Jennifer Morash

Ah, Halloween. The time of year when we don costumes and pose as something other than what we are. When children roam the streets in search of treats. 　 I love Halloween. I always have. Dressing up is fun, and not something that an adult can often get away with. I'll be doing so tomorrow at work. I wish sometimes that I could get away with it more often. 　 The thing is, though, that I do. We all do. We all wear disguises of a sort. We do it all the time. It's just that our disguises have nothing to do with fancy clothing, makeup or masks. Not physical ones. 　 Don't you ever feel like no one, or perhaps only very few, know the real you? That you have to wear a mask of sorts to hide something? That if the world knew your true feelings on something, you would be judged? 　 Or perhaps you feel like an imposter. Like you are only pretending to know what you're doing professionally. As though your colleagues are actually better and more knowledgeable than y...

Stardust by Gaiman and anything by McGuire Discworld by Pratchett with wit that inspires. Books that take flight like a bird on the wing These are a few of my favourite things. 　 Okay, so. I find it hard to answer the question "What's your favourite book". I don't have a favourite book. Perhaps I might in a given moment, but that says more about my mood when asked than it does overall preference. 　 I do have favourite authors, though. 　 Neil Gaiman. The man can write and narrate. I'm fairly sure I could listen to him reciting the proverbial phonebook, but he'd have to find one first. I might not love all of his books equally, but I do at least enjoy every little thing he's written, and love quite a lot of it. From his whimsical short stories to his entrancing novels. He does good screenplays, too. 'Stardust' is an audiobook I often turn to when I'm feeling stressed, listening to him reading it is soothing in a way I can...

It was Thanksgiving this past weekend up here in Canada, so I thought that this week, I would talk about gratitude. There is much in my life that I am grateful for. All in all, I'm a pretty lucky woman. I am blessed with a family that I love, who loves me back. We may be a bit spread out with my sister, brother in law and nieces living overseas, but in this day and age that is no barrier to closeness. I have parents who love and support me who were there growing up. I have a brilliant and talented older sister, and two young nieces who are geniuses. I'm not biased at all there.  I have a terrific extended family, full of wonderful aunts, uncles and cousins, and more recently acquired step family who are terrific. I have a career that I love. Massage therapy doesn't just keep a roof over my head, it feeds my soul. It gives me the ability to help others in a very tangible way, and gives me the opportunity to meet a variety of interesting and truly wonderful people. I ge...

The Lady Astronaut is a series by Mary Robinette Kowal which currently consists of two books and one short story. The Calculating Stars comes first chronologically, with The Faded Sky second. The short story is set many years after both, though was written first and I believe was what inspired Kowal to write the others, and is called Lady Astronaut of Mars. 　 In the short audible.com review I posted, I called them triumphant. Now, that is, as I stated there, such a reviewer buzzword that I was hesitant to use it, but as it was the word in my head while the epilogue of The Faded Sky played, I'm going with it. I am not ashamed to admit that I was crying at the time. 　 The premise is this. In the early 1950's, a meteorite strikes earth. Specifically, it strikes the ocean, destroying not only Washington DC but a large part of the eastern seaboard. The results are cataclismic, setting off a greenhouse situation that is going to make Earth uninhabitable in the foreseeable f...

Talking about writing isn't writing. Planning to write isn't writing. Dreaming of writing isn't writing. Thinking of writing isn't writing. 　 There is nothing wrong with any of those things. Some of them can be very important. But there is one thing they are not. They are not writing. 　 Only writing is writing. 　 "Oh, wow. You started writing? You're working on a book? That's so cool. You know. I always thought I could write a book." 　 I've heard variations on that theme from multiple people since I began writing. And they mean what they're saying. They really, sincerely do want to write. And they can always come up with reasons why they aren't. I used to be them. For all of my adult life, I was that person. I knew that I wanted to write. I realized that I was at least passingly good at it. In fact, I knew I could write a better book than at least some of the published works I've read, for I have read some really awf...

I talk a lot on this blog about the fact that I am writing, but haven't ever really said much about precisely what I am writing. The truth is that I seem to be better at writing a story than I am when it comes to describing that story. I thought that this week, I'd give that a go. First and foremost, the big one. My very first novel. I always thought that I should write one, but never did. This one came about because it was something I kept wishing someone would write. No one did. So... I did. Perhaps that means that others have, but there was no market. Perhaps it means I came up with something genuinely new. Only time will tell. It's working title is Joyful. I dout that will be the final title, but we'll see. Joy was one of those kids that was supposed to find a portal into a fantasy realm, go through, have some adventures and try to save the world. The problem was that when she was just about to fall into the lake that served as her portal, a responsible adult sa...

Ablist language directed at the blind never used to bother me. It is just so ingrained in the language that I think I got used to it. Things like "How did I miss that? I must be blind." 　 Actually, something almost exactly like that statement came up in the chat section of a game I play. It is not a game for the blind, but it has been developed to work perfectly for the blind, using the iphone's built-in text to speech. Thing is? I did not miss what they did. I picked up on it immediately. Honestly, I think such things are easier for me. The eyes skip over words sometimes. In fact, they do that a lot, and the brain uses pattern recognition to fill in gaps, often imperfectly. The ears don't work that way. 　 But this is just an example. Ablist language is everywhere. Now, you may be thinking "So what? How harmful is it really to say that you were blindsided by something? Aren't we taking this all a bit too far?" 　 Here's the thing, thoug...