Category: Musings

Musings

[Blog] A Return

Faith Hakimian

Turns out they were right when they told me Paramedic school was going to eat all my free time. Friends, it has been a chaotic marathon of a year. And there’s still, like, a quarter of it left (lord-a-mercy).

Technically speaking, I have been writing all year. Patient charts use words, you see. Oh, you mean fiction? Hmm. Well. I haven’t written nothing (take away my double negatives, I dare you), but it’s more accurate to say my projects are in the fridge than on the back burner.

That being said, school is done, I’m a paramedic (this is my circus and those are my monkeys), and I’m finally back down to one (1) full time schedule again. I have so many half-imagine story ideas champing at the bit and begging me to write them. I’m not planning to aim for weekly blog posts at the moment, as I just don’t have that much to talk about, but keep an eye out for short stories periodic writing/life related musings.

Hope you’re all having a lovely Fall.

Musings

[Blog] Happy New Year 2025

Faith Hakimian

So, by this point I should probably know better than to think I’m going to get back to regular updates without a specific plan for said updates. Whoops.

Anyway, hi! Happy 2025! I’m still here and still alive, and still very busy.

I did complete NaNo last year, marking my 15th attempt and my 14th success and providing even more proof that deadlines are my friend. Despite my best intentions, November 2024 kinda snuck up on me, and I completely pantsed the whole thing; considering that, I’m actually remarkably happy with what I wrote. Yay fantasy worldbuilding and a blatant refusal to set it on a spherical planet. I had fun.

Part of what’s kept me so busy the past year has been a return to working in EMS, with most of last year being spent working night shift. I love working night shift. It does make it harder (for me) to take time to go write, though. That being said, as of next week I’m returning to schedule that’s more compatible with a functional circadian rhythm– because I’m going back to school. Paramedic school, specifically. Yay! Somehow, though, I can’t imagine it’s going to add to my free time.

I am still writing, even if not as consistently as I have in the past, and as always, I don’t think that’s going to change. I’m also still reading (or listening to) books, and have been thoroughly enjoying the fact that between Spotify and Libby, I have access to a ridiculously huge number of fantastic audiobooks. Highlights definitely include the Earthsea Cycle, which I’m about halfway through. Le Guin is an incredible author.

So, yeah! Happy New Year! I hope yours is a good one!

Musings

[Blog] Eras and Deepening Fantasy Worldbuilding

Faith Hakimian

Having just watched the final season of Legend of Korra for the first time, one of the things I think the series did best was how it advanced the world of bending into a new age. I also recognize that that’s exactly what bugged some people about it, since it made those advancements so quickly it felt like a bit of a stretch. But ignoring the timeline for a second, I want to argue that it deepens the worldbuilding in a way we don’t get to see super often.

Part of that is just because most stories take place in a singular era. Take The Lord of the Rings. Leaving aside the incredible lore included in The Silmarillion and other works like Unfinished Tales (mostly because I’m a bad nerd who hasn’tactuallyreadthemyet), the events of The Hobbit and the trilogy take place in a relatively short time span. Things are changing, the elves are leaving, the Age of Men is about to begin, but we don’t see a significantly different world between the two works.

And most other fantasy series that come to mind don’t even get that close. The stories are focused on a specific chain of events with no need for the narrative to reach far into the past or the future. In fact, the only other example I can think of is Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn books with the second series taking place in a world that is so different that it’s fully a different genre. Unsurprisingly, I really liked those, too.

In both cases (Korra and Mistborn Era 2), I think the thing I find most interesting is that the writers create worlds that feel substantially different not by changing the rules of their systems of magic, but by digging in even deeper. Allomancy and bending both work (roughly) the same way as they did before, but they’re applied differently, and that’s what changes the world. And overall, I think it works really well. It certainly makes both worlds feel that much deeper, that much more alive.

Musings

[Blog] Germinate

Faith Hakimian

One of the unexpected side effects of the last few months’ unintentional hiatus and my generally lower writing output has been the return of an old idea I’ve never quite figured out how to bring to fruition. If any of you have wandered over to my Projects page [link] you may remember my blurb for Runner, a werewolf story I’ve been fiddling with since 2010 and, despite using it for two NaNo projects, getting nowhere with. Mostly because I can’t (couldn’t?!?!) figure out the conflict.

Maybe I just needed to let it sit.

It’s way too early to tell, and is still going to require the same buttload of work any novel takes, but it feels like the logjam that’s been holding it back has shifted. Plotbeavers, perhaps. Or maybe I’ve gotten a little more of the life experience I’ve needed to tell the story I want to tell.

Musings

[Blog] I return, armed with a duster

Faith Hakimian

Oh hey guys.

The last few months have been nuts. Life stuff, work stuff, everything in between. Lots of really good stuff. Some kinda difficult stuff. And whole scads of stuff on both sides of that fence that took priority over writing in general and this blog in particular.

But kinda like that stray cat you’re sure has run through her allotted number of lives, I’m baaaaack.

Not a whole lot to say other than that! I’ve been reading, been writing (weird scraps here and there more than anything else), been switching jobs (yaaaaay!). And now I’m really looking forward to buckling down on keeping this site going again.

See y’all next week!

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!

Musings

[Blog] Folding Laundry

Faith Hakimian

A while back, in an attempt to get myself to just fold the danged load of laundry that I had been transferring back and forth between my bed and the floor for the better part of a week, I grabbed my headphones and, instead of going to bed and getting a reasonable amount of sleep, turned on my music and bumped the volume and just… folded my clothes. Simple, right? Right.

Except, I wasn’t expecting how much more relaxed I’d be after I did it. Sure, some of it was the fact that my space was suddenly more ordered. And some of it was the feeling that I’d accomplished something. But even before I was done, when the room still looked a bit messy and chaotic, I could feel myself relaxing. I’ve got ideas as to why, of course. Some are probably right. Some are probably wrong. In the end, I don’t really need to know. What I do know is that I’m actually looking forward to folding my laundry now. It’s… kinda weird. But I’ll take it.

There’s a silly part of me that wants to try to connect this to writing characters, how the best ones have silly quirks and might find peace in the strangest places. And while that’s true and something I would certainly like to channel more intentionally as I continue writing, I’d feel a little disingenuous shoe-horning it in like that.

So, instead, I’ll just leave it at this: the weird little character that is me has found that she finds an unexpected level of peace and catharsis when she folds her clothes after every one else has gone to bed, music playing through her headphones more loudly than she might usually let it.