I knew this kid would be trouble from the very first day in the hospital because he refused to sleep without at least a hand on him. It’s a small hospital. No nursery like you see on TV where visitors can look through a window at the babies all swaddled in their plastic tubs. He […]
Good-bye (to one more try-fail cycle)
I always figured I’d someday make a Patreon page. When they announced their rate increase for new creators going forward, it seemed as good a time as any to throw one together before that deadline. Spoiler: that is not a useful way to approach this sort of thing. Not that making the page was a […]
Unlearning
As a kid, how to make people like me–or at least not dislike me–was a constant calculus in the background hum of my brain. I learned how to read the expectations of people around me and how to contort, to fit myself to them. Even when I came home from college, I still made a […]
2021 Bingo
Last year, I made a bingo card out of all the things I wanted to accomplish. I knew they wouldn’t all happen. I knew a baby would throw a wrench in my best laid plans. So I played bingo with it, instead. I met almost half my goals. Somehow. A few things that did not […]
Hungry
Everywhere I go lately, I see a simple mark of the pandemic: sheds. Sheds along the roadside, in front of houses, advertising eggs and garden veggies, or woodwork, or even baked goods available on the honor system. I know a significant driving force behind their appearance is sheer desperation in the face of the volatility […]
36; or, 35 in retrospect
Happy birthday to me! 🎵 The baby is not being the most cooperative when it comes to letting me have writing time, but I’ve still managed to complete an actual story for the June prompt challenge and a short piece that I’ve sent out to my critique group. If I try to take a look […]
Ego saga
Oh hey, this is new. I’ve never worried about the ego in a story before. I wrote a short story partly to challenge myself, to try different things with narrative and words. It’s what the story demanded but also something I know will make me a better writer—make me more the writer I want to […]
‘Scary’ is just another word for ‘challenge’
I’m back! Or trying to be. Since my last post, we welcomed our second kid and as always this is a rough transition. Anyway, the post… Ok. Ignore that these are different parts of speech and let me run with this. ***Quick disclaimer: this is all my personal experience and your mileage may vary. It […]
Writing+new parenting=utter chaos
Kid #2 could arrive at any time and I’ll admit I’m panicking just a little. Can I do this and still write? Yes, I’ve been here and done this, but not with a three year old who needs me to be at least somewhat functional. And that first time around? I basically existed in trauma […]
Rebirth; aka, (pseudonym) name changes
One of the biggest shifts in the career-type side of my writing in the last year has been deciding to start using my own name. Granted, it’s been my name right along, just a slightly different iteration. In high school, I decided to use M. J. King as my pseudonym because I wasn’t a big […]
Melissa Burkart 