writing – Page 6 of 7 – Rasmenian Detritus

Pride and Profanity

February 26, 2010November 30, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"I'm not gonna say anything inspirational; I'm just gonna fucking swear a lot." ~ Billie Joe Armstrong * If you're easily offended, turn back now. I'm giving you this warning not because I care about your feelings, but because I don't want to deal with your pissing and moaning regarding your wounded sensibilities. I'm giving you this warning because I say what I want to and find the whining of those who feel it is their duty to police others' language to be petty and irritating. That being said, if you're going to lose your shit over a few F-Bombs, close your browser now, or forever shut the hell up about it. I've had it brought to my attention in the fairly recent past that I use a lot of profanity in my writing. While this has come from a few different places and didn't really surprise me much, it was pointless to tell me about it. I'm well aware of the fact that this blog...

There & Back Again, Part 2 – Prickly Lodgings

January 21, 2010November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"Next to a circus there ain't nothing that packs up and tears out faster than the Christmas spirit." -Kin Hubbard"Family love is messy, clinging, and of an annoying and repetitive pattern, like bad wallpaper." -Friedrich Nietzsche . I truly believe that tragedy can bring out the best in people... & that the holidays can bring out the worst. Humans are fucked up like that. In spite of everyone's best intentions, sometimes holiday gatherings get tense or chaotic. No matter how hard you try, you may still end up feeling as though you've stepped out of reality & into one of those ridiculous Christmas movies where everything goes wrong.We arrived at our destination in rural PA a day late. We got to see a few relatives - some that I had not seen in several years & that Olivier had never met. We had a great time - in spite of my occasional fits of choking on mucous & bleeding from the...

What I Am is What I Was

November 13, 2009November 30, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

“I live in that solitude which is painful in youth, but delicious in the years of maturity.” -Albert Einstein“In youth we learn; in age we understand.” -Marie Von Ebner-Eschenbach◊ Ok, here's the thing about me and blog tags: I usually ignore them. On the rare occasion that another blogger writes a post about something and then "tags" me to tackle the same topic, my normal response is to read it, possibly comment on it and then go about with my daily scowling and mocking. However, I have been known to play along when the topic is interesting enough, if I think that I might be able to have fun with it, the planets are in the proper alignment. It also helps if I'm kind of drunk. So it was that my friend Stephanie, on her blog, called me out when she wrote a rather cool post in the form of 3 letters - to her past, present, and future selves. So I said, "giddy...

When Editors Attack or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying & Love My Writing

October 4, 2009November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia." -Kurt Vonnegut, Bagombo Snuff Box: Uncollected Short Fiction"As a writer, you can't allow yourself the luxury of being discouraged and giving up when you are rejected, either by agents or publishers. You absolutely must plow forward." -Augusten Burroughs. Everything that I'm about to tell you is completely true, except for the parts that aren't, but there aren't any of those, so let's just get to it. Many writers, as you may or may not know, tend to suffer from a puzzling paradox of a fragile ego combined with a righteous arrogance. We constantly battle fear & self doubt, yet we still manage to believe in ourselves & our words to the very end. Day to day, depending on the weather, intensity of hangover, or how we feel about other people that day, we may feel rather insecure...

The Minutiae of Carniverous Plants & Road Trips

May 17, 2009November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

"I think writers need windows on a view to remind them that a whole world is out there, not the minutiae with which they might be dealing on a close scale." - Anne McCaffrey.It just occurred to me that it has been a little while since I've posted anything here.Of course, that isn't because I've run out of things to say - I've actually got a list of topics sitting next to me that I'll be bitching about in the future, but the thing is... I just don't feel like it right now.I don't read many other blogs. The reason being, I can't stand to read about the minutiae of other people's lives. I admit, I just don't fucking care. Blogs written by new mothers about each time their brand new larvae shits, blogs supposedly written by someone's fucking cat or anything written by someone who has absolutely nothing to say, but just needs attention from strangers on...

Misanthropy at the Movies

April 29, 2009November 23, 2020 by Rasmenia Comment Closed

At the restaurant inside the movie theater, Olivier & I sat down at the table. He started eating. I was struggling with the impenetrable plastic package holding my napkin & brittle plastic fork."Man... did you get a load of those fucking people that were in line in front of us?"Olivier responded by nodding his head. His mouth was full of sandwich. He swallowed. "Yeah, they were pissing me off, too," he said. Sip of soda. Swallow. "The wife was smashing her elbow into my ribs while she bitched about napkins to the person working behind the counter."My fork was now free. I pulled my sandwich apart & began flicking bits of tomato off of it. "Seriously... you'd think that her husband could have corralled their kids while she did her bitching." Tomato. Flick. "I thought that they were going to start climbing my legs as if I were a mighty oak. I love how people think that any other adult...