Author
Alas, little pink block. I chew it well.
Chew it, chew it good!
The hell…
Don’t worry about Squirrel, he thinks he’s in an 80s music video.
I never know what’s going on in these narratives.
Good thing you’re a captive audience
Ahhhh!
And that’s me looking for an exit.
I’m looking for ALL YOUR PEANUT BUTTER ARE BELONG TO ME
My Brain, a Brief Illustration:
A) This thread needs a mouse saying squick squick squick.
1) Okay, someone with art skill needs to draw an obviously alarmed little mousy saying “Squick! Squick! Squick!”
2) Google tells me that the Squick Mouse is not a thing, and it clearly needs to be.
3) Actually there should probably be a pair of mice like comedy tragedy masks. Squick and Squee for different occasions.
4)…and now I’m picturing the mice Squick and Squee sitting in a theater box commenting on fan fiction plays like Statler and Waldorf at the Muppet show.
Quick Note: GraphicAudio has a special deal going on through the end of April on a complete set of my Fallen Blade series in full cast audio with sound effects and music, like a radio play. I’ve been listening and these are really good productions. In particular, I adore what they’ve done with Faran. Use the 35% Off Code CDSET35 FALLEN BLADE CD SET
I have an eeeebil plan.
Step 1*
That trick never works.
We’ll never know if we don’t try it. Bwah-ha-ha!
Yeah, good luck with that.
I kind of liked it.
Oooh, just tried to do the math. Bored now.
Told yah. Group nap!
*Thanks to Matt Kuchta for the kitty art
I are a kitty!
The deuce you say. You’re clearly art of the pronounced ahht sort.
I never understand what going on around here…
What’s going around is ahhht, obviously.
Also Simon Smith and his amazing dancing bear!
Da hell?
I don’t know wake me up when this post starts making sense.
Or if we get to Pittsburgh. You always want to wake up for that.
Riiiiiight. They really don’t pay me enough for this shit.
Do you know what I want for Catmas?*
This?
Not bad, but no.
Do you know what I want?
A pterodactyl?
I’m guessing it’s more like FREEDOM!
From the monkey holding your paws, that is.
Yeah. Ahh, better.
Not a pterodactyl? Cats are super weird. I’m outta here.
*With thanks to Matt Kuchta for the art.
I am the ghost of lamppost future.
…the hell?
What part of lamppost future don’t you understand?
All of it?
Allow me to read to you from the book of lamppost…
Um, how about no?
The killer whale of non sequiturs agrees with you.
If there’s one thing Cthulhu knows it’s evil, and that whale? EEEvil!
I am dubious about this proposition. Also, too tired to hold head up.
Dubious snow ninja is agrees.
I am sooooo confused.
This thing isn’t giving off fumes, is it?
Knock knock!
Whose—Oh my god, it’s a pterodactyl!
A delicious delicious pterodactyl!
Are you crazy? That thing is big enough to eat US!
I promise I won’t let the big bad birdie eat you.
But what if we want to eats it, like dis!
Okay, maybe that’s a bit much.
Is it gone? I think it’s gone…
My eyes are feeling a little skrudgy.
Dude! Also, what are you doing in a cat blog?
Hey now, lets not be speciesist.
Can we be nappist? I like naps.
Can we talk about my eyes? They’re starting to feel really weird…
Weren’t you in an Indiana Jones movie?
Naps, man, we need to talk naps!
I’m kind of unimpressed with your focus here…
That’s beneath you, and so am I.
Every so often I am reminded that I am not like all the other children. By which, I mean that I do not suffer from the same set of confidence issues that many of my writer peers deal with. This is not to say that I don’t have my own personal set of writer neuroses, or that I have always believed my work is amazing, but simply that I am not and really have never been subject to imposter syndrome.
I suspect part of this comes out of my Open School background where I was taught to believe in my bones that I could do anything I wanted to do, if I was willing to work hard enough for it. It is worth noting that I was not taught that I would be good at something from the start, that I was inherently talented at everything, or that I wouldn’t experience a lot of failure along the way. In fact, I was taught and internalized that it would take hard work, that I would have to face a lot of failure, and that talent mattered much less than being willing to do the work. I was also taught methods for realistically assessing my progress toward my goals and the necessity of accepting responsibility when I fall short.
As I said, I’ve never had imposter syndrome. I have had any number of moments where I fell short and realized I needed to work harder to reach the next level with my writing. Then I went on to do that work and moved on and up. It’s been a hard slow climb—I’ve got five hundred rejection letters that speak to that—and there’s still a lot of room for me to grow and improve, but I think that it’s fair to say with twelve published novels and dozens of short stories under my belt at this point that I’m making my way up that wall. I’m just taking a different route than those of my peers whose issues include dealing with imposter syndrome.
There is no one right path to becoming a successful writer or artist. Don’t ever let anyone tell you different.