I don't know. I can say that I read more female authors than male, but that's probably because I avoid the genres in which men tend to write--cheating, that sort of thing. *shrugging* as for myself, I rarely leave a comment, and I generally don't respond to comments on my own stories--I don't have time, one, and two, my self-worth is not wrapped up in what whomever said about whatever. Which is not to say I don't appreciate the comments--only that there's only 24 hours in a day, and most of my 24 hours are booked.
Kate, you so deserve this recognition, for so many reasons. Love you, girl.
So....you're brand new here. Welcome. I would strongly recommend submitting a short piece--less than 5000 words--and waiting to see how it is received. People are more likely to offer their free punctuational advice, including our moderators and our story moderators, if they have an idea of exactly how awful your punctuation might be.
ETA: Just noticed you have already published a piece. It's less the punctuation that drives me away than the dry dictionary style of the introduction. My apologies.
Hi all! It's been a minute. Things are so great in the world (/s, if you needed it)!
Not working quite as much. Well, not 60 hour weeks as much. The oldest is back up in Vancouver, having lived through quarantine on campus. I am not even kidding, there were three kids--all dual citizens, all in studies where they had to be on campus--on an entire dormitory floor. He was told not to leave his room (he had a private bathroom and shower, obviously) and that a bag of food would be dropped off at 3p each day.
Did I mention the multiple handouts advising him that should he break quarantine, he would be subject to up to a $1M fine and/or 3 years in prison? Yah. That's a thing. I don't think anyone has actually been charged, but the fine is definitely a thing--and it's like a parking ticket, you can't exactly argue that you were someplace when you weren't.
Anyway! So he gets settled in Saturday. He's asleep Sunday morning when a knock comes on the door. It was--not even kidding--a BC Public Health Officer checking to be sure that he was at the address he'd given to the CBP.
The thing that kills me is, at least in Vancouver, masking and social distancing isn't even up for debate. I think it's the mentality--you're not whatever-Canadian, you're just Canadian. You do what is good for the guy next to you because he's the guy next to you. The oldest also thinks that Sophie Trudeau falling ill early and the Prime Minister openly working from home following that probably helped.
Not that the U.S. and Canadian cultures are remotely alike. Still, some things--like early, enthusiastic or mandated mask wearing by leaders; ample and repeated testing; and making social distancing a norm--would have made a huge difference down here. Canada isn't as good as Iceland or New Zealand in numbers, but it's pretty damn close, and the shared border didn't help.
Other things: RIP RBG. The chickens are good--one very special chick, who was the lone survivor of a number of tragedies that took out the eight other eggs in her clutch, hatched last night. She's a Dutch Barnevelder. Her name is Ruth...figured she had to be tough, like her namesake, to have hatched at all.
And thank you to those who remembered my birthday...I legit forgot until two days later.
Love you all.
Hi all. I'm sorry that I haven't been here, doing stuff that is fun. That is not a thing right now. Round of beer on me. Stay the fuck home, stay healthy, wear that mask your neighbour sewed for you, and wash your damn hands every single time the opportunity arises.
I'll be back to being my pre-COVID gregarious self...uh, sometime in late 2021 or Spring 2022. Until then, double every drink you buy--I have to know that there are places still where relaxing and chatting and having a beer is a thing. Oh, and "a fun educational summer project" like, say, ordering 72 fertile chicken eggs from three rare breed lines (who knew chickens could be a "rare breed"?) is not the most fantastic parenting choice. Especially if when you're also a nurse in the middle of a fucking pandemic and go into each shift not entirely sure if you'll be doing your scheduled 8 or 12, or if you'll be kept until you die or you've worked 16 straight hours, whichever comes first.
On the bright/happy side, I just candled three eggs (from a breed called the Bielefelder) and of the three, two had clearly moving chicks inside, with the third being clear--either infertile or a very very early embryo death. Anyway. Seeing the chicks moving was super exciting! I did not even know chicks moved around in their eggs--I don't know, I somehow thought they chilled and watched Netflix or something while growing little wings.
If anyone has any chicken hatching experience, please send me a PM. I have Bielefelder, Barnvelder, Svart Hona, Appenzeller Spitzhauben, and Westfalische Totleger (Deathlayer) eggs, and I have no fucking clue as to what it is that I'm doing. If I end up with two actual live chickens out of all of these eggs, it'll be a miracle.
Love you all.
~Jennifer
Yes. It's called "multitasking".
A 3M 8511 mask, right about now.
Congratulations to the top three and to the runners-up, and a huge thank you to all who took the time and expended the effort to submit a competition entry. Thank you.
Pretty sure that my middle has already been exposed, meaning that I have, too. Besides being exposed at work, in the centre of the epicentre of the epidemic, in Seattle, WA. I was showing the boys how to use the fancy new forehead thermometer. J. scanned his younger brother, R., and the display read something super normal. Then they reversed roles, and the display read something like 104.9 for Jacob.
I thought, must be a glitch, so I took out the batteries, replaced them, and scanned J. again. Nope, no glitch, the second reading was as crazy high as the first. No other symptoms, no coughing, no runny nose, and besides feeling tired and wanting to go to bed and generally being irritable (his primary state anyway, normal for age), no symptoms. I gave him ibuprofen and sent him to bed. Took about 36 hours (and I have no idea how long he'd been running a temp) for the fever to break, but had I not been testing the fancy new thermometer, I would never have known he even had one.
So yah, guessing that at least the middle one self-immunized, since he was vaccinated against influenza (and with influenza, a crazy high temp would be accompanied by a twin sign, a rapid onset crazy painful headache). Hoping the same happened with the youngest one.
Nope. A MMF three way is on the bucket list, but it hasn't worked out quite yet.
Rach, you're amazing and special and wonderful in so many ways, and all of those ways collide to create the perfection that is you. Love you. ~Jen
It is of course your choice to remove public access to your stories, but that choice will/would inevitably lead to disappointment. I am sorry.
In my case, each of my 18-odd stories are set in places with which I am intimately familiar, so the ephemera, the little details decorating the story, are absolutely 100% nonfiction. Even some of the people are very real people, names changed, of course. And I have a terrible habit of describing any given female protagonist as I myself appear.
That said, I suppose I don't agonise over someone or multiple someones trying to use any of my stories against me--after all, he/she/they would have to explain how they came to obtain the story in the first place. I also have the good(?) fortune of apparently being seen by others as "not the type" to write what I write. As in, I've printed out my own stories, given them to a close friend, she's read them, and she only believes that I wrote any of them because she knows that beneath my angelic demeanor lurks a dirty mind--that, and my habit of describing the female protagonist as looking like myself. Still, it took B. a few reads.
Anyway. I won't call you paranoid. A good friend of mine and a good Lush member deleted his account entirely for similar reasons. You do what you have to do, and then you live with whatever is left. Good luck.
Anyone who immediately identifies as female, bisexual and gives you a hyperlink is not going to be any of the previous two things. As StormDog mentioned, as with any social site remotely related to sex, we do catch our share of scammers--and even though as moderators we try to eliminate those scammers before they do damage, at the end of the day, ask yourself--why is this particular amazing woman interested in me? It'll save you a lot of pain and possibly money.
As to whether there are "real" single ladies on the site, I'm not sure exactly what you mean--of course there are single women on this site, but if you're asking if we are interested in pursuing relationships with random men, I would have to say no, probably not.
I have had my Tarot read (? not sure of the nomenclature) after meeting a lovely elderly woman and her son, helping her to her destination with her bags. The destination, of course, was Edge of the Circle Books, in Seattle, where she spent a couple of hours every week reading tarot cards for a fee.
Anyway. If anyone is a sceptic, I am. She offered to read my Tarot, declined to take payment, and so I sat down. I told her nothing about myself verbally--although it wasn't a straight cold read, since she knew going in that I was the sort to stop on a street and ask/demand to assist an elderly person in need of assistance.
She came up with what she called some "interesting" cards. IIRC she told me that one doesn't read any card alone but in combination with the other cards. She came up with my being fearless in protecting those whom I love or care about or believe need help (warm read--see above); my being a "master of death" (again, see above); and some other things, like that I make decisions quickly but carefully consider the math on those decisions (risk/benefit analysis; again, see above).
The only one that she possibly could have been "reading" was that I was considering a career switch--I hadn't told her anything about my career, although she saw my badge and probably saw me coming out of the Medical Centre's secure off-site facility, which is how she and I crossed paths. I was at the time looking into a BSc in Emergency Management (done, now) and was in fact working--then on a volunteer basis--with city Fire's Office of Emergency Management. Still, I don't chalk that up to some psychic ability--I chalk it up to a very good guess.
We did have good tea--I had some Murchie's Wedding Blend in my backpack, she'd brought cookies from home for the store owner, we had a lovely bit of conversation and laughter. I still go back on occasion just to check in on how she is doing, even though I now work at the hospital proper and not at the offsite facility. So yes, I have visited with a psychic, and yes, I've had my Tarot read, but no, not even slightly convinced that it's anything more than a very good eye for details that make psychics appear psychic.
Well, not the most famous, but a terrific coincidence.
Jonathan Raban, author of Passage To Juneau and Bad Land, among others, happened to have his sailboat, the Penelope, featured in Passage To Juneau, in a slip with an open slip next to it when I was moving my sailboat from another slip. So I had my girl transferred to the slip next to the Penelope. Now, at the time, I wasn't 100% that this Penelope was Raban's Penelope, but I knew that he had recently moved to Seattle, and I took an educated guess. Figured that if it wasn't his, oh well, no great loss.
Turned out it was his Penelope, and it turned out wonderfully--nothing like talking books and barnacles. Ended up with signed 1st/1st editions of...yah, pretty much everything he's published. Lovely man and really good at polishing teak.
Oddly, a lot of the famous or semi-famous people I've met and gotten to know are from the marina. Paul Allen (RIP) was wonderful, caring and kind, sending the crew of his Tatoosh over to secure my lines, among other things. The crew of the Northwestern, of Discovery's Deadliest Catch, and a handful of others.
