Jennifer M. Baldwin's Blog, page 9

Soundtrack of My Write

My morning fiction writing habit continues, and today, I wrote a tense scene where my main character is fleeing from a ghoul in a misty, frozen tundra. I have a playlist for this particular work-in-progress, a mix of Led Zeppelin, Nordic garage rock, The Cramps, 1950s rock & roll oldies, and some jazzy tunes from […]

Freaky Face

I’m reading John Bellairs’s The Face in the Frost, and I guess I was not prepared for how creepy and downright scary this book can be at times. I’m not sure why this surprised me since Bellairs is known for scary YA fiction, but I’ve been pleasantly (and creepily) surprised by how spooky The Face […]

A Homegrown Reading Challenge

Our house is stuffed with books. I don’t choose the word “stuffed” lightly. There are times when no matter where I look in our house, there are stacks of books in sight. Shelves overflowing with books, floors littered with books, stacks of books sprouting on tables and chairs and the ends of beds. I don’t […]

Input Update 4/27/2023

Reading: Walkable City Rules by Jeff Speck Still reading: A Princess of Mars, The City We Became, The Face in the Frost Listening to: Gnoll’s ode to Joe Dever and Gary Chalk’s Lone Wolf RPG Adventure books Also listening to: Know Your Enemy podcast Drinking: French roast coffee

Listening to Starlight

Been listening to a lot of synth from HDK, an Italian record label that specializes in, as they call it, “ambient punk, minimal-synth, dungeon-drone, wartime music and post-nuclear wave.” I’ve written before about how I discovered the dungeon synth genre and then eventually found out that some of the artists have disgusting Nazi/fascist leanings. Not […]

Swamps of Sadness

My husband and I were discussing which movies to watch with our kids for our family movie nights, and I thought it was time to show them some of the old fantasy movies from the 1970s and 80s like Rankin and Bass’s The Hobbit and Jim Henson’s Labyrinth. We both mentioned The Neverending Story, but […]

Killing Silverfish

There’s one on the wall of my office right now. I hate trying to kill these gross insects because they’re so flipping fast when they move, and then when you do kill them, they basically disintegrate into a weird silvery smudge. It’s gliding along the wall, going back and forth, trying to shimmy its way […]

Pretending to be Prolific

Been thinking a lot today about my fears and the critical voice that constantly tries to stop me from writing. I wrote quite a bit in my WNB this morning, trying to figure out what my fears really are and brainstorming ways to combat them. I’ve always admired prolific writers. Ray Bradbury. Neil Gaiman. All […]

Blahs

Kids were sick, so we stayed home and watched a lot of Hilda. I tried to read a couple of books but was too tired and ended up taking a nap. Tried to write in my notebook but only managed a page. Tried to find the will to do something — anything! — but found […]

Early Morning Writer

I’ve been trying to start this habit for AGES. Everyone who works and has kids seems to swear by waking up in the wee hours of the morning and getting their writing done before anyone else is up. They make the sacrifice to go to bed earlier, or simply give up some of their sleep, […]