Category Archives: Music, Movies, and other Muses

A line from a song, an image from a film, an unexpected moment of beauty in everyday life – my mind absorbs them all

The Women Who Made Star Trek Possible

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Since this month marks the 50th anniversary of the Star Trek franchise, I couldn’t let it pass without doing a tribute post of some sort. As much as I’ve blogged about Babylon 5 and Stargate as my favorite sci-fi shows, Star Trek was my first love. I grew up watching re-runs of the original series with my dad (no, I’m not quite old enough to have watched it when it first aired). Then when The Next Generation came along in the late 80s, I didn’t start watching it right away, but I soon jumped on board and quickly made sure I watched every single episode; and the same with Deep Space Nine and Voyager. (We won’t talk about the Enterprise series).

Star Trek has a long legacy, and has shaped modern science fiction storytelling (and has shaped real science, as well, but that’s a topic for another post). I could have done a post (or several) about the storytelling aspects of Star Trek – and I might still do that. But for this post, in keeping with the posts I did recently about women in sci-fi, I’m going to highlight the real-life women who made this show a reality.

Of course there are plenty of women both in front of the camera and behind the scenes in TNG, DS9, the movies, and beyond who I could highlight. But I’m going to go back in history a bit and celebrate the women who made Star Trek possible. Without them, this science fiction giant would not exist, at least not the way we know it today. Continue reading →

5 Beautiful Words

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As a writer, I of course love words. I love words for their individual meanings, the way they work with other words in a sentence or a paragraph. I love how a single word at the right time can elicit strong emotion or deep thought. And some words just sound beautiful, too.

I wrote a post a while back about a few of my favorite words (note – only one word on that list is in my native language of English). So on this list, I’m including two words from my favorites list, plus three others that I think are beautiful in both sound and meaning.

Ljósmóðir – literally translated from the Icelandic, this word means “light-mother,” but it’s used as the term for “midwife.” Not only does it sound beautiful to the ear, but the definition embodies the beauty of bringing new light and life into the world. Continue reading →

5 Little-Known Facts about Beatrix Potter

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Beatrix Potter – the creator of the classic childhood characters of Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Tom Kitten, and others – has long been one of my favorite authors. I grew up reading her whimsical tales of rabbits, cats, hedgehogs, and other charming creatures. Now, in adulthood, I’ve researched the woman behind the stories I’ve loved so much, and learned that Beatrix was so much more than just a writer and painter (although that’s nothing to be ashamed of!)

Beatrix Potter and the real Benjamin Bunny

So in celebration of Beatrix Potter’s 150th birthday (she was born July 28th, 1866), I’m sharing a few little facts that you may not have known about the famous children’s author:

Beatrix didn’t get married till she was 47. Miss Potter was pushing 50 before she became Mrs. Heelis – her first and only marriage. So if you’re over 35 and still single, don’t despair – there’s still time! Continue reading →

5 Fictional Characters I’d Invite to a Summer Picnic

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This week’s post is sort of silly, and inspired by Chronically Vintage’s post featuring some helpful blog post ideas. Since I was stuck for an idea this week, I’ll roll with this idea. This list could potentially go on waaaaaay past five, so for my readers’ sanity, I’ll keep it just to five.

Thorn – from the Bone graphic novel series by Jeff Smith. She’s the fun-loving country girl who discovers that she’s the crown princess, and saves her land from the Rat Creatures and the evil Hooded One. Of course, if I invited Thorn, I’d have to invite her guardian Gran’ma Ben, and her best friend Fone Bone, so now I’m up to three people invited to this picnic already… Continue reading →

Fairy Garden in the Making

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For those who don’t know, I have a fairy garden out in my back yard. It’s been a project a couple of years in the making. I initially went into inspired by various pictures on Pinterest, but otherwise not really doing any research or planning ahead.

I’ve had a few people ask me lately about my fairy garden. So consider this post a sort-of DIY about making your own backyard fairy garden. (If you want truly good instructions to make an elaborate fairy garden or even village, there’s much better information all over Pinterest and the interwebs in general). But for those who are interested, here’s what I did:

I started with some twigs from the yard, which I lashed together with carpet thread to make a door (with a button for the door knob). I nailed it to the base of a tree, and some gravel gathered from my driveway made the front walk.

Continue reading →