Month: July 2023

Musings

[Blog] Front Range Summer

Faith Hakimian

The summers here are beautiful.

I notice it most in the mornings, I think, when the light is still golden and gentle. You can tell even then how hot the day is going to be, whether the temperature will simply coax and encourage a population already drawn to the outdoors to spend as little time between four walls as possible or if it will edge into something more heavy and oppressive. At least, until the afternoon.

Those who have lived here longer say this isn’t how the summers usually go, with storms rolling in and claiming an hour or two in the late afternoon for impressive shows of rain and thunder and lightning. It’s not every day, but some weeks it seems like it happens more often than not. Familiarity doesn’t make them any less stunning. Not when you feel the thunder as much as you hear it. Not when it shakes the walls of the house that seemed so thick a moment before.

The hills and plains are still so green. Full of tall, thick grass, feathered at the top and almost silvered. It moves in waves with the frequent breezes. Here and there some other plant has turned a dark and brownish red, painting contrast through the fields. And the sunflowers! And the columbine! The one standing in long ranks here and there, all tall and yellow. The other scattered and blue along this hillside or the other.

The summers here are beautiful. I’m so glad I’m here.

Musings

[Blog] changin’

Faith Hakimian

If I were to say that I don’t like change (something that is absolutely true), I suspect it would be something that most people reading this blog would relate to. Sure, some handle it better than others, either by nature or by merit of having put in the work to do so, but that doesn’t change (ha) the fact that it’s intrinsically unsettling. Even when the former state of affairs was less than ideal.

Sometimes– usually? it’s just easier to deal with the devil we know. Sometimes, stability just feels more important. Sometimes, that’s okay.

But there’s a reason we tell so many stories about people who make the leap. There’s a reason stories, with vanishingly few exceptions, require change to move the plot forward. It’s how you know there’s a story there to tell. Because it’s what forces the characters to grow. It’s what forces us to grow. Even when it’s terrifying. Especially when it’s terrifying.

Musings

[Blog] Cats

Faith Hakimian

It’s a fun exercise, occasionally, to imagine what our lives would look like to someone or something that didn’t have the lifelong context that we do to make certain things seem normal.

Take cats, for example. We have invited these small, fuzzy creatures into our homes, where we love them and care for them and they repay us (hopefully) by loving us in return in their own small, fuzzy way. Usually by way of lots of purring, headbutts, and falling asleep on your legs in ridiculous positions.

Or pouncing on your ankles when you’re least expecting it. It’s a toss-up.

Now imagine you’re from some distant planet or an alternate reality where it is not common practice to share your home with miniature predators who can boast that five out of their six ends are pointy. It might seem… questionable. Now imagine learning that not only do we allow them into our homes, we allow them onto our beds. While we’re sleeping and vulnerable. And, in fact, that some of us actively encourage them to do so. And that, far from trying to discourage their vicious prey drives, we simulate small creatures for them to attack by way of toys and laser pointers.

So many questions. So very many questions.

Of course, from our perspective, it makes perfect sense. Sure, cuddling with cats might come with its own risks, but most of the cats I hang out with are pretty good at not causing intentional harm. And the purring is pretty cute. And the security of knowing that they’ll at least try to kill any spiders they notice in the house is… well, maybe it’s just the thought that counts.

All this to say, cats might not be someone’s first choice to include when trying to worldbuild their own setting for some new writing project. There’s no way one of the most common pets would be something so potentially dangerous, you might say.

And yet.

Musings

[Blog] Update – July ’23

Faith Hakimian

I’ll just make this a quick update this time around, partly because there’s not a lot to talk about, partly because it’s late and I want to go to bed. (And now you know for sure, I absolutely do not have a buffer of posts written up for each week. If only.)

Last month saw me reading and writing as usual, though still more slowly than I’d like. Real life is busy, y’all. In fact, checking on Goodreads, it looks like I only finished one book. Fortunately, it was a very long book, and I’ve read varying amounts of at least four or five others, so, eh?

Writing… well, writing… I need to find a dedicated spot in my schedule to write, or I’m going to keep piddling along as I have been. Even so, it felt good to finish one story and to work on several others. Plus, I’ve started the process of structuring the Correspond stories I’ve been working on so that I can turn them into a novella for NaNoWriMo this year. Since the darn thing just kept expanding in my head and all.

Anyway. Seems like it’s just small victories for me this year, but I’ll take them. Happy halfway through 2023!