Beth Overmyer's Blog: The Blog of Beth Overmyer, page 10

A Fairy Tale Intervention: A Short Story

Here’s the first short story I ever sold (to AlienSkin Magazine.) Enjoy! Content advisory: Drug use.

#

     “Pinocchio, you do know why we’re all here today, don’t you?” Dr. Gilganbach looked down at the wooden puppet, who was busily puffing on a joint.

     “Um…” Pinocchio looked around the room. Old Mother Hubbard and her dog; Mother Goose; Big, Bad Wolf; Red Riding Hood; Ariel and her father, Triton; three little pigs; and many, many other fairytale folk stared back at him. “Class re...

Eating Cake to Celebrate a Book

As I mentioned last week, I finished writing the first draft of a fantasy novel on the first of this month. To celebrate, I had my good friend J. over to share cake with me (we’re both vaccinated, for those wondering, and are very careful about who we’re around.) This book in particular has been difficult, and I know I have a lot of rewriting ahead of me, but it’s nice to celebrate all victories, and finishing a first draft was one of them.

__

Want to know when the next book is coming ...

News Regarding Various Projects

“DUO BOOK” UPDATE:
As of September 1, I’ve finished draft one of the first book in a duology (perhaps longer? I don’t know yet) that is NOT in the Goblets Immortal universe. I celebrated with cake and will try to remember to include a picture here sometime. Next: to rewrite/revise/edit the manuscript, write a synopsis, and submit my work to Flame Tree. Here’s hoping they’ll like it!

DEATH’S KEY NEWS:
The last I heard, Death’s Key is still scheduled to release in April of 2023. It is written and edi...

Seven Easy Tips For Getting Less Done

DON’T make a to-do list. If you make a list, you might enjoy checking things off and therefore you might remember to check it every day and might accidentally accomplish things. We don’t want that.

DON’T make a doable to-do list, should you find yourself accidentally making one. Be sure to fill it with things that are impossible to do and keep the list long. You want to be as overwhelmed as possible so that you collapse in a heap of self-doubt and discouragement.

DON’T take one step at a t...

Life Enrichment for Humans Stuck at Home

This pandemic has been going on for over 1.5 years, and I know we’re all getting weary. Here are a few ideas that you don’t have to leave your home for (some assuming you’ll order supplies from Amazon/Target/Walmart/Etsy/etc.) or at least not go very far:

Exercise

Take a walk around your neighborhood
Put a swing up in your yard
Buy/rent a dance work-out video
Or just turn up your playlist and bust a move (“How are you, fellow kids?”)

Listen to awesome music

Try a new band/genre
Pull up m...

(Self-) Sabotage!

What is it with us creative types? WHY do we employ self-sabotage, belittle our accomplishments, look for the worst possible scenario, blame ourselves for EVERYTHING, and generally just rain on our own parades?

Here’s are a few bits of comfort/advice for you, me, for all of us:

We worry about setting the bar too low, but let’s remember not to set it too high.

Setting a goal we cannot possibly reach isn’t always healthy. I mean, the saying goes, “Reach for the moon; even if you miss, you...

2021 Goals – How I’m Doing Thus Far

At the beginning of the year, I said we had no way of knowing how 2021 was going to pan out. That is still very true. This year, more than half-over, is proving unpredictable indeed. BUT…I’m going to try to focus on some positive writerly stuff. Because there is still good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for!

So here are what my goals were for this now half-spent year:

– Read at least twenty-five books

– Write and revise Secret Project

– Edit book #3 in The Goblets I...

Kittens in the HOUSE–well, not the actual house…

There have been no cats in any of my published work and that is a crying SHAME. I mean, cats are my favorite animal (foxes are second, horses are third, otters are tied in fourth with dogs.) WHY haven’t I featured these pretty lil critters in my books? Well, I mean, the first draft of IN A PICKLE had a time-traveling companion cat named Thomasin. But he didn’t make it through the first round of rewrites, bother.

Right now, there is a litter of two (once three) feral kittens hanging around my ...

Riddle Answer

For book three of The Goblets Immortal Trilogy, I wanted to do a riddle to reveal the title. Here is the answer…un-riddled….

This man was greeted as an old friend. Or was he a man? Emily could tell you, no fear you’d offend!

The man in question is no man at all, but an “old friend” of Emily Dickinson. The answer is Death!

(Now, name and make him the possessor. Congratulations! You have the first word, you clever old guesser.)

The possessive of “Death” is Death’s.

ALT or Enter (or ...

Lemongrass

Like tanderine blossoms in my series The Goblets Immortal, lemongrass is reputed to have healing properties. Note that I am NOT a doctor nor am I giving medical advice in this post. This is all my own experience.

I’ve been growing a small crop of lemongrass, and the other week I harvested a small portion of it. Lemongrass, from my understanding, can be harvested when the plant is at least twelve inches long.

First, I traced the leaf down to the stalk near the soil, and then I cut, lea...