The Sparrow's Nest

I got my MS back for book 2! So I quickly contacted my cover artist, set up a battle plan for the launch, made a rough guess as to when the book will release, started making a to-do list of everything I need to get the book ready, (proper chapter headings and numbering, glossary, dedication page, works published, about the author, etc...), when to start working on the blurb, and then I went to download the MS so I could begin another long journey to publication. First thing was to download the MS from my e-mail. My stone age computer took ten minutes to open up to the google page, and then it said it was unresponsive. So another ten minutes to try again. And then ten minutes to get to the e-mail page, another ten to sign in, and then five to download the MS, and then it wouldn't open, so I had to download it again, but open it from a different area, and then the mouse was skipping all over the place so I couldn't start applying edits. I had to banish the computer to the time ou...

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I just want to wish everybody reading this a very Merry Christmas! I am grateful for the birth of my Savior, for this beautiful Christmas season, and all the beautiful things that have happened this year despite the pandemic. I lost my aunt a few months ago to the virus. It was unexpected and weird and very depressing. When she finally went, I knew she was all right and she wasn't suffering anymore. People I know are in the ICU and people are suffering financially. My tribe is currently on lockdown until after Christmas. Now it seems my uncle has the virus. Despite all this, good things have happened to me. For one thing, my book got a lovely makeover. It was exciting running around in empty stores trying to grab food before other people did. Some can howl about it, but I decided to enjoy it. I discovered I could sew a little bit when I made my own mask. I learned how to eat with chopsticks. I got better at shooting a bow and arrow. We got a new washer and dryer and didn't have...

I suppose if I'm to pull off this idea, I need to convey the shock and surprise that I felt when the idea first came to me. I know they say I need to kill off characters, but I really don't feel like it, as I've already lost favorite characters in real life. I don't need to relive that bull crap. Besides, kill a character and you kill a whole future book. I'm stuck on this part, so I shall ask the main character what she wants. Oh, is that what you want? I kind of wanted that, too, but I wasn't so sure. All right. Have it your way. Kill your darlings means to get rid of overly flowery and poetic sentences that mean nothing to anybody but you. What am I supposed to do here? I've been stuck on this for weeks. You dodo, you know what that means. It means just chop it out and go somewhere else. What's wrong with this scene? Oh, the character's reaction is wrong and out of character. I'm stuck on how to do this romantic part because I'm not good a...

The day was pretty normal. Our tribe is on lockdown until after Christmas, but we do get "essential run" days, and then we have to be back home by a certain time. That morning, we took off to Walmart. We were going to make a bunch of other stops, too. My brother got a call from UPS (the little weirdo on the other end claimed) and he told my brother he had a special package they were going to drop off to him at 2 PM. Does he know what the package is? My question: why does UPS know what it is? Did they open it? So the little scammer said my brother had won 925,000 bucks and a GMC in the color of his choice. Do you think they have a GMC in the color of burnt pumpkin? My brother said this was weird because the scammers usually call on Wednesdays and not Tuesdays. I guess they were trying to switch it up. We had to go to my aunt's house to drop mail into her mailbox. She just got a new mailbox, but her mail is still going to the post office. We had no idea she had a new puppy ...

One fine morning at approximately 2AM, I was watching a video on YouTube. The woman said she had found a hair care routine from the Edwardian era, or age of the Gibson Girls. The solution was pretty easy to make. Mix one egg with salt water and drip some essential oil into it. The solution itself had more measurements and the essential oil was a modern substitute for something the YouTuber didn't have, which meant I definitely didn't have it. So I figured I'd just use the salt water and the egg. I didn't use proper measurements, either. I think I was supposed to use a pint of salt water, instead I just used a regular cup full. The YouTuber implied the wash was used for actual shampoo, and it was done once a month. So I substituted the wash for shampoo, too. My hair loves to get greasy on the top of my head and around my temples and forehead. I was a nice grease bomb when I tried this. I washed my hair in the guck and rubbed it into my scalp and then rinsed it out. The o...

One afternoon, when I was, oh, about seven or eight, I walked in on a seriously depressing movie called "The Last of the Mohicans." But on the screen was the most beautiful Native American man I had ever seen, or will ever see. It was Uncas, played by Eric Schweig. I floated in front of the TV as if in a trance and stared at him. My enjoyment was cut short when that hideous Hawkeye kept butting in on the screen. Who wanted to see him? He was gross. He was not sexy. He wasn't even a real Native. Uncas was where it was at. He was the beautiful one. I made up my baby mind on the spot. I was going to marry Uncas one day. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes! The movie itself was fit to make a girl slice her wrists because it was so depressing, but I would watch the movie just to see Uncas. I never forgave Magua for killing him. Did he have to kill the gorgeous one? When Wes Studi played Geronimo, he deserved to lose at the end, because he killed my man. Nevertheless, my marriage date was ...

We once owned a nasty gold-colored van with headlights so dim people thought the brights were the normal lights. I leaned out the window with a regular flashlight to shine it on the road and it was brighter than the headlights. On top of that, an idiot smashed into the right headlight when it was snowing. Of course it was a punk driving one of those fancy status trucks. Those kind of guys can't drive and they definitely can't park. This van couldn't go up hills, it could hardly speed up, the breaks were screeching, the clock broke, it smelled, and broke down every month or so. How could it possibly be worse? One morning, I was driving my parents to the store and the van was weaving like the wind was raging. I was so confused. I was also feeling kind of bleah and the speed demons on the road would just have to find a way to pass me. They could crash for all I cared. I was driving at exactly 35 mph through town. The lawbreakers with high blood pressure were at 50. As a result...

I came to a spot in book 3 from the Monsters and Demons series. There is supposed to be a monster in this one arc which will last a few chapters, but compared to a different arc happening at the same time, the monster was lackluster. This was bad, because the lackluster monster was terrorizing the main character. I put the whole book on hold for a couple of weeks while I racked my brain for something suitable. At first I didn't even know the monster was the problem. I thought I'd hit a wall in the story and I wasn't sure how to proceed. I cut the scene where I wasn't sure what to do, but when that happened, the arc became disjointed. One night, while I was staring at the ceiling and trying to fall asleep, this ugly face appeared in my head. It wasn't just an ugly face, but it had a body and certain kind of clothes. It even had a hat. It was grinning at me from some place. I was so creeped out, I shoved it out of my head and forced myself to go to sleep. When I was i...

Floor Jansen is the amazing singer from the Finnish metal band Nightwish, which is one of my favorite bands. Nightwish doesn't do a lot of the shrieking and growling I detest so much. Floor can sing anything, including the freakishly high notes in The Phantom of the Opera. She eats notes like that for breakfast. Floor recently did a cover for Frozen's "Let It Go." With her powerful voice, Elsa suddenly became a stronger character. If Floor was the snow queen, she wouldn't have slipped on her own ice and knocked herself silly. She would have turned around and showed everyone she was the boss. Idina Menzel's "Let It Go" feels like a whining teen in comparison to Floor's, who really does sound like a queen. On top of it, YouTuber paashaas2013 took Floor's version and synced it with the castle building scene. It's pretty fantastic and you have got to see and listen to it. Here's the link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXGmir8JYTU Here...

Hello, everyone! At long last, "Keepress" is live over at the Scarlet Leaf Review. It's been a really long time in the making. I wrote this story years and years ago. In fact, it was so long ago I forgot why I even wrote it. It was rejected over and over and over again until I thought I'd go crazy. When it was finally accepted, publication was delayed for months. "Keepress" has had a really hard journey, so please come on over and read it. It would be very happy if you do. I'd be overjoyed if you did. https://www.scarletleafreview.com/short-stories35/category/julia-benally

I literally lived on the wrong side of the tracks in the Mexican barrio. The school was filled with Mexican children, a handful of white kids, and one me. There was a girl in my second grade class who was kind of like the ring leader. She must have flunked several grades, because she already had to wear a bra. The rest of us seven-year-old moppets just thought she was cool. One day, she said to a small group of us, IN THE CLASSROOM, that she could make us so heavy we couldn't move. I said she was a liar. She said she could do it. She said her older sister did it to her all the time. So she turned to me and said, "Do you want to try it, Julia?" "No! I have to walk home after school." "I'll take the sand out of your bones so you can walk." "No! You're not doing that to me!" For me, it wasn't a question of whether it was real or not. I took it in stride, even though I had called her a liar. It was probably a doubt of her abilities. S...