H.R. Shavor's Blog

November Update(s) – Late Post

So… Yeah…

I know, I know. Same excuse as last time. Things are… Rough? I guess would be a good way to put it. There’s been change all around me and a lot of things slipped past me. There are also a few things I need to review that I haven’t yet and I feel terrible about it.

I’m… In a weird place at work I guess you’d say? Easy way to put it is I’m currently seeming to learn a little bit of everything. Or a lot of a lot of things. Husband and I work in a warehouse and we’ve both been getting thrown around into a lot of things and while most companies don’t let spouses work the same routine we’re regularly thrown into the same department(s) and same tasks. It’s almost weird. We love it, but it’s still weird. There’s awareness that we’re married, but we don’t act like a married couple at work. Due to the nature of what I sometimes do I don’t even keep my ring on my finger all the time. Husband is aware of this and I ran it by him before I started doing this. He’d rather me not have the ring on than have it damaged (or worse something happen to me because of it).

All that to really say we’ve been thrown into the same section at work with no one watching us closely and even being on top of each other getting product off the shelves. I’m also learning a different task right now where I’m not even in the building. We’re testing the waters to see if I can be backup driver for our box truck. Current driver? One of my work friends (and husband to the first friend I made at this job). My life is wild in the most boring way.

As far as current projects go I’m trying to figure a lot of stuff out. My cat is also being an utter menace right now so if this post feels more disconnected than normal blame Jiji.

Project list:

Social media junk (Bluesky, Tumblr, Threads, Instagram, Facebook, etc.) – Thinking about how I want my social media accounts to be used and just how to use them well because I know I haven’t been using them nearly as well as I could have been.Poetry – I still want to do the poem a month thing I did this year on the same format style. Maybe a few changes, but primarily I need to get working on figuring out what pieces to use, a couple changes with it, and getting them ready. (Honestly this will take me maybe a couple hours if I sit and just knock it all out.)Fiction stuff – Almost every year I try to figure this out and try to make it happen fast. I know this is not something I can make happen in a short amount of time, I’m just not sure what sort of timeline I can come up with and hold to that won’t cause me more issues than I already have.Other miscellaneous things that are not fully fleshed out in my mind. Husband worries about me enough as it is with all the things happening and things I try dealing with on my own when I have a wonderful partner frequently in the same room I’m in who is willing to help, I just have to say something.

Happy Thanksgiving y’all.

~H

So Grateful – Poem

Angel in the Sky – Poem

October Update(s)

I don’t know why, of all things and all times, now is the time that inspiration is striking at me to write something for the blog, but here we are!

September didn’t have an updates post. We’re actually lucky a poem went live (I schedule the whole year of poetry posts somewhere between Fall and Winter of the year BEFORE the posts go live here, FaceBook gets the posts scheduled at the beginning of the month because that’s all it’ll really let me do, and Instagram doesn’t get scheduled it’s just me finding which piece needs posted that day). Not that you wanted or needed to know all that. This is apparently a very rambly feeling post tonight (it’s almost 9 P.M. as I type this).

It is now several days later and a little after 9 P.M. as I pick this post back up. Go figure. I’ve gotten a few things done at my desk in the office (with the help of husband) so I’m no longer staring at a blank wall. I now have some blank cork boards to fill with things though! If you’ve followed my Instagram you’ve likely seen my enamel pin boards. Those are now on my wall. As well as my normal cork board that I put up tonight so I can pin writing related things on it. And notes.

I write this so it can get posted in a few days while I’m eating Halloween themed Oreos. Yes, with milk. From a Peanuts Halloween mug. Long live the Great Pumpkin.

There’s been a lot on my mind lately and I’ve been dealing with a fair amount of physical pain on top of that. I’m not entirely sure what is causing the physical pain, but the husband is helping as much as he can. A lot of which involves him rubbing my wrist or arm and helping put some muscle rub on me.

No, I haven’t really made any progress lately with my writing. It sucks and it bothers me a lot more than I’ve been letting anyone in on. I have talked with one friend about some thoughts and he is in no way connected to writing, but knows a little about my writing. Basically he only knows that I write under a pen name. It’s not really something I ever talked about in depth with him (or with a lot of folks). I’m actually even looking at getting back into a writing group and have been looking for one in my local area. I didn’t have any luck the last time I looked and I only just looked again today so we’ll see what comes of this, if anything. I would really like to get back together with like-minded writers and have a routine and habit that’s mine. Wish me luck folks.

Short version: I haven’t gotten much of anything done lately and I’m going to be kicking my own butt into gear.

September sucked. October, please be better. Peace for now folks.

Fierce – Poem

Breaking – Poem

August Update(s)

So! A fair amount has happened since the last time I updated. o.o

First I’ll talk about what’s going on with writing, then what’s going on with work. I’m also attempting to use headings, so if there’s something you want to know more than other things you can just skip right to what you want to know more about. Mind you, I’m writing all of this on the Saturday night before the post goes live. There’s your timeframe.

Writing:

For the whole last week I’ve been sick so I haven’t gotten any writing done this week. After I draft this post up and schedule it I’m hopefully going to have the spoons left to work on poetry.

I’m currently sitting at 180/200 poems for a book I’d hoped to release already. Yes, I still plan on releasing more books. I just don’t know when yet. For right now, I’m just celebrating the fact that I’ve gotten pieces written.

Eventually I want to dive into notes and edits for novels I’ve already written. One of which is a series. When (not if) I eventually get that book/series out in the world I know there are a handful of people who are going to be celebrating just as much as I will. Not only because they know me, but because they’re part of the writing group(s) where I read parts of the story. I think only one or two people have read the story in its entirety. The downside is I want to do that story justice. The characters, the world, everything. And to do this will take TIME. And lots of it. I’ve got two novels written for it and a set of three short stories in one book and there’s another novel that I’ve had in my head to work on for it.

For those of you who are guessing, yes, I’m referring to the Wolfhaven series of books I started what simultaneously feels like 10 years ago and yesterday.

Work/Life:

I’ve been at the new job a little over a month now and it’s going pretty well I think. I’ve been working in a position called back support so I’m moving things around. At the factory/warehouse I worked before I moved I was getting between 9,000 – 12,000 steps a day. The job I had right before this one I was getting 3,000 or so on average, 5,000 on my day(s) off. Wednesday was the day at work this last week where I got the fewest steps and that was still over 21,000. Friday I had over 25,000. And yes, I was hurting. Friday night I ended up going to bed with both a knee brace and ankle brace on.

Today the husband was celebrating because I got new shoes. Why was he celebrating? Because he tried to get me to buy some last week and I wouldn’t and I’ve needed new shoes for… A few months actually. If we could have he probably would have made me walk out with both pairs I was debating between today. Went with a new brand I’ve never had before, so cross your fingers folks. I’m gonna be putting *miles* on these babies!

I swear to you this boy KNOWS how photogenic he is and hams it up, unlike Gus who senses when you’re even THINKING about getting a camera out, let alone pointing one at him -.-

Speaking of babies… Here’s one of mine! We’ve had Jiji for… 9 months and from what we can tell he’s 10 months old now. Don’t let the innocent face fool you, when one of the other cats in the house tries to take control Jiji will throw down. And win. Yes, he’s named after the black cat from Kiki’s Delivery Service. My husband and I are nerds.

Gus came with us to pick up one of husband’s coworkers one morning and while waiting for her to come outside Gus decided to pop up and remind his dad he is a good boy.

My husband would be absolutely appalled with me if I didn’t also share Gus. He’s officially been part of my life for what’s going on 10 years and he’ll be approximately 12 next year. He is living a very spoiled life sleeping under our bed, at his dad’s feet (or butt), and has not one, but two different beds in our office he can choose to sleep in (one at my desk, one at my husband’s desk). Entirely his dad’s boy.

Finishing:

If you don’t want information on my job skip the first paragraph under that heading.

For now folks, stay safe, hopefully healthy, and keep moving forward. That’s all we can do, right? Peace for now.

~H

Started as Friends – Poem

July Update(s)

As I sit here, only a few days before this post goes live I’m listening to my husband play D&D behind me at his desk. We’ve finally got our office mostly set up after the move. It’s been… An adventure to say the least. We’re both trying to adjust to everything all over again and settling into a new norm of sorts because there’s another big change that’s happened…

I started a new job on the 23rd!

Yeah… I know… All the changes are being made right now. Apparently the theme my husband and I are living by in 2025 is chaos. Things are kind of settling down, so I’m hoping to really get into a rhythm and routine and my husband is actively trying to help me get back to myself.

What does that mean? The way he put it is ever since I had moved I was off. Not a lot, but enough to be noticeable. Not like walking into a room and seeing all the furniture had changed, but like the sofa had been moved 2 inches to the left. Just enough to notice. I wasn’t happy and I hadn’t been happy for some time. It sucked. It hurt. I was hurting and I didn’t know how to tell my partner.

Communication is important. When he and I started dating we both openly admitted that communication was something we had issues with in our individual pasts so we promised each other to work on keeping communication open. Having his communication and support with everything is something I couldn’t live without. We support each other, don’t get me wrong. I adore my husband. The goal here is to be transparent about life and struggles. I’ve always held my writing to being able to connect with people and share the no one is alone in this world with whatever they’re going through.

Enough of my ramblings for now. Soon I’m going to turn in for some sleep and hope that my hips and back aren’t going to be pained during the night and through tomorrow. My new job is more physically demanding than my last one and I’m learning about some medical things that might fit with what I’ve been going through. So there’s that too. Nothing bad or severe or anything like that, just knowledge that’s clicking some things into place. Like when you don’t know you need glasses and the first time you get them you can see individual leaves on the trees and not just green blurs. Husband recently had to get glasses for the first time in his life, so that’s been fun listening to him discover that things aren’t supposed to be blurry. We had a dust storm about a month ago and he asked me if the sky was dirty and blurry because he was seeing like before he had glasses. We’ve had some rather interesting conversations about glasses and sight since he found out he would need glasses (before he had an eye appointment even).

I have so many stories I’m wanting to ramble on about and share, but I’m making myself stop here now. Writing and book news to come soon (I hope). For now, if you’re somewhere hot, stay cool. If you’re somewhere freezing, stay warm. Either way stay hydrated friends. Peace for now.

~H

P.S.

Happy 4th of July, fellow Americans! Be safe.

Safe Place – Poem