Sherrie R. Cronin's Blog, page 36

Duct Tape and Christmas Cards

“There are a dozen or so words that should not appear in any Christmas greeting,” my husband laughed when he read the letter. “I’m pretty sure that ‘shit’ is one of them.”

Read the entire post at Duct Tape and Christmas Cards.

Filed under: other, z2: favorite posts Tagged: be better, be gentle, laughing, obnoxious men, personal freedom, perspective, sexism, social obligations, stereotypes

The Women of Christmas

Clearly doctors were not in the habit of attending births in those days, but midwives were. It’s hard to believe that a woman with no sexual experience and an older bachelor, who might well have been a virgin, too, managed to deliver their first child together without incident. My guess is that somebody sent for a midwife, and the story of the woman who delivered baby Jesus would have made a great addition.

Read the entire post at The Women of Christmas.

Filed under: c3: favorite posts, other Tagged: comebacks, equality, fairness, feminine, history, how far we have come, women, world peace

The Future of Christmas

In my novel d4, I try to get my readers to think 337 years into the future, all the way to the year 2352. So then, what do you think Christmas will be like in 2352?

Read my predictions at The Future of Christmas.

Filed under: d4: seeing the future, other Tagged: future, perspective, predictions, probability, seeing the future, speculative fiction, time passing

And the Hate Goes On …

Do the Americans saying these things listen to themselves? Do they not realize that they sound like the villains in a barely believable movie?

I wrote the above lines three weeks ago on my z2 blog, where I often write about bigotry and hatred, two of the difficult themes that I tackle in the novel z2. While the news mentioned in my post is slightly out of date now, the subject matter remains sadly relevant. Please read the entire post at And the Hate Goes On …

Filed under: other, z2: favorite posts Tagged: be better, compassion, do something, empathy, hate, hate groups, history, immigration, peace, time passing, tolerance

My Imaginary Time in Witness Protection

I’ve died, I thought. This feels like I’ve died. Well, my husband was here with me, equally discombobulated. Maybe we’d died together? Scenes from the movie “The Sixth Sense” kept running through my head. Was it possible?

Read the rest of this post at My Imaginary Time in Witness Protection

Filed under: y1: favorite posts Tagged: beginnings, define yourself, disconnected, fresh start, heaven, moving, purpose, unemployed, volunteer, writing, yoga

My Imaginary Prison Time

We get by. When those around us have more, we feel cheated. When those around us have less, there is this sense of satisfaction, or gratitude, or relief at our good fortune, that makes us happy. I don’t think most of us consciously want to have more than others, but I do think that we define normal based on what we see.

Read the rest of this post at My Imaginary Prison Time.

Filed under: x0: favorite posts Tagged: compassion, creativity, gratitude, imagination, perspective, reality, relativity, satisfaction, windows, writing

d4: Seeing the Future

Ariel, the hero of d4, lived in my head for years and I knew what she could do. She could see into the future. It wasn’t until I began writing her story, however, that I realized how complicated the very idea of precognition is.

I’d already given serious thought to the pros and cons of a fixed future, and I’d thrown out the idea of a predestined universe.  Over my adult life I’ve heard compelling arguments that in a universe ruled by cause and effect, the future is as immutable as the past. Perhaps it is. But as long as I’m writing the book, there are going to be surprises and free will in the story, and any bits of prescience will work on the assumption that the future is a probability curve. Guess you could say I can’t write stories any other way.

But it turns out that there are many more vexing questions to consider.  How far into the future does she see? Why? How much does she understand about what she sees? Why doesn’t the whole process happen all the time and leave her overwhelmed and unable to function?

Read the rest of this post at Seeing the Future.

Filed under: d4: seeing the future, excerpts Tagged: coincidence, creating characters, freedom, magical realism, personal freedom, psychic powers, seeing the future, superpowers

c3: Out of Body Experiences

No, it was an out of body experience that I was after. In an OBE, as they are affectionately called, the traveler visits a plane that exactly mirrors our physical world. They are unable to interact with the solids around them, but under the right circumstances they can return with accurate knowledge of distant objects and events.

I discovered that there are quite a few books out there that claim to be able to train you to have an out of body experience, and the internet is full of people happy to describe their own adventures doing the same. I had run into something similar while writing x0 and researching telepathy. Once again, I asked myself — do I believe any of this?

Read the full post at Out of Body Experiences.

Filed under: c3: out of body Tagged: astral projection, creating characters, excerpts, fantasy, imagination, lucid dreams, magical realism, OBE, out of body, skepticism, superheroes, superpowers, teenagers with superpowers

z2: Slowing Down Time

If you type “slowing down” into Google, one of the first alternatives it will offer you is a search of “slowing down time”. It is obviously a popular topic, and I knew when I created my hero Alex that his ability was hardly unique. Normal humans often report time moving slower during an emergency …

Read the full post at Slowing Down Time.

Filed under: excerpts, z2: time Tagged: excerpts, experiments, metaphysical, mind tricks, physics, reality, relativity, superheroes, superpowers, time, time altering, time bending, time passing

y1: Shape Shifting Without Magic

Certain things of course could not be altered. Clothes, obviously. So Zane often carried a second shirt in his backpack in case he wanted to disappear. Hair of any kind was a problem, made up as it was of dead cells with no ability to respond. So Zane kept his medium brown misbehaved mop cut short and wore hats a lot. Sometimes he took alternate headgear with him as well.

His size could be altered a little, but not as much as he would have liked. Zane guessed maybe plus or minus ten percent. He’d learned to modify his shape mildly. For instance he could make his chin recede more or his shoulders appear broader. But he couldn’t make himself have a third arm coming out of his back. At best, he’d managed to produce a short lump that looked like a tumor between his shoulder blades. He kept working on it on though.

Read the entire post at Shape Shifting Without Magic.

Filed under: y1: shape shifting Tagged: appearance, excerpts, fantasy, normal, not normal, real shapeshifters, reality, shape changers, shapeshifting