Stories

The Darling Files // Behind the Scenes of my First-ever Inktober

~ Tracy Erler ~ Leave a comment

I love social media challenges. 30-day Instagram prompts or one-word prompts, Meet The Author prompts, etc. Inktober is no exception. Especially since I love art, looking at it and buying it and adding it my wish list.

Every year for the past few years now a Writetober challenge has been released. The idea is to write one 50-word story a day and include the word from that prompt.

This year I am (finally?) combing the two. My default is to say that I’m an overachiever. I mean, I decided this last minute. I didn’t write either of the prompts down ahead of time. Or plan anything out before. My time could better be spent prepping for NanNoWriMo. I did just start a new part-time job last week, and Ant and I are finally feeling better and settling back into a new routine of home life.

But really, I’m tired of overthinking what to post on my social media accounts.

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What I Read This Winter

~ Tracy Erler ~ 2 Comments

Where I share the books I’ve read from December 2021 through February 2022.

I’ve been doing much better reading the books Ant and I own during these past three months. I also started creating an Excel spreadsheet to catalogue our library. It’s a slow project, but I’m excited to see it through.

My reading goal was to complete 54 books. Thanks to my month off in December I came very close to achieving my goal, but due to our Bermuda Triangle week and spending more time with Monica, watching Netflix movies (Love Hard and tick tick…BOOM), Survivor, and playing board games, I fell just three books short—but I think it was the better option đŸ™‚

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Story Behind the Poem // day 12

~ Tracy Erler ~ 3 Comments

Day 12 “healing”

our safe comfort zone / as often as we’ve been here / home has been healing

I took an unintentional break yesterday from poetry, as I’m training to cover one of the janitorial groups the company employs. I split my work day and wanted to write yesterday’s haiku then, but I was so tired. Monday I stayed up late reading and then writing a spontaneous blog post.

Also, yesterday’s prompt was a sad one, and I didn’t feel motivated to write more about missing hugs, home games of D&D, seeing my people and watching my babies (nieces, nephews, and goddaughter) grow up, and getting any slices of normalcy back.

So, I decided to skip it altogether and keep plugging along today.

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Dear Lara Jean

~ Tracy Erler ~ Leave a comment

Dear Lara Jean,

You have revived my love for Young Adult Realistic Contemporary Fiction.

The last YA novel I read was way back in January or February of this year. Seven to eight months between YA novels used to be unheard of. Once I’d heard of Sarah Dessen, Deb Caletti, Lauri Halse Anderson, Gayle Forman . . . there was no turning back.

Granted, this has been my Fantasy year so far.

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