H. Claire Taylor's Blog, page 4
June 7, 2018
Day Four – My Five Failures
You’re already giving up? That’s okay. You can’t do all the things.” – My inner critic, acting like it’s my friend (when it’s not)
I rarely think about giving up on a goal when I’m frustrated (rage quitting soccer aside). If I keep trying and trying and can’t get something, I usually double down to make it happen, even if it involves a lot of yelling and cursing and possibly canceling more fun plans later on.
The time when I risk giving up is when my passion fades, when I’m tired, and honest...
June 6, 2018
Day Three – My Five Failures
“This story is boring. Your loyal readers are going to turn on you for wasting their time.” – My inner critic, shitting all over my morning plans
I went to bed too late last night and when my alarm went off at 6:30, my fingers weren’t playing around. Snooze? Snooze is for suckers. They turned the alarm right off. When I woke up again at 9:00am, I said to John, “You know, maybe I just need to admit that I will never be able to get out of bed on time.” After all, my fingers were sabotaging me b...
June 5, 2018
Day Two – My Five Failures
“That was an inventively expensive way to kick a soccer ball around for fifteen minutes.” – My inner critic, getting a little sassy
I started the day by dressing in workout clothes (the ones I bought yesterday). This isn’t much different from most days, except I actually planned on working out.
The other day, while I was in line at Sprouts (a health food store), I looked around and realized that every single female around my age was dressed like she’d just gone to the gym (myself included) an...
June 4, 2018
Day One – My Five Failures
“Of course you’re excited about it, Claire. It’s day one! You’ll lose interest and stop doing it like you always do with projects. You’re just causing yourself embarrassment down the line.” -My inner critic, a reeeal dick
Today was all about preparation. I know from previous good habits I’ve developed that if I want to stick with them, it has to be easier to do them than to not do them. And that takes a little planning. Present Claire ALWAYS thinks waking up at 6:30 is a good idea. Tomorrow C...
Five Failures
I’ve taken on the challenge of reading 100 books this year, and it’s a bit impossible to do that without experiencing a deep and major mindset change , especially when you listen to as many non-fiction audiobooks as I do.
I was listening to one the other day and it got me thinking about failure. Well, to be fair, I’d been thinking about it for a while (my whole life), and, recently, I’ve begun to change my opinion about it.
My theory is that if I could learn to relish failure, I would be in a...
May 13, 2018
Stuck in Writing Purgatory
This is the dumbest dilemma I’ve had in a while. I want to get to writing Jessica Christ 6, but I need to finish the 6th book of my cozy mystery series first. So, what do I do? I’ll tell you. I don’t write the cozy mystery series. For a week. This is the longest I’ve gone without writing in almost a year, and the whole rationale behind it (irrationale?) is that I really want to write one thing that I’m not working on.
Why don’t I just skip the cozy mystery and get to what I really want to wri...
My dog got high, but it’s not my fault
This is your dog on drugs. Actually, this is MY dog on drugs.
Listen, I swear it wasn’t my weed.
Hopefully, you’ll believe me when I say that, because the vet did not. Neither did my husband, and he turned to me in the vet’s office and said, “Do you have weed in the house?” to which I replied, “No, Officer. I’ve never bought weed.” I wasn’t just being cheeky. I’m married to a cop. (Okay, I was being a little cheeky.)
Let me back up, though.
About three weeks before, I made a run by Tomlinson’...
April 26, 2018
A Great Gulf: Moving forward
Aaaand, I forgot to donate the money from A Great Gulf for the last three months. WHOOPS. In my defense, I closed on a new house on January 29th, and things were a little crazy. Then I fell out of the habit.
Anyway, I’ve donated the earnings retroactively, which came to $109 for January-March sales (receipt below).
The short story has been averaging about $35/month lately, so I’ve decided just to go ahead and donate $35/month through September 2018, which will fulfill the 1-year commitment to...
January 9, 2018
The Ten Best Humorous Fiction Books
So you read a funny book and it felt good. Maybe even the kind of good your mother and childhood religious figures warned you against.
And now you want more.
Next thing you know, you’re googling, “books like Good Omens,” or “top funny books,” at work one Tuesday afternoon rather than compulsively scrolling your Twitter feed as per usual.
Humorous non-fiction, like comedian memoirs or essays, is easy enough to find, and while that’s all well and good in the right context, it’s not what you’re...
January 3, 2018
A Great Gulf: December Update
Yay! Through sales of A Great Gulf, we raised $37.26 in December! Woohoo! Yay for helping hurricane relief efforts, y’all! If you haven’t picked up your copy yet, knock that off your to-do list right now.Donation receipt:
