Well, here’s a real treat.
UK voice over artist Paul Spivey reached out to me about narrating my piece, Apples and Oranges are Both Fruit. I immediately loved the idea and jumped at the opportunity. His website is full of fantastic clips he’s done of various projects.
Paul soon had my piece finished and up on his website. It’s awesome!
I am thrilled to share this.
It’s been a while. I had my youngest in March 2020 and 2 weeks later everything was in lock down. It was a very hard time. We moved to Canada for almost 2 years and while that didn’t work out for a variety of reasons, it was a great adventure. Then, last August, we moved to Michigan. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, if I’m being honest. And while I never stopped writing, I’ll admit that I did lose my stride.
Now that we’re finally settled and my youngest is in part time preschool, I can finally dig back in to the writing that I love. I’ve been working on a side project, a food blog. Food is a huge passion of mine. Recipe collecting, cooking, finding and creating recipes from scratch, finding ways to make recipes healthier and just as delicious, trying out new types of produce and interesting cuts or types of meats. Bread fruit. Oxtail. Jackfruit. Dried shiitake mushrooms. Makhana. Moth beans. Horse Gram. Cow tongue. Goat bones. Diverse recipe books with dishes I’ve never heard of. These are a few of my favorite things. They light me up.
For the YUM, if you’re interested in checking it out.
I’m also back at “Marigold and Nox”. And I’m so very excited about that. I just love these characters so much!
“Marigold and Nox” is my middle grade adventure series about a 10 year old girl and her cat and the magical adventures they go on together. The first book is called “The Wishing Well” and the manuscript is complete, but I’m working on some edits and getting it going again. I’m in the process of beginning the next book as well, which may or may not have some unicorns. There’s a hurdle with “Marigold and Nox” that I didn’t have with Super Me. Illustrations. There won’t be a ton (like in my picture book, “Berries for Bruno”, which is still on pause for that very reason–more on that another time), but “Marigold and Nox” will definitely have some pictures. My husband and I are playing with the idea of working with AI to collaborate something. So exciting!!
I’ve also been back at prompt writing. I was invited to rejoin the Longmont Writers’ Club, virtually, and I’m thrilled to reacquaint myself with writing 500 word stories. The prompts for last month were “Worst Purchase” or “Slice of Life” with a 500 word limit. Loving challenges as I do, especially a good word challenge, I went for a story that is exactly 500 words.
Below is my 500 word piece.
So, I am supposed to be working. And I am working. But I had to look up something for work that led me to a random question that couldn’t wait and now I’m on Pinterest. Somehow. And there’s a link here to a list of THINGS ON AMAZON THAT YOU WON’T REGRET PURCHASING that pops up and that I had to click on because the first thing is that dumb banana slicer that was around years ago, you know the one that’s shaped like a banana and is ridiculous and how can that be on the list of things that you need to buy? This has to be a joke list. Right?
Obviously, I have to click it to see what this list is all about– that is definitely a list of joke purchases– even though I have pile of work to do and all of the deadlines and whatever.
I click the link and I see the list– that I’m still trying to decide if it’s a joke or real, because almost everything is ridiculous. But some of these things seem possibly legit like this toilet timer. So dumb. But maybe someone would need that? And this shark blanket adult onesie that’s odd but maybe cozy?
But then there’s that dang banana slicer which is clearly not something anyone would buy in their right mind. Surely. And I need to click the banana slicer link to see if this is something that most people think is a joke but maybe some people actually buy it for real. To get to the bottom of that. I click this link to Amazon even though I know I’ve looked at this before but I have to look again because it’s been a while and do people really buy this or what.
And I scroll down to the comments and most of the comments are clearly sarcastic but there are other comments that make me wonder if they’re maybe being for real. And I just don’t know.
Then I go back to the list of THINGS ON AMAZON THAT YOU WON’T REGRET PURCHASING and there are some things on there that are actually kind of interesting. Some things that might even be useful. Like the egg scrambler or the screaming goat book that could make a funny gift or something. So maybe this isn’t a joke list? I mean, it’s nothing that I would ever purchase, but still.
So, I go back to the banana slicer and I’m looking at it again and maybe it’s useful in some way? I mean, I don’t have a banana slicer.
Long story short, I’m now the owner of a banana slicer and I’m not sure what to think about that. I guess I just thought you’d like to see what a slice of my life looks like now that I’m working from home. And also, maybe don’t buy a banana slicer because it is useless. It’s actually the worst purchase ever. I don’t even like bananas.
Please rest assured that this is a work of fiction. While I do not, in fact, own a banana slicer, I’m pleased to say that I do own BANANAGRAMS, thanks to my good friend who knows me so well.
Have you played bananagrams? So. Fun.
I was recently asked if I had any advice for a new mom. Well, there’s a lot of advice out there but as I find myself in the throes of the newborn phase with my third baby, here’s mine:
Happy Mother’s Day to all you wonderful moms out there. It’s hard. Especially right now with everything that’s going on. You got this.
There’s a thing that I do at the end of each year.
I choose a word for the next year to focus on. In the past, this word has been “Breathe” or “Nurture” or something along those lines. This is a word that I journal on and think about. That I come back to again and again. A word that I work to incorporate into my life.
For 2020, the word I chose, was Connect.
A bit Ironic, isn’t it?
I knew at the beginning of the year that I would be giving birth and bringing my baby home sometime around the end of February or early March. That I would have my hands full with a tween, a toddler, and a newborn. But I wanted to focus on connection. I wanted this year to be the year that I made an effort to reach out to people. Open up a bit more. Had friends over. Play dates. Made an effort to meet some neighbors. Connect.
At the beginning of the year, covid-19 was barely a blip on my radar. I never imagined that it would have such a huge impact on the world. The economy. Our lives. Everything.
Now, at the end of March, it is everywhere. In the news. Social media. In all of our minds.
This is a scary time. Stressful. In order to keep our families safe–our neighbors, friends, loved ones–we have distanced ourselves. Inched back. Stepped away.
Now we, as humans, stay at home as much as we can. Watch as shelves empty in stores. As things we used to take for granted become scarce.
Today, we are living in a world where being near each other is risky. Dangerous. We could contract the virus or spread it to others. Get sick. Die.
More and more, across the world–country–state–we are locking down. Businesses and schools closing. Meetings, classes, concerts, events… cancelled. We are shutting down. Pulling away. Turning inward. Shrinking.
It’s a hard time right now. I find myself telling everyone that life, for me, isn’t that different now than it would have been anyway. Because how much would I really have been getting out of the house with a newborn, anyway? But the truth is, it’s HARD. It’s hard for all of us. We’re struggling through this time using social media to pass ideas to stay busy and be creative. Memes and silly parodies to keep us all from going crazy from the stress of the unknown and uncertainty.
I’ve done my best to turn away from obsessively scouring the news. It doesn’t help. Anxiety skyrockets as the numbers keep climbing. There are no answers out there. No one knows exactly how long this will last. How many will suffer, how many we’ll lose, or how long we will need to stay in isolation. We don’t know the impact this will really have on the economy or how long will it take to recover.
The future is full of what ifs that swirl around us. What if we, as a people, would have reacted sooner? If we would have handled this differently? If the media and those in charge had been clear and truthful from the beginning? What if more people would have taken this seriously from the start?
And we are all trying to distract ourselves. Smile. Keep busy. Find little ways to make this better.The truth is, it is HARD. And it’s going to be hard for a long time. It isn’t going to just get better overnight.
But more and more, classes are going virtual. We are calling each other more. Using FaceTime. Video Calls. Online classes. Zoom. We are finding ways to stay together . . . while still being apart.
We can still reach out. Call each other. Laugh. Breathe. The best we can, for now, until we make it through. But we can make it through. We will make it through. Together.
And some day . . . we’ll be able to stop being apart. Until then, we can still find creative ways to connect.
On that note, I would like to introduce you to someone: Cole Grayson Dazzo, born on March 2nd 2020.
My third baby’s birth was not what I expected. Driving to another town in the middle of the night during a snow squall . . . 15 hours of labor on 2 hours of sleep. An unmedicated natural birth . . . but that is a story for another day.
Remember, this too shall pass. Breathe. Look for the positive. Turn off the news. Get some fresh air.
And don’t forget to call a friend.
I’m past due announcing that Twenty-Five Hundred is now available on Amazon!
Paperback $4.99 and Kindle/Ebook 1.99
Also available on Kindle Unlimited.
20 short stories, 500 words each. A fun mix of humor, contemporary, fantasy, and magic.
These stories have been a work in progress for the last few years. I have loved the challenge of making them exactly 500 words and am so thrilled to have them available. If you haven’t gotten your copy yet, head on over and snag one!
In other news, I’ve reached the final month with baby #3 and am just so excited over here, it’s pretty much all I can think about.
Last week, I went to my 36 week appointment and confirmed that baby is head down. They had a little handheld ultrasound unit to check and we got to see his little profile (both my girls got to go with me!) I’m just so anxious to meet our little guy and can’t believe it’s going to be so very soon! Time to pack the hospital bag…
In the meantime, I’ve been working on getting to the end of the first draft in my middle grade adventure book, Marigold and Nox. I’d hoped to get this draft finished before baby gets here and I’m still hanging onto that–fitting in time here and there and when I can to try to make that happen. The story is progressing nicely, and I’m simply loving getting to know the characters, Marigold and kitty Nox as they go on their adventure together. The friendship that they create is really special to me, as is the fun characters they meet along the way. It’s been such a blast to write and I can’t wait to see it through to the end.
One last bit of news . . .
Sale coming up for Super Me! The majority of the story happens leading up to, and on, Valentine’s Day. So what better time to hold a book sale?
If you haven’t yet read Super Me, now’s your chance! Just .99 for the kindle version, starting Feb 14th and running for one week only.
My interview with my good friend, Amy Giaquinto, Giaquinto Productions, will be airing soon! The interview discusses writing and publishing Super Me. At the end of the interview, I do a reading of the first chapter as well.
Friday, Feb 15th 12pm and 10pm
Saturday, Feb 16th 12pm
Sunday Feb 17th 12pm and 7pm
Monday Feb 18th 7pm
Wednesday Feb 19th 10am
You can also click this link to stream it live online! http://live.longmontchannel.com/
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© 2024 Jessica Dazzo
