Journal of a Something or Other

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The whole of her body balked at going to the meeting. Emily was still uncertain what she was going to say to these people. Arm around her shoulders, Janice walked Emily to a car she didn’t recognise. It made sense, her aunt’s old car wouldn’t have lasted another five years, let alone ten.

“The hatchback finally gave out. I was using your bike for a while, until I got a deal on this.” Janice proudly slapped the roof of the car. When she unlocked the driver’s side, it triggered all the other doors to unlock with a satisfying clunk. Emily slid inside, gasping a little at the interior.

“This is nice!” Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, so I made a list of possible focus months (and branding Ma-mé has gone great), I’m just going to use a random number generator (at Random.org) and just let the dice fall where they may. Or, because I’m a picky weirdo, pull three numbers and then decide.

This month I got: 3, 7, 13

This was so fun.  January was full of busyness and business, with freelance gigs and fun gigs and getting Trina’s site all set up.

The entire plan for her site was to jab at a WordPress template until it looked how she wanted, had what she wanted in it and could be updated and maintained easily by someone with minimal web skills.  And we were totally able to do it!  I did some basic poking and coding and then we hung out, both refreshing browsers (on a laptop and a desktop) while I fiddled with all those weird bits and pieces.  Once we got it looking right, Trina gave me a wishlist of plugins and widgets and things from her old site that she wanted at Ma-mé.  And with much swears (because I poke at code maybe once a year) I got it done and handed it over to her to personalise and start personalising and posting in/transferring old posts to.

I renamed and organised all the associated files and images used for Ma-mé and burned it on a disc for Trina, to hand off with the embroidered logo tests when we met up soon for final figuring.

The only thing left is making a mould and deckle for business card sized paper and having a paper making day! Which there is no rush on, because that is a fun thing (the business cards done on handmade paper are going to be the “fancy” business cards, she found a deckle edge tearer for the “regular” cards).

When Trina feels that the site is ready to promo I’ll do so like crazy, but right now it’s still in her hands. This was really fun to do, I’m excited to see where she’ll go with it.

So this was a success! But what of next month? Well, we’ll know soon enough.

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When Emily had them settled down again, she got Abby to let Janice know where she was. Watching the girl text, Emily shook her head in disbelief.

“There were toys like this, but they were just plastic and coloured lights.”

Abby shrugged. “Tech moves fast, it’s nothing if you grew up with it.”

Emily ran them through what had happened. The other four were full of questions and kept interrupting. Emily had to explain that the Folk didn’t perform magic constantly, that it seemed like they were magic, more or less.

“I wasn’t there to observe, really, so yes Michael, it is possible that there are people I didn’t see who do magic all the time like in your books.” Emily gestured searchingly. “The impression I got was that if you’re immortal you eventually get bored with doing things the easy way.” Read the rest of this entry »

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Like most of the businesses on the three-block main street of the town, the coffee shop was new to Emily. When she’d left it had been a dusty junk shop. Bright paint, high-backed booths and large framed prints from some local artist transformed the space and were the backdrop to the chatter of teens and the whine of an espresso machine.

Julian guided Emily to a booth near the back, where some of the other kids from the court were already seated. He nodded at her reassuringly and went to the counter to order. She tried to guess who each kid was. The girl who slid out so Emily could sit next to the wall had to be Abigail, her red hair was a give away. She was taller than Emily, but she’d always been all legs and arms at seven. Emily sat nervously, unsure what to do with her hands. She’d never been social within her age group and her awkwardness was compounded by facing people she’d known as babies.

One of the boys peered at her through a thick tangle of hair. “It’s you alright, Julian wasn’t being crazy.”

“How did you know already?”

“Ian texted us on your way here, duh.” The other boy rolled his eyes. Emily remembered that Julian—Ian, now—had fiddled with his phone as they walked, Emily trying to look casual while gawking at the town’s changes.

She tilted her head. “Texting. It’s not—it’s new to me, y’know? I’ve been gone awhile.” Read the rest of this entry »