Ani Was Writing

  PR #102025 Reported on 26 October 2025 Project 1: Writing     Novels Worked On: 2 of 7     Novels Completed: 0 of 7     Blog Posts Completed: 44/52 (Including Extra Blog Posts) Project 2: Weight Management     Current Weight: 230.4     Weight Loss/Gain: -1.0 in October (-3.0 total in 2025) Project 3: Christmas Gifts     Part 1 Progress: 50%     Part 2 Progress: 30% Project 4: Savings Plan     Amount: $0/$10,000 (Emergency Usage)

      If you have been reading my blog for the last three or four months, you may have noticed that I am in the process of running a D&D campaign. The last two or three months, I have been posting companion pieces called The Mat-Zemlya Companion.      For those of you not in the D&D circles (New Horizons or Chaos Party, to be exact), I will explain in a more detailed blog post or series of blog posts in 2026.      If you are in the D&D circles (New Horizons or Chaos Party), you may only see a few posts. Just check in at your leisure, preferably at the end of each month. And feel free to pass the link around. I'm sure it will be fun for everyone. Including my other DM cohort/chaos companion.     To see more of the posts, click the label "D&D Companion" on the sidebar. That should give you all of them to read. If not, feel free to just check for the dates, often closer to the end of the month. Or reach out to me for a ...

 Beloved Gerald,  The time I have spent apart from you has been torturous. Even though I recall many adventures apart, these last few months have felt far more disheartening than usual. I have resigned myself to this life in this strange land to some extent. Still, most of my body and soul are devoted to reuniting with you and reaching home again. I miss many of the mundane routines we kept while we were together, and I cannot wait until we can indulge in them again.  Thankfully, Elise and Mellan have been a small blessing to keep my hopes high during this time. Elise especially, even with the new addition to the house. Not another child, thank the gods. Although it acts like a child. It appears to be a golden dragon hatchling that Elise has named Balthazar. (Bal for short, as Elise has asked me to specify to you. She is watching me write this.) Balthazar -Bal- has been a handful, but also a wonder to watch Elise raise. It has grasped onto both Dracconic and Common fa...

 These Are The Breaks By Idris Goodwin     You think you know poetry, don't you? You think all your rhyming couplets or numbered lines make poems. You think a certain structure makes you a certified "poetry lover" as you scroll on social media to find the pictures of poetry. I'm going to be honest with y'all; that's not all poetry has to offer.     I've know of Idris Goodwin for a while now. I believe I have even delved into other works of his on this blog. This particular collection really stuck with me, however. This kind of work really does sneak up on you. It started out as very light, very amusing, and I thought I was in for one of his more easy-going collections where I can ignore the world and reality for a bit.      I should know better. I should know that as much as Goodwin's pieces are fun, they are heavy.      This books definitely crashed the reality of others' worlds on me hard. I will admit that the slice of life I hav...

    There was something I could do about all of this, but I chose to do nothing. Yeah, I saw all of the signs. I kept the mental list in my head. It was all the usual stuff. She wouldn't talk to me after dinner until we were in bed. She didn't want to go on our evening walks with the dog, or would be lost in thoughts if she did.      It didn't take long for me to notice other weird things going on. It was small at first. New bottles of my favorite cologne showing up when I needed it. Pantry staples restocked before I would realize that I needed them. Then my clothes were replaced with a new piece that was exactly the same when she saw they were wearing down or when she heard me complain about them. The biggest one was when I broke the chain from one of my favorite bracelets that I got when on the battlefield. I left it on my nightstand, sad but not distraught. Couldn't find it a day later and about lost my mind. Then a week later, it was in a cushioned box on my...