at Ingram.

Problem is, by then, the book had been out for nearly ten years, and I’d switched computers several times. Long story short, I lost the original print file I’d uploaded to CreateSpace all those years ago. I had also decided to update my ebook covers for those books, so I figured I’d wait until I had that done, so I could update the cover for those paperbacks too. Needless to say, designing the new covers took longer than I thought it would, and then I was still facing a complete reformat of the print file before I could put the paperback on Ingram.

I put it off for quite some time, got busy, etc, and this whole time, the paperbacks were only available on Amazon, and not even out in expanded distribution for places like the Book Depository (which apparently has no issues listing books from the Amazon catalog). Last week, I decided I really needed to finish this whole book migration project, and I spent the majority of a day reformatting Tempest, only to have it end up at a different page count that the original file. Then I started digging into ISBNs and when to use a new one, and as it turns out, doing the reformatting and clean up and new cover all together basically qualified as a “new edition” of the book…which would require a new ISBN.

I have exactly one ISBN left in my coffers at the moment, and won’t be able to buy more for a couple of months (they’re expensive here…if you live in a country where they’re free, consider yourself lucky!). And I was still facing fixing the cover, which was what I had planned for today.

The whole time I was working on this redo, I asked myself why I was spending so much time updating old books that I haven’t sold a copy of in years. Yes, the remaining copies at the bookstore were purchased, but it was a “thank you” purchase of sorts, not a purchase by someone who just thought they looked interesting and wanted to read them. Which is fine, and I appreciate it, but I also have to take into consideration the fact that…those books aren’t generating interest or sales for other books. Nor are people buying them currently, and putting new covers on the ebooks didn’t change that, so…why was I spending all this time on them, instead of working on getting books that haven’t been in paperback published in that format, and working on writing and publishing new things that might be more appealing to readers, given my growth as a writer in the twelve(?) years since those first books were published?

Then I took a shower today before I was going to sit down and finish the new paperback cover for Tempest. As I’ve said many times before, the shower is an excellent place to think.

There’s a marketing school of thought that putting new covers on your old books, rewriting the blurbs, and generally bringing them up to date can breathe new life into sales for them. And that may be true, but with the limited time I have, I think the time I’ve been spending on old books could be far better spent on writing and publishing newer stories that might appeal more to today’s audience. Not that there’s anything wrong with the older books, but they are dated, and while I did the best I could writing them (and I still like the stories, personally), I know I can do better now.

So today in the shower, I decided to stop spending time on my old paperbacks. It’s okay if indie bookstores don’t want to order them from Amazon – they can still order from me, and I’ll put up a way to order from the BSB site directly so they don’t have to really deal with where it’s coming from if they don’t want to. I doubt I’ll get many orders for those anyways, because as I said, they aren’t selling.

I’m going to put my energy and time into my newer books instead. MacKenzie Saves the World has never been out in paperback, and neither has When She Cries by my alter-ego, Alex Westhaven. I can publish those paperbacks through Ingram to start, and they’re pretty close to ready. And I want to keep moving forward with the books I’m setting in the Magpie, Montana world – I have a couple drafts written that just need revisions, and the draft in progress that I’m really excited to finish and get published.

Someday when I have time and energy, maybe I’ll go back and revise, reformat, and recover some of my older books. Heck, maybe I’ll even pick up where I left off with the Fantasy Ranch series, after revising the first of those – I have several more story ideas for that particular world.

But for now, forward, not back. Prioritizing books that might appeal to more readers, over things that are…well, largely sentimental at this point.

As for Tempest and Desert Heat, they are available again via Amazon’s expanded distribution, which means the paperbacks should be available in most online stores again soon. I’ll set up a simple way to purchase directly from my Brazen Snake Books site in the next month or so, and let everyone know when that’s available.

In the meantime…back to my little community of Magpie, where the secrets kept by people are deep, but the secrets held in the mountain are deeper.

Jan 31 2023

All the Things…or None.

Author: Jamie DeBree

Ever since I burned out on the whole writing/publishing biz in December, I’ve been…well, I guess “pouting” is probably the most accurate term. I tell myself I’m just trying to get back into the flow, or trying to decide the best way to start again, or that I’m just not exactly sure how I want to proceed yet, but the reality is, I’m just throwing a quiet mental temper-tantrum because I know I can’t do everything I want to do the way I want to do it.

Since I can’t do (write/publish) it all, I’m currently doing (writing/publishing) nothing.

Which is a bit ridiculous. And if I keep doing nothing, well, that’s ridiculous too.

I *am* still trying to figure out how I want to move forward – that’s partially an excuse, but there’s truth in it as well. Since I can’t do everything, I need to prioritize, and that’s proving a bit difficult, just because I have some decision paralysis on what I want to cut out.

But there’s no reason I can’t work on one of the projects I know I want to finish this year while I’m noodling all that out. I have a perfectly good novel started (three, in fact, but just one I intend to finish this year), and there’s no good reason I haven’t been working on it for the past few weeks. A couple week’s worth of writing could easily have netted me another 5-10k words (on a book that needs 50-60k total), but instead I’ve been pouting. Which is stupid.

Do not come at me for using the word “stupid”. I can refer to myself however I want, thank you very much, and while I am reasonably intelligent most of the time, I have plenty of stupid moments as well. No sugar-coating here.

In any case, I need to stop focusing on all the stuff I have to set aside for now, and start focusing on what I am perfectly capable of working on right now. I want to finish a novel I’ve already started, so I need to just finish it already, and stop thinking about everything else. The more I think about all the projects, the more depressed I get, but I know from experience that finishing one thing will both make me happier, and motivate me for the next project.

A body in motion tends to stay in motion. A body at rest tends to stay at rest. The hardest thing is to change state from being “at rest” to being “in motion”. We’ve had the same issue with physical movement lately, after having one or both of us sick with whatever for the last solid month. Getting moving again has been a painful process, but necessary for our health. Bodies are meant to move. And mine was getting progressively less content with our minimally-moving state.

Hopefully by the time you read this, I’ll have changed mental states, and started writing forward again.

I don’t have any good tips and tricks for getting unstuck, because I tend to be a “brute force” kind of person and I simply keep prodding myself mentally until I get moving again. But I know not everyone works like that.

What did you do to get moving again last time you were stuck in an “at rest” state? Or are you stuck now, and trying to push forward? Feel free to share – I’m sure I’m not the only one who would be interested to hear how other people deal with this.

**Note as of posting day: I wrote this a week ago, and I’m happy to report that while progress is still slow, I am writing again. Some days it’s only a sentence or two, but I’ll take it. Onward!

Jan 24 2023

Bibliophile or Bookworm?

Author: Jamie DeBree

When I was younger, I never really made a distinction between being a reader and being a book collector/bibliophile. I thought it was all the same thing. I loved reading, and I also loved books as objects, so it never occurred to me that there might be readers who didn’t also love books.

I’m not really sure how I missed that, considering that my mom is one such person. She reads (and has always read) constantly…she was even a school librarian for many years, but somehow, she never needed more than one bookshelf for herself. And even that wasn’t ever full.

Chalk it up to the self-centeredness of youth, but I actually never realized she didn’t keep books after reading them until I’d moved out, and started buying them as gifts for her here and there. She would read them, and pass them on, and I was a little put off by that for a great while. I couldn’t understand why she’d give such a gift away, even after professing to having “loved” it.

Of course she was constantly asking if I wanted this or that book she’d just read, and some I’d take, and others not, depending on if they interested me or not. Of course those books are all still on my shelves, because unlike her, I can’t bear to part with books, unless I absolutely hate them (and even then, I tend to keep them around because…

Well, I’m not sure, exactly.

My book hoarding/collecting tenancies started when I was young. We didn’t have much money (or any, a lot of the time), so we checked a lot of books out from the bookmobile, which parked by our apartment complex once a week. On occasion, we rode the bus downtown to the library, which was like a giant candy-store to me, and checked out large stacks of books to take home and read before they had to be given back.

So when I was gifted a book on my birthday or Christmas, often inscribed with a short message from the giver just inside the front cover, that was special. I treasured those books and couldn’t imagine ever giving them up. My personal library grew slowly but surely over the years, and when I finally got a job, I paid for my own clothes, gas, insurance, fast food, and bought books every chance I got.

I kept fiction and non-fiction alike, and I drooled for weeks over a beautiful leather-bound, decorative version of Gone With the Wind seen in our local used bookstore when I was in college. I wanted it, so badly, but it was $200, and I did not have the money. I still think about that book, over twenty years later, lamenting that I never was able to add it to my collection.

When I finally bought my first house, moving my books was the first thing I thought of, and four years later when I got married and moved into our current house with my husband, there was never any doubt in my mind that I’d be moving a bunch of books. Although…I’d say that’s definitely the thing I dread most about moving – carrying boxes of books.

I have a Kindle, and a Nook (somewhere), and the Kindle app on my phone. I do read ebooks occasionally, as they’re easy to access when I’m not home. But it’s not the same for me. They feel…ethereal, and when people complain that ebooks shouldn’t cost as much as a print book, I kind of agree with them, because there’s a large part of the experience that’s missing for me when reading an ebook. Yes, the story’s there, and theoretically, it’s no different than turning real pages, and it’s far, far easier to make the text bigger when necessary, but with an ebook, I don’t have the actual object to keep, to look at, to take down off the shelf and thumb through the pages, getting caught up in a random page of text that suddenly makes me want to read the whole thing again.

Though obviously, that’s why attics and basements are notoriously difficult to clean out.

This isn’t a “are ebooks or print books better” post (I am all for stories existing in every form possible), but a recent conversation with a friend about the “problem” of collecting physical books and not wanting to get rid of them has me thinking about books and what they are to different people. I think it’s interesting to note that while some of us readers are also book collectors, others are not, and the two perspectives can make for a rather wide abyss.

Will I ever get to the point where I can let go of my physical books and be content with only the “content” in digital form? Perhaps, I suppose, but I dare say only when I’m unable to move with and enjoy the physical collection any longer. And probably never for some things, like recipe books and “how tos”. Because it’s comforting to me that if someday all the electronics get fried by an electromagnetic pulse, and Google ceases to exist (along with ebooks), the information on how to survive and prosper will still exist somewhere in a physical book, for people to find and decipher.

This thinking of books as collectable objects has given me renewed motivation to get my own books back into print…or the ones that have been languishing waiting for me to finish the updates, anyways. What better books to keep in my collection than those I’ve written myself, eh?

What about you? Are you a bibliophile, a bookworm, or both?

Oct 07 2022

Magpie Shiny, Ch. 6

Author: Jamie DeBree

This story is posted weekly in draft form. Need to catch up? Here are links to the previous chapters:
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5

“Last time I saw you, you were wearing that same faded-flag tank top. Only tied up to show your belly, if I remember right.”

The last time Lauren Tate had heard that voice purring in her ear was the night before she’d left Magpie for good, or so she’d thought. It still made her palms sweaty and her heart beat faster. Probably always would, dammit.

“It was one of the few things still in my closet at the homestead. I’m just glad it still fits.” She turned around to look at her high school crush. “Sorry, the daisy dukes don’t fit anymore. So you’ll have to ogle someone else’s ass… not that you weren’t doing that back then, anyway. How’s Christy, by the way?”

Colter put his hands on his hips and stepped back, shaking his head with a sardonic smile and looking off over her shoulder. He’d always made her five-foot-four-inches feel short, and his wavy black hair still curled at the nape of his neck under the black baseball cap on his head. She wasn’t sure, but that Godsmack t-shirt might be nearly as old as her tank top.

“If you’d stuck around long enough,” he said, “I could have told you Christy wasn’t a thing. She was setting me up, and you fell for it like she knew you would. As soon as you left town, she never looked my way again. I’m surprised Beth or Vinnie didn’t pass that along. Unless you ghosted them, too.”

Her best friends had passed the message along, but she hadn’t believed it. Hadn’t wanted to, really, because she’d needed to get out, and believing Colter didn’t want her was the only thing that made it easier to stay away.

Things had changed, though, and Maddie needed to know her dad. Hopefully Colter was interested in that roll, no matter how he felt after she came clean.

“There’s something you need to know,” she said, waiting for him to look her in the eyes. “Something I should have told you a while back.”

He nodded and stepped forward, lowering his voice as he moved into her personal space. “I heard you came back with a kid. I used a condom, Lauren – or did you forget that too?”

“Thing is, they don’t always work.” He stepped back at that, and she shook her head and rolled her eyes. “I don’t expect anything from you. I never did, or you’d have heard from me long before now. But it’s not something we can hide, so yeah. She’s yours. I just wanted to tell you before someone else did.”

“You’re gonna have to get a paternity test to prove that.”

Lauren grinned. “I don’t think so. See for yourself.” She looked over her shoulder and called out, “Maddie! Come over here, sweetheart!”

Maddie turned away from the clown making balloon animals, and Lauren swore she heard Colter’s breath hitch as their daughter ran up, the same dark waves spilling down her back that dusted his neck, those same pointed cheekbones, and the same sapphire eyes sparkling under long black lashes.”

Even if Lauren had wanted to erase him from memory, she couldn’t. Every time she looked at Madeline Magpie Tate, she saw her daughter’s father.

She was small, and always had been, but what she lacked in stature, she made up for in personality. She stopped in front of Colter and gave him a big smile.

“Is this him?” She looked at Lauren, who nodded, and then back at Colter. “Mom’s right – we do look alike.”

Lauren put her hands on Maddie’s shoulders. “Colter Brennigan, meet Madeleine Magpie Tate. She prefers Maddie, or if she really likes you, Magpie.” She smiled down at their beautiful girl, amazed that they’d made something so special.

“Magpie, this is your daddy. You can call him Colter.”

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Mar 01 2022

Variety News: March 1, 2022

Author: Jamie DeBree

Photo of the Week

General Discussion

One year ago, we walked over to the parking lot at the church across the street from our house and introduced Athena to Apollo. It was love at first sight, and his owner tearfully said her goodbyes and handed over the leash. We’ve all had a few bumps and bruises since (and there was a lot of inanimate collateral damage in the beginning), but Apollo and Athena are still best buds to this day.

Last year, he ate his way out. This year, he’s cool as a cucumber.

I thought a comparison photo would be appropriate, and as you can see above, he’s come a long way with his crate training. He’ll often run to his crate without even being told when I’m getting ready to leave in the morning or just after lunch, because he knows the routine, and he’s good with it. In a few more months, we’ll start working on letting him stay out with Athena for short periods while we’re gone. We just need to work on that impulse control a bit more (don’t we all?).

He’ll be two in April, and he’s filled out a bit since we got him, though I doubt he’ll get any taller. We’ve been working on his reactivity to other dogs, especially while on leash, and when I have him out by himself, he’s starting to do much better. Athena is working on her own reactivity, so they’re still quite a handful when I walk them together, but we’re making progress, and I have plans for some more comprehensive individual training once the weather gets nicer. I don’t know if we’ll ever be able to break him of that entirely, but we’ll see.

He’s got lots of energy as a youngster (though not nearly as much as Athena), but I can see a definite lazy streak in him foreshadowing a serious couch potato nature as he matures. Whereas he and Athena drag me off the couch now, I can see myself having to drag him out for walks later in life.

His favorite thing in life is his ball, and he will chase it for a good hour in the house before he needs a break, but isn’t much for chasing it out in the yard. He’d rather chase the squirrels and bunnies. Heaven help us if he gets a hold of one – to him, all small fuzzy things are just squeaky toys meant to be destroyed.

I can’t imagine not having this big, goofy boy in our life. Yet again, the right dog found us at exactly the right time.

Currently Reading
I’m reading two books right now – The Valentine by Denise Grover Swank, and Creative Self-Publishing, by Orna Ross. Something fun, and something informational.

Incidentally, has anyone else heard about Storygraph? It’s like Goodreads, only not tied to Amazon (and from what I’ve seen so far, with less drama, but it is new). I’m trying it out for book tracking/social reading, and it seems to have a very good recommendation engine (talk about needing impulse control). Check it out, and if you join up, find me! I think we can be buddies, though I haven’t really experimented with that just yet.

Video Highlight
So…I did a thing. I joined TikTok, and of *course* my very first video was of the dogs. Check it out, if you’re so inclined:

httpss://vm.tiktok.com/TTPdSweafd/

httpss://www.tiktok.com/foryou?_r=1&_t=8QGmsl8XMFS&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=7069980280257531182#/@jamiedebree/video/7069980280257531182

Song of the Week
This was my alternate song for the dog video. And I’ll just say up front that I know it’s by a Russian composer, and I didn’t pick it for that reason, but…I think it’s a good reminder that art transcends government and political structures.
httpss://youtu.be/M93qXQWaBdE

httpss://youtu.be/M93qXQWaBdE

Pop Quiz!
What’s the thing that tests your impulse control the most?

At the moment, mine is definitely food. *sigh* So many yummy flavors and textures…and such a good dopamine hit…

Post Round-up
The Writer’s Desk (last updated: February 26, 2022)

Oct 05 2021

Variety News – 10/5/2021

Author: Jamie DeBree

On My Mind
To anyone who may be curious – my covid test was negative, and I’m still fine, thanks. The hubby is doing his best to recover, though it’s very much an up and down process, which is rather frustrating for him, unfortunately.

The other thing on my mind is my attitude, and this blog. I’ve been musing (read: whining) a bit too much about my shortcomings, methinks. It’s boring me, and probably anyone else reading too, so…enough with that.

The thing about creativity is…enjoying the creativity of others tends to inspire creativity (for me, anyways). I haven’t been focusing enough on that, so…time to do that! And I’m going to share with you what I’m currently enjoying and how it’s inspired/inspiring me, so that maybe you’ll be inspired too (or you can just sit back and enjoy – no obligations whatsoever).

Nail Art
I know most people probably don’t get inspired by Facebook ads much (yes, I just heard all that booing and hissing), but I actually do. I actually work hard to “curate” the ads I see by clicking on the ones I may find interesting, even if I don’t plan to buy anything, and then just going “back” right away so that the algorithms know that’s what I prefer to see more of. So I get a lot of ads for nail and hair things, which enables FB to keep the servers running and me to not be so irritated by ads breaking up my feed.

Recently, there have been a spate of nail art ads – all sorts of different products, but one stood out especially – Maniology. I tried nail art stamping eons ago when Konad was all the rage, but I only had marginal luck with it, and haven’t even looked at my stamping plates or stamper in years because it was too much trouble for little reward.

But when I saw the new clear stampers (so you can see your nail and exactly where the design will go), and poked through all the cool new stamping designs on their site, I had to try it again with the “latest” technology. So I ordered a starter kit, got it a couple weeks ago, and it’s such a different, more fun experience that I’ve stamped designs on my nails for two weeks straight just “playing”.

I’ve also ordered more stamping plates and subscribed to their monthly box, but we don’t need to talk about the money aspect of it…can you really put a price on creativity?

My favorite nails this week are my index fingers, which turned out well like so (yes, I know the circuits aren’t centered – perfection is not the point here):

I also just started a new play through of Stardew Valley (because I was an idiot and forgot to transfer my save file from my other phone). Both the nails and the gameplay inspired this teeny-tiny story, which is what I’ll leave you with this week. Enjoy!

“Come have coffee with me.”

Janet raised her eyebrows at the beard-clad, long-haired blond hipster who’d taken the empty seat next to her at the bar. It was empty because her more social roommate had dragged her here for company, knocked back a couple of shots and left for the dance floor an hour ago. Every once in awhile Janet caught a glimpse of Robin’s short purple sequin skirt and black thigh-high boots gyrating in and out to the cool sounds of…well, a plethora of musical artists Janet had never heard of and was happy enough in her ignorance.

Her would-be barista was still waiting, green eyes hopeful and surprisingly clear for someone in their current environment.

“Why?” She wasn’t actually being naive or difficult, but she knew her messy bun, oversized tee and yoga pants didn’t exactly scream ‘come hither’. She’d only come out under duress, and only stayed because it gave her an excuse to start a long-overdue play through of Stardew Valley and drink an endless amount of Coke without too many people bothering her.

He leaned in with a toothy grin, and pointed to her screen. “Because I can tell you how to read the scrolls in the Community Center.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Can you also tell me how to find Robin’s Axe? I’ve been looking for it for three days now.”

He nodded and winked. “Come with me, young valley-girl. I’ll show you whatever secrets your heart desires. I’m Aaron, by the way. And my shop is two doors down on the right, if you want to tell someone where you’re going.”

Janet looked at the jumble of bodies on the dance floor and shook her head.

“Janet. Nice to meet you. And nah – she doesn’t care. I’m all yours.”

He took her hand with a smile and led her to the door, ushering her out past the security guard and into the night.

Jamie DeBree

Writer | DBA | Dog Wrangler

Uncategorized

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Magpie Shiny, Ch. 6

Variety News: March 1, 2022

Photo of the Week

General Discussion

Variety News – 10/5/2021