Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 162

Be Careful out There

So, these are sportive and fun fun fun times.

I’ve been meaning to do a PSA for a while, and today is as good as any: I keep getting emails from you guys, some of whom have been commenting here for years and using your real life name, or handles that people at work know you have: the emails ask me to delete their comments on my blog as someone at work is gunning for their job/trying to cancel them/whatever.

So this is a PSA: If you’re using your real name, evaluate your situation and t...

Escape Hatches

My husband and I have been talking about ways that this current insanity is affecting what sells.

Look, escapism is always a seller. But it seems to be selling better. I know that in my own reading whatever the h*ll we’re in the middle of is affecting my reading.

Now, my stress reading is profoundly stupid, unless it isn’t.

What I mean is that I have bad habits when I’m under stress. They’re not even “escaping” so much as “soothing.”

It makes perfect sense when you consider that...

The Value of a Human

When I was very little I loved reading and re-reading The Prince and the Pauper. It pains me that I now don’t remember the name of the companion with the prince, but it’s been a good … 25 years since I last read it. At least, might be more.

The story is one of a genre. Even as a child, I identified it as part of a tradition like the one where the princess or prince gets taken from the castle and made to perform menial labor. Because it shows the pauper doing better with the duties of ...

Book Promo And Vignettes by Luke, Mary Catelli and ‘Nother Mike.

Behold, the rare and Elusive Monday book Promo post!

*Note these are books sent to us by readers/frequenters of this blog.  Our bringing them to your attention does not imply that we’ve read them and/or endorse them, unless we specifically say so.  As with all such purchases, we recommend you download a sample and make sure it’s to your taste.  If you wish to send us books for next week’s promo, please email to bookpimping at outlook dot com. If you feel a need to re-promo the same book do so...

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to those who celebrate.
I’m taking the day off.
Promo post tomorrow!

Post Pep talk reaction

So, I gave him a pep talk, and he took it further.
And he’s right.
I’m not even sure war will break out. To an extent that’s the hope talking. It might be complete civil disobedience and then they run away — the ones with power — and EVERYTHING comes out.
I do have a good feeling for “everyhting comes out and they lose all power and credibility.”
BUT it might happen the way he says. There’s a great anger already stalking the land. And it ain’t getting better.
This is not end game. This is not th...

But The Lizard Will Surely Die

Yeah, okay, so we’re back to Rango.

You see, when I was sitting here (minding my own (or at least my characters’) business), what caught my attention FIRST was the owls saying “But the lizard will certainly die” as the poor domesticated chameleon is running through the desert facing a million perils.

There is something…. awfully familiar about those owls.

Oh, yeah, okay, Greek Chorus — though I’ll note those didn’t always predict misfortune, sometimes they predicted great honor, whi...

The Portugal Hoax

Completely made up

I feel today is a good day to at long last come clean.

I know I’ve told you guys — told everyone, really — that I was born and raised in Portugal. It’s time to reveal that this is in fact impossible because there is no such country.

If you think about it for maybe ten seconds it should be obvious, of course. Look, the country is supposed to be an afterthought on the edge of Spain and — to tip you the wink — the profile where it’s supposed to meet the sea looks exactl...

Keep Your Feet

I doubt it will surprise any of my readers that I was a fairly…. unusual — let’s go with unusual — child. Not only was one of my favorite pastimes during recess from middle-school on balancing on the edge of a flower bed, but when I started going to middle school, which was out of the village, I had to take a combination of buses that looked like the one above and legacy “trolley cars” that looked like this (without the advertisement. They were a chaste yellow):

Now often both of the...

State of the Restaurant industry 2021 – by Chef K.

State of the Restaurant industry 2021 – by Chef K.

The world is undergoing a systematic restructuring. Not a Great Reset, or a Leap Forward. A re-prioritizing of life, all politics aside.

If we had started the glide into work from home 20 years ago when it really became possible to do so, people wouldn’t be going through this awkward phase where they find themselves crash landed into it. Everyone’s schedules are thrown off and they are trying to figure out how to run things...