I have always liked colour and fun. I wear bright colours. I have purple streaks in my hair. And now I have little flashes of colour on my fingernails as well. The craze that seems to be sweeping through my social circles is Jamberry nail stickers. Look: Those are my fingernails! I confess this post … Continue reading Journal: Nail art and NaNo
Picking up where we left off, Squirrel has just collapsed after attempting to dispel the ward applied to a border of trees around a strange villa in the middle of the desolated Dust Plains... ZILLAH The ghost in the villa (18 April) Squirrel takes a huge breath and attempts to dispel the ward again. It's … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Ghostly encounters
I've finally got my act together and have started blogging edited extracts (and PHOTOS) from my Mongolia travel journal. If you missed the first post, it's here -- First Impressions. This post covers the commencement of our two-week horse-riding expedition. Owing to the nature of journals, events are not necessarily presented in sequential order, so … Continue reading Mongolia Journal ~ 2 Into the steppes
I finally sent the novel I’ve been working on to some writing friends for feedback. Huzzah! Now I’m shaking in my snazzy red boots. It’s amazing how my mind flipped after clicking ‘send’. Before hitting ’send’, I was pretty happy with the general shape of the draft. I’ve been dying for someone to read it … Continue reading Journal: shaking in my boots
It's over a year since my Mongolian adventure, and I haven't got near all the blog posts I was going to write. Thank goodness I kept a daily journal, or I'd have forgotten so much already. I always intended to write themed posts about my experiences, rather than simply transcribing my journal. But... I've left … Continue reading Mongolia journal ~ 1 First impressions
ZILLAH We're finally leaving Issimbaal. It's been over a week, but feels even longer. So much has happened. After much deliberation, we've decided to brave the dust plains and head south-west towards the Temple of Bahaal and hope it doesn't live up to its other name -- the Temple of Death. We're pretty sure that's … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Of portals, dust and a strange villa
I collected Chenna's ashes today, exactly three weeks after she signed out. Three weeks. Gosh. I still think about her every day, because there is not one aspect of my life in this house that she wasn't a part of. She arrived as a cute and cantankerous kitten within weeks of me moving in, and … Continue reading Farewell, my devilcat
I got a bit of a shock today. Turns out I'm not so indestructible as I liked to believe. Bone marrow cancer. That's what I've got. The prognosis is "guarded" (which means "not good" is a helluva understatement). No options for treatment. Barely any options for management. I'm so anemic I could keel over at … Continue reading Diary of a DevilCat: This is Chenna, signing out
ZILLAH Dealing with Elliana (not) We argue long into the night about how to get the Left Eye of Varrien from Elliana. The clerics of Phanator refuse to help us, not wanting to start a conflict with the Church of Elloran. I think we all know Elliana and her protector are far too strong for … Continue reading D&D Chronicles: Getting our butts kicked in and around Issimbaal
The most important aspect of singing for me is creating harmonies with other people and filling a space with music. There's a kind of magic created when multiple voices weave together and unfurl, blending and enhancing and expanding, the whole so much more than the sum of its parts. This is why I have been … Continue reading Singing acapella in the tea room
Ellen Gregory 