so...i decided to go with Medium to publish my stories.
the first third of the first book of the Hereafter trilogy is here:
https://medium.com/@roblosricos_41780/part-1-7f466af6b965
if anyone bothers to read it, please give me feedback.
i kinda think the story-telling is way too self-indulgent.
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#ScribesAndMakers April 16. What one thing would you tell your older or younger creative self if you could time travel?
Quit the office. Learn to draw and make visual arts or movies.
#ScribesAndMakers 15 April: How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
I'm working very creatively this month! I've dreamed up two new chapters to my WIP and have an idea for a third chapter cooking on the back burner of my mind. SO looking forward to writing it all down!
#ScribesAndMakers 15 April: How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
My creativity is doing well. It's just that time can't keep up with it. The day should be a few hours longer. Maybe just two more hours would be enough.
#ScribesAndMakers 15, How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
All I really need is more time and energy.
I love this time of year, but we started a large vegetable garden near the park, and it's gobbling up time and energy like Pac-Man on 99 double espressos. It also inspires me and improves my health, so, I'm trying to prioritize, schedule and plan. Which seems to be working, so I have been reasonably productive.
#ScribesAndMakers 14, Would you enjoy living in a creative village/house/shared accommodation? Or do you already?
My other half is just as much of creative chaos as I am. That's all one house can take, really.
I do have a bit of an aversion to the drama and tension of group ateliers or living. It sounds idyllic, but my stars, creatives can be drama queens. Best to hang out at the party and skedaddle on time.
#ScribesAndMakers April 15: How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
My wordcount is down a bit (averaging just over 1K per day). That's to be expected since I finished up a WIP early in April and also have been doing more school. I wouldn't say I'm concerned. I knew a renewed focus on school would affect my writing progress. It's annoying but it's just realistic.
The thing I'd like help with is capitalism and authoritarianism. 
#ScribesAndMakers 15. How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
It is... more or less. Writing has been okay, I'm keeping up with the weekly chapter releases of Eternal Flame, finished a later chapter as well.
Now, for drawing... I haven't drawn anything for days, and my Tanya concept art is sitting there, lineart half-done, because I can't find the motivation to grab the pen. I *want* to draw, but the energy for it is sorely missing.
15 April: How's your creativity this month? Anything you'd like help with?
Output is limited by chronic pain yet creativity thrives. Sometimes I feel a fraud mixing with this list that includes actual authors & makers while my work is once & future. I count it as a triumph when I'm able to have ideas that I like despite pain. I'm slowly building a story that I care a great deal about, but I can't write it yet.
So I write online housekeeping...
https://dotart.blog/rmiddleton/projects
1/2
#ScribesAndMakers 4/15. How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
It's...going.
Which, all things considered, is pretty good, actually.
The only thing that would help is if life wasn't so dang hard. 
In addition to *gestures at everything* I've got some personal stuff going on and my mental health has just been low lately.
Which makes my creativity low.
But, I'm moving forward. Hanging on. Doing the best I can. You know...all that stuff.
I'm still going.
#ScribesAndMakers 15Apr—How's your creativity this month? Anything you'd like help with?
To be quite honest, it's in the shitter. I was just getting back into a groove after March's chaos (where I vacationed & reviewed edits for my summer releases), and then my mom unexpectedly passed away last Tuesday.
I'm trying to ease back into writing this week, if for no other reason than to distract myself now that the arrangements are made.
As for help? IDK. Send photos of pets or pretty landscapes.
#ScribesAndMakers 15 Apr How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
It's ok. Most of my time these last weeks was spent editing, translating, and administrative. I'd like to get back into writing with my fun project, but i feel a little empty.
Also, our news/media are quite depressing, and I have to actively seek out good news to not start spiraling.
More good news, please. Give me all of your good news!
#scribesandmakers I would LOVE to live in an artists community. Especially if said community was walkable, had a nice corner grocery, and a lovely central park where once a week, everyone came together to make a nice meal.
#ScribesAndMakers 2504.14 — Would you enjoy living in a creative village/house/shared accommodation? Or do you already?
The question did not ask if I had enjoyed living in a creative space (past tense).
I did.
I attended the Clarion Writers Workshop (Clarion West). It's for Speculative, SF, Fantasy, and (I think) Horror Genre writing. It's for professionals or professional wannabes. You have to submit work to qualify.
It was literally (pun intended) the best six weeks of my life as an author.
Don't get me wrong, selling is fabulous, but the feeling lasts only a moment (like sex). The sense of community and actually living the life of an author while attending the workshop cannot be beat.
We lived together (except for a few locals) in the dorms of a college in downtown Seattle, cooked together, used the showers together, had our own floor to ourselves. We spent many hours in the common areas gabbing and blue-skying. Mostly, however, we wrote.
Then read what others wrote.
Then critiqued. Learned how to do that well, learned how to anticipate certain critiques from specific authors and to fix our stuff (assuming we thought we need to), learned how to have a hard shell by accepting criticism that helped us, and rejecting what didn't. Largely, we also helped each other through our fears.
Week days we had a guest lecturer who was a professional writer or editor. One day a week, we attended readings, usually at Powell's, by a local writer, though once at an author's place (I think that was for Octavia Butler).
The feeling of community and support was amazing. One time I wrote a 15,000 word novella in 15 hours for critique the next day. That was my max output per hour or per day ever.
I never felt burnt out. Those six weeks seemed to compact six months of life into a short span. When I returned home, I barely recognized my surroundings or old life. Ask my spouse!
Highly Recommended
PS: After reading other responses I want to qualify that I am cripplingly shy, introverted, and write fiction that doesn't go much with my persona. Nobody knew my gender despite an enormous email thread until I arrived, and I got the nickname Ambiguous Spice (and Oblivious Spice) for a reason. I warmed quickly because these were people like me. Kinda weird, some introverted, some extroverted. All in love with words and stories. I warmed up quickly.
[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]
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#ScribesAndMakers 15. How's your creativity this month? Anything you would like help with?
Pretty good month so far. Short story drafted, sitting in the wait a week zone. Novella, ditto. Some haiku submitted to an online haiku journal.
Turned double and queen duvet covers into singles to fit my new warmer quilt. (Basic sewing is an adventure for me so I treat that as creative. It often becomes creative when I need to fix errors).
I could use more sleep but I don't think others can really help with that.
I see myself as an outlier. I struggle with community, often sacrificing communication & connection for individual expression. When SAM asked about meaningful songs rather than describing moving lyrics I spoke about lines in songs I had repurposed for my personal mottos. I found another. In American Pie, Don McLean sings, “Do you believe in rock & roll…”
I ask "Do you believe in right & wrong" — I sorta don't.
https://dotart.blog/humanissome/do-you-believe-in-good-and-bad
Interested in joining a writing group or other creative group? We have compiled a chart of others who are looking. Check it out to see if there are people with compatible interests. Want to be added to the list? DM the info shown on the chart to @saposcat @willelm or @gahlearner
Direct link:
https://write.as/samhelper/creative-group-interests
If that doesn't work, you can access through the resource page:
https://write.as/samhelper/resources
#ScribesAndMakers 14 Apr: would you enjoy living in a creative village/house/shared accommodation?
Yes for a retreat or sabbatical, but not for everyday. Mainly because I get creative energy & ideas more from introspection than interaction, but also because I have lived in shared-purpose spaces before & have seen their pitfalls.
Group dynamics can get in the way of getting things done & take up an exhausting amount of time. It helps if a space is administered by someone good at that role.
#ScribesAndMakers 14. Would you enjoy living in a creative village/house/shared accommodation?
I would enjoy living in it, and something that we've thought about doing is setting up a way for people to come have writing retreats here.
Although given that spouse is also a creative, I suppose at the moment we do live in a creative house.
#ScribesAndMakers 14. Would you enjoy living in a creative village/house/shared accommodation?
i actually prefer to have contact with people outside the arts. when artists get too insular, they forget how to make art that connects outside their circle. it's like when writers get famous, and then slowly forget how to write stories about people outside of academia and publishing.
i'd prefer a creative social group that i could attend semi-regularly, but then come home from.
RMiddleton.Art 
