Tag: Nerdfighters

The seasons changed, times are strange.

Sara Mazariegos

Bloody Weather. I know I’ve been complaining about this a lot, but the ice/snow is STILL HERE. Thankfully it’s melted a little, bit the massive piles at bus stops and around sidewalks are sticking around. I told Luis he will probably be waking up with me and helping me get onto the bus for at least the rest of this week. Hopefully by this coming weekend, the warmer temperatures will finish the job and things can go back to normal.

I do love having some extra time with him in the mornings, though. I will miss that. It’s my personal Extra Magic Hours*. My coworkers were singing his praises when I told them he’s been helping me. It’s always my goal to get people to join the Luis fan club, because he’s great.

Stuperbowl (I’m original.) You know what I don’t like? American football. Fortunately for me, Luis is not a fan either. He much prefers soccer/futball, and I’ve become a fan as well. So we didn’t watch any of the Superbowl last weekend, except for maybe ten minutes before the Bad Bunny Halftime Show.

The performance was so fun and I loved that it told a story about Puerto Rico and Latin American culture. He even threw in a mention of Canada! He included all of North America. It was pretty cool. I know at least one person who got teary-eyed watching the beautiful representation of Latin culture, especially in this crazy time we’re currently living in. Maybe, just maybe, this will get people talking about issues in a more nuanced way.

Podcasts but as videos. Like the general populous, I enjoy listening to podcasts. The trouble is, I have a difficult time paying full attention to them, because I am usually working or writing when I listen to them. So when a bunch of the popular ones (Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Good Hang with Amy Poehler, etc.) started releasing video versions of them, I was ecstatic. I much prefer consuming YouTube videos. So I’ve been watching the podcast videos during my lunch breaks at work. One thing that’s nice about them is that, if I have to look away for any reason, it’s totally fine because they’re meant to be listed to! What a concept. They’re also long enough that I can watch one episode over the whole week’s worth of lunch breaks.

I’m truly an exciting person. Eh, I’ll go outside for my lunch breaks when it stops being arctic outside. Maybe. Didn’t do it last spring/summer, but maybe this year.

14th on the 14th! I’m so excited about our dating anniversary plans. Last week, I looked at the calendar to see the latest updates—Luis made dining reservations—and, in a combination of excitement and sleepiness, I forgot I’d looked ahead on the calendar and thought it was already next weekend. This made me briefly panic because the Project For Awesome starts on Friday, and I thought I’d missed it!

I highly doubt I’d be able to miss it. I follow too many helpful accounts, and I have it all on my calendar. Just have to remember what day it currently is. 😅

The Metro is getting work done this weekend, and traveling on the Metro is part of our celebration (we met at a stop, after all) so we’re going to brave the long travel in order to enjoy the experience as planned. Then we’re going to explore the place we met; we haven’t been there for longer than a few hours in at least a decade. I love the story of how we met. Which leads me to…

Writing update. I’m starting to feel the familiar feeling that I don’t need to rewrite my Nerdfighter story. Instead of starting completely over, I just need to tweak it. I’ve been working on a big rewrite, and it was a massive overhaul. The characters were different, much of the plot was different… and I started wondering if it’s really better or if the earlier version I had was totally fine, it just needed some big edits. What I’d been working on started to feel a lot more cynical than intended. I wish I could have an unbiased reader read the first chapter of each version and tell me which one’s better. I’m too biased. But I feel like, in this case, writing what I know helps the story and makes it more unique.

I can’t help it that our true love story is already pretty perfect. It doesn’t need revision. It just needs some higher stakes, and I’ve found them.

* This might be a sign I go to Disney too often… Nah.

Time keeps on slippin’ into the future.

Sara Mazariegos

Snow anxiety. I think it’s difficult for people who aren’t in the U.S. northeast to understand the icy, slippery mess we’ve been dealing with. Giant ice-covered mountains of snowcrete stood at the bus stops and on crosswalk corners for days, unable to be removed because they were so packed and stuck together and heavy. Luis helped me each morning by coming with me to the bus stop and helping me get on without slipping. A nice lady at the bus stop also gave me a hand, which deserves mentioning. But the prospect of going out into this awful situation each day was giving me such anxiety. I wasn’t sleeping well, worried about the mess I’d have to penguin-walk through the next day, and I was having a hard time thinking about anything else.

I told my coworkers how I was feeling, and they were so nice and understanding. One of them even said I was brave for speaking up about it, because many of the others didn’t experience any of this crazy winter storm so they aren’t even thinking about how it could be affecting us.

Fortunately, the sun during the day helps melt things and it’s supposed to become warmer soon. Not soon enough, but soon.

I didn’t get mail at the office all last week.

SNOW UPDATE: The snow is still around and Luis still goes to the bus stop with me to help me get safely on the bus, but it’s not as dicy to walk around, at least. I received a bunch of mail at the office, so that’s good. I’m looking forward to not seeing these snow piles everywhere. He’s probably going to be coming to the bus with me every day this week and into next week, by the look of things. It is nice to have him keeping me company. I’m spoiled.

What’s next for Colbert. As you probably know, if you’ve been reading my site for a while, I’m a big fan of Stephen Colbert. Luis got me to really pay attention to him, so he’s a comedian we’ve been able to share. I’m sad that he is losing The Late Show soon—actually, we’re all losing it because CBS is completely cancelling the show, not just firing him (the dicks)—and I wonder what’s next for him. I’m sure he will not completely go away, but I wonder if he will continue doing political satire or if he’s ready for something else. He is an actor, after all. He could go to Broadway for a while. Write a book. Write a nonfiction treatise on J.R.R. Tolkien. Whatever he wants to do next, I am excited to consume it.

That came out weirdly. But you know what I mean. I want to watch it, read it, hear it, etc. Experience it.

Okay, moving on before this gets too silly. I have a more serious topic to discuss.

Rob Reiner & Catherine O’Hara. I started reading As You Wish, Cary Elwes’ memoir about making The Princess Bride. The forward was, fittingly, written by Rob Reiner. There’s so much of him in that book, and you can tell how much Cary Elwes and the others in the cast just loved him. I’m still very sad about what happened to him. I asked Luis for a copy of The Princess Bride for an anniversary present, since I really want to reread it. A lot of people have been quick to point out that Rob Reiner didn’t write that book. He’d be one of them, too. But he had a massive hand in the movie version, and it’s as wonderful and faithful to the story as it is because of him.

To add insult to my already injured heart, Catherine O’Hara passed away last week. I’ve been a fan of hers since Nightmare Before Christmas when I was little, without knowing who she was yet. She’s in so many things I love, including Christopher Guest movies and Schitt’s Creek. It still doesn’t entirely feel real. When I saw the news online, I shouted, “No!” at my screen.

And it struck me that poor Chris Guest lost two close friends within two months. 😢

Comfortable tenses. I’ve started writing an updated version of the Nerdfighter story that I’m still trying to get to a publishable novel form. The tense my brain hit the ground running* with is present, which I’ve enjoyed playing around with recently. I’ve noticed a lot of romance novels use present tense these days. It’s a tense that makes sense. Hopefully my brain won’t forget about it and start using past tense. That has happened before, and it creates all kinds of confusion when I’m editing.

A lot of writers stress about which tense to use. I think you should write in whichever way you’re comfortable with. And if you’re working on a draft, there’s nothing preventing you from changing your mind and changing tenses. It’s the same with point-of-view, though that can be even more annoying to edit. Finding all the “I”s and changing them to “he”s or whatever.

Write in a way that makes you feel comfortable and true to yourself. After all, cleaning it up is for the editing phase.

* I don’t recommend letting your brain hit the ground

No time for revolving doors.

Sara Mazariegos

Commuting in DC. I love living in the DC area and being able to take reliable buses and Metro trains everywhere. Luis and I don’t own a car (I can’t even drive, and he dislikes driving) and we don’t need to. We save so much money by not having a car, and the time spent waiting for buses or trains is comparable to the time spent sitting in traffic for drivers.

That being said, having to stand for all or nearly all of the commute is exhausting and I always get bummed because it means I can’t read while I ride. (First World Problem, I know, but still.) The other morning, the train was full of people and slow because of single-tracking and I had to stand the whole time. I briefly felt a panic attack coming on, but luckily I was able to get a seat before it got bad. I felt hot and like I might faint or be sick. That doesn’t usually happen to me. Thankfully, it’s not usually so packed I have to stand in the morning.

“It’s gonna snow again.” We heard for at least a week that it was going to snow from Saturday night through Monday morning. I went from thinking, “Oh man, I might have to work from home” to “I’m definitely going to have to work from home” to “I might have to take it as a snow day if the power goes out.” It also ramped up to include so many other states that several of my coworkers also had to work from home in their respective office locations. What does it say about me that I was more concerned about having to possibly take a day off (not as vacation, but as emergency) than I was about having enough non-perishable food in case we’re stuck in our house with no power for a while?

Luis ordered groceries and we planned meals in case we can’t use our stove or microwave. We might be living on canned beans and potato chips for a few days. I have faith that things will be okay, though.

SNOW UPDATE: I was allowed to work from home on Monday and Tuesday. We got about six inches of snow plus ice and sleet on Sunday, and the D.C. government closed because of the weather. The bus and Metro would be a nightmare when there’s that much snow and ice, even if they sometimes like to pretend otherwise. The Metro had problems with their track the other day, after all, and that was without snow.

Luis helped me get on the bus from the terribly icy/snowy bus stop this morning. Maryland left a huge frozen hill at the bus stop and we had to climb over it to get safely on the bus. Fortunately, the driver knew to wait to let us on. We weren’t going to wait 30 minutes for another bus. Luis even rode to the Metro with me, to make sure I got onto the train safely as well. I can’t speak highly enough about him. 🥲 Today’s the anniversary of the day we met!

He’s probably going to need to help me the rest of this week, until the snow is actually gone enough for it to not still be a minor hazard. Conversely, the Metro? Totally fine. It came right on time and there were no issues. I hope it stays that way.

The Color Purple novel. I’ve just started reading The Color Purple, and I’m really enjoying it. It feels like a well-timed departure from the depressing books I’ve read recently. It’s not all sunshine and giggles, of course, but the tone is brighter and the characters (at least several of the main ones) are more lovable. Especially Celie. We saw the musical movie when it was in theaters, so I was excited when I found the novel in a Little Free Library. It is a delight to read the way the strong women in the story fight back against the oppressive men, even if it’s sometimes just with a shared look. I keep catching myself grinning while I read it on the Metro. I used to think it would be very heavy, like Beloved, but it’s got humor to it. I hope it’s not bad to say I find it lighthearted and hopeful.

Beloved is also very good, of course. It is definitely sad, though. I need to read more Toni Morrison. I read Sula in college, and I need to read it again to enjoy it this time instead of using it for a term paper. You know?

February’s going to have a lot going on. There’s a week on my calendar with so much on it. It’s going to have Luis’s and my 14th dating anniversary mini-vacation (14th on the 14th!) the Winter Olympics coverage (I love ice skating/dancing,) and the Project For Awesome! All three of those will be on the same days, though of course the Olympics last longer. With the skating and the P4A livestreaming, we’re going to have plenty to watch in the hotel room after our fun anniversary activities each day. We’re going to museums and parks and shops near where we met fourteen years ago, and we hopefully won’t freeze our tails off.

I’m glad we did not get married on Valentine’s Day, but it is nice we started dating on that day. It makes it seem like everyone’s celebrating us with us.

Buy time, don’t lose it.

Sara Mazariegos

New Years. We had a fun New Years this (last?) year! Luis met me at my office and I showed him the holiday decor I put up. We took some snacks the building gave my office, then had a nice stroll to an English pub called Duke’s Grocery. It was decorated with gingerbread men and gumdrops. It was very cute. I had a delicious peppermint espresso martini. The first of a few fun drinks to celebrate the occasion. We also went to the movies after Duke’s Grocery, so we did end up doing something else fun instead of going straight home! Later that evening, I had a homemade espresso martini care of Luis’s sister, and a rummy egg nog around midnight, while watching Ryan Seacrest bemusedly pretend to care about a Tiktok rapper.

Then on New Years Day, we went to Outback Steakhouse and I had a gingerbread cookie martini and a wallaby darned. The gingerbread cookie martini comes with a little koala glass stem-hugger dressed like a Christmas elf, so he lives on my shelf now. Luis named him Cookie. I love Outback’s drinks. The one near us closed, but this one is still around and about the same distance as the one we used to go to. I’m so glad! They also have a blue cheese pecan salad I’m obsessed with. #NotAnAd

THEN, at nearly midnight on New Years Day (Night), who should show up on our porch camera but a raccoon? John Green manifested this for us. I called him Reginald. He checked out the water dish we leave out in the car port for any wayward critters, and then he skipped along into our backyard, where I hope he lives. What a great sign for the New Year. 😊

Marty Supreme and Hamnet and Taskmaster. On New Years Eve, we saw Marty Supreme. We enjoyed it! It features a cute dog, and Pamela Adlon’s daughter, Odessa A’zion, who sounds enough like Bobby Hill that we were smiling. She was in the movie more than I expected, and I liked her a lot. I wonder if it will win any Oscars. I think it was my favorite Timothy Chalamet performance that I’ve seen.

Last weekend, we saw Hamnet. I have a feeling it’s also going to be nominated for Oscars. Especially Jessie Buckley, who is amazing in it. It’s difficult to watch that movie with dry eyes. Luis pointed out that it’s about William Shakespeare and his family (but moreso about his wife Agnes/Anne) but they avoid saying his name until near the end for some reason. It’s not really a surprise, but I guess not everyone knows Shakespeare had a son named Hamnet who inspired Hamlet. That’s not a spoiler, though; it’s just a fact. Paul Mescal looked just like young William Shakespeare in it, and I’d never thought he looked like him before. He was also very good. It’s definitely a movie that engrossed me, making me feel like I was watching the actual people in the actual situations. It’s a more traditional Oscars nominee (they loooove Shakespeare content,) but that doesn’t mean it’s any less worthy.

We also watched the Taskmaster New Years Treat last weekend. Rose Ayling-Ellis is super cute. I was shocked at how anti-word-nerd Greg Davies was. I think it was more that Susie Dent reminded him of how annoying Alex Horne can be. 😂 I always wish there were more episodes, but I understand the people on these specials are available for a more limited engagement than during a regular series. I’m looking forward to seeing Kumail Nanjiani on Taskmaster! My lucky day! I was just writing about him, wasn’t I? I wonder if he’ll win or if he’ll be terrible at the tasks. Either way, I’m sure he’ll be fun!

Writing Goals & The Sims. My dad read the draft of my It’s A Wonderful Life-inspired novel (and skimmed it a second time, to write helpful notes for me!) It’s touching how quickly he read it and how much thought he put into helping me out. He doesn’t usually read books very quickly, but he focused on this one for me. His notes are really good, too. I’m relieved, because I can’t tell you how many times friends have given me only “this is good!” type notes instead of actually giving me some constructive feedback. It’s not that I want people to be mean to me, but it’s more helpful for me to be told what’s not working, what should be tweaked, etc. I appreciate that my friends like my writing, but I know it needs editing!

I’m still taking a break from writing, but I plan to start writing my next draft version of my Nerdfighters-inspired novel in February. I’ve worked on a new plot outline, keeping certain elements from previous drafts, and I’m excited to play around with some new ideas.

Since Luis updated my Sims 4 for me, including all the packs and everything, I’ve been playing a lot during my free time. I took a long break from playing because my game files needed updates and I wanted the new stuff, so now I’ve got it all and I love it. I’m going somewhere with this, hear me out*. The first thing I did with my newly-updated and installed game was create the FMC and MMC from my Nerdfighters-inspired novel. It’s giving me some fun inspiration for my story as I think about the characters and how I want them to interact, work, and be as people. I love being able to “see” my characters by having computer-animated versions of them. I can put actual faces to the faces in my head, if that makes sense.

The new Romance skill in The Sims make the love story more of a challenge to play out, and their relationship feels more real because it takes effort and keeping up with. I love it! They currently are madly in love with each other, and they’re engaged. I’m not rushing their wedding, because I think it will be better with more time and experiences under their belts. They’re way ahead of the characters in my novel, considering that I haven’t started writing it yet. But who wants to play The Sims slowly?

I did make the couple have a baby, which is not something they will do in my novel. Because I also wanted to play with the new Infants pack. That’s also quite challenging, but the game is more fun if it’s at least a little challenging. Don’t get me started on those damn gnomes, though. I turned them off as soon as I learned how. Well, Luis helped me figure out how.

Here’s a picture of my cute Sims family. I plan to only play as them and expand the family, because that’s always fun. I wonder if they’ll be able to roleplay some of my novel’s plot eventually, too. Baby Charlie is dressed like a raccoon, yes.


This is a terribly nerdy post. But you already knew I was a nerd, didn’t you?


* Read me out?

Won’t you be in Nerdfighterlike with me?

Sara Mazariegos

My Nerdfighter story. Strap in. This is going to be a long one.

Continue reading “Won’t you be in Nerdfighterlike with me?” →

Can you help me occupy my brain?

Sara Mazariegos

Luis and I attended the annual Esther Day Virtual Party on Sunday. Esther Day is a birthday celebration of Esther Earl, a Nerdfighter who died of thyroid cancer when she was sixteen. When asked how she wanted to be remembered, she said she would like everyone to take the day to celebrate platonic love and saying “I love you” to people who you might not say it to as often as you want or should; maybe it makes you feel a little uncomfortable because it’s not said as often. It’s a really sweet way to celebrate Esther and her family and the people we love in our lives. It’s just nice. It’s a nice hug of a day.

Do you want a personal example of how kind John Green is? He and his wife Sarah were guests in the virtual party livestream, and he did a Q&A like he often does, because he loves to answer questions and offer “dubious advice.” Luis has been anxious about home repair stuff, as I think I’ve mentioned here, so I casually asked John if he has any advice for dealing with the anxiety. John not only gave us some advice—watch YouTube videos on home repairs (which we can’t really do for our roof, ha.)—he also took the time to give us a shout-out like, “Sara and Luis! We’re fully invested in their marriage.” Which made us both very touched and smiley for the rest of the livestream. And so now, when we’re stressed about home repair stuff, which of course we will keep being stressed about but it’s normal and it will be fine, we can think about John’s shout-out and words of advice, which boil down to us not being alone. 💚

Luis’s birthday is this Saturday! We were originally going to have a birthday party for him because it’s a Saturday and how convenient, but it’s unfortunately a Saturday in summer so all our friends are busy*. But we’re going to see The Naked Gun which is a remake of one of his favorite movies, and we’re going to a restaurant he really likes, and I’m going to make the weekend all about him and what he wants. That’s my other gift to him this year. (I also got him a Switch 2 back in July, which he’s been playing every day since I told him he needed it and we rushed out and got it.) We also also might go see Inter Miami play DC in a few weeks, if we can muster up the enthusiasm since Messi probably won’t play. Busquets will still be there! And De Paul! And Alba! And Suarez! Plenty of fun players, but no one’s as cool as Messi, so we’ll see about that.

We’re still thinking about Ozzy Osbourne. Luis is a big fan, so he’s been showing me all kinds of stuff and playing songs for me. We started watching The Osbournes because I figured it would at least be amusing. It was my idea. It’s fun to learn about the family. It’s definitely silly, but it’s also kind of sweet in a weird way. They had way, way too many dogs and didn’t really know how to take care of them. There’s a metaphor in there somewhere.

My writing is still going well. I can see how the story plot is progressing as planned, which is very exciting. I’m almost to 50K words. I was looking through my calendar the other day and realized it won’t be long until I’m finished with this draft. September 26th is my goal end date, and that’s not so far away now.

I wish there was a word to describe how good it feels when everything seems to fall into place.

* We are still going to have a party with friends, it’s just not going to be on his actual birthday.

I had never seen a set of eyes more hazelerer.

Sara Mazariegos

I was going to write about not giving up on story even when it starts to bore me or when I’d rather write something else. But then I got bit by the inspiration bug and spent the whole weekend awash in plotting and outlining my ideas for my retooling of my Nerdfighters-inspired novel. So my other novel is going on the back-burner. It helps that it has a strong outline. I won’t forget to finish it.

Luis is meanwhile enjoying coming up with great ideas for our next escape room at our house this Halloween. I told him I wanted to do a Haunted Mansion one, and he’s been on a roll. I’m so excited to see what he creates. We help each other with our different, but similar, creative projects. I love it. 💖

On Sunday, I sent in my It’s A Wonderful Life novel’s query letter for The Shit No One Tells You About Writing to critique. We’ll see if it catches their attention. If they don’t select it for their podcast, maybe that means it’s already good enough. I’m trying to be positive. I’m not going to rush out the queries like I did in the past. Especially because I’m still having a few beta readers look it over.

So far, a beta reader is enjoying my novel. She said it’s polished. I hope it doesn’t nosedive as she gets further into it. I feel better about that story. I think taking time with it has served me well. Hopefully I can keep bringing that energy and that attitude to my novels going forward.

I can feel the improvement, which is a reward in and of itself.

In other news, I’m still impressed by season two of The Rehearsal. I told my dad to check it out, since he’s an airplane enthusiast. He told me he watched Nathan Fielder on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, and I thought, “Nooo!” 🤣 Because it was pretty spoilery. I was surprised by how much. Anyway, that season is really good. I liked it more than the first season, and I liked the first season quite a bit too.

Until next time,

I read your books and talked for hours.

Sara Mazariegos

Today we’re going to see John Green talk about tuberculosis. Last time we saw John Green, he talked about obsessive compulsive disorder and gave us a lime green mixer from our wedding registry. The time before that, we saw him at the National Book Festival and he signed my beloved former New York Public Library copy of Paper Towns. And the time before that, I saw him by myself at his tour stop in Bethesda for The Fault in Our Stars – and that’s when I first discovered my local Nerdfighter group, which eventually led me to Luis.

John Green matters very much to me.


I got a copy yesterday, but I haven’t started reading yet because I wanted to be in the right headspace. We’re each getting a copy at the reading today, too, because the book comes with each ticket. So I’m going to be swimming in copies of this book. 😅

Aside from going to the show, it’s also nice to have a day off from work. Something about this year has made being at the office five days a week downright exhausting. But, at the same time, things feel like they’re running more smoothly this year, possibly because I’ve gotten better at my job, but also there’s a new person helping me in my role, which is fantastic. I hope things keep going well. And that’s enough thinking about work on my day off.

This weekend, we’re going to spend Saturday with my family and Sunday with Luis’s parents, celebrating my birthday early. On my birthday, we’re going to Medieval Times with friends so I can reenact The Cable Guy. 😅

In writing news, the 500 words a day plan is going swimmingly. It’s kind of hard to explain, but it helps me feel like I’m in the scene more than it does when I write 2,000 words a day. This is probably unsurprising, but I’ve been programmed to have maximum output, so to slow down and take my time is both a big shift and also… a relief. Things are given more time to develop, which I think will make stronger scenes. Also things will be easier for me to edit without feeling like I’m losing a ton of words in the process, because I imagine the scenes will require additions instead of subtractions.

I’m plantsing my way through this one. Can you tell?

When I walked to my bus yesterday, I thought about my Nerdfighter novel and things to change to make it better. Even when I’m not working on stories, I’m still thinking about them.

Like a drunk, but not.

Sara Mazariegos

Wow, a lot has happened in the past week.

I joined the Dear Hank and John Patreon livestream on Wednesday and they announced that tickets were on sale for John Green’s new book tour, for Everything is Tuberculosis! As soon as I got home, Luis and I got tickets. I’m so excited! It feels a little odd to be excited since I’m sure it’s going to also be sad and frustrating to learn about, but I’m still excited to see him again and hear his latest work. We haven’t seen John in person since 2017, when he gave us a lime green Kitchenaid mixer as a wedding present. Something like that’s not going to happen again, but it will still be a great show.

John and Hank Green led to Luis and me meeting, so I couldn’t pass up the chance to see John again. Hopefully Hank will come to D.C. again someday, too.

Many places in Los Angeles have been burned in wildfires, which is scary and sad, and nerve-wracking because we’re going to be there in a little over a month. I’ve donated to redcross.org to help. Los Angeles has been on my mind a lot over the past week.

And then there’s this whole thing with Neil Gaiman. *Deep Sigh*

In writing news, I finished listening to my novel (as read by a phone app!) Luis listened along with me, and he told me he really likes it, though he’s a bit biased. 😏 Now the goal is to read it through and make edits. Thankfully, I didn’t find anything glaring that needs to change, plotwise, so that’s a relief. Restructuring and rewriting really did the trick.

I’m currently reading How to End a Love Story by Yulin Kuang and I really like it. I’ve noticed that she repeats the descriptor “Victorian” all the time, which is amusing because it escaped edits and read-throughs for her. It makes me think about what words or phrases I might’ve overused. I’ll focus on fixing things like that this first go-around of editing.

Victorianly,

“We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.”

Sara Mazariegos

I used to think this was a Willy Wonka quote. I had no idea he was quoting a poem by Arthur O’Shaughnessy.

We are the music makers,
    And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
    And sitting by desolate streams;—
World-losers and world-forsakers,
    On whom the pale moon gleams:
Yet we are the movers and shakers
    Of the world for ever, it seems.

Isn’t it wild to think that people didn’t know things like that before the Internet? Granted, I could’ve looked it up sooner than the other day, but still. We were just out there, learning things as they came to us and assuming things because we didn’t have pocket encyclopedias*.

This has been on my mind lately because John Green has been posting about the negative aspects of the social Internet for (let’s face it) years now. He’s taking a month off from Vlogbrothers in part because of the toxicity of the modern Internet, and I can’t blame him but also 😭

I am a Millennial. I grew up playing outside with friends, watching VHS tapes, and using a complicated Dewey Decimal System (with cards in organized drawers!) I clearly remember being 14 and liking a band and having to buy their CDs if I wanted to hear them. Okay, the bands were from the 60s so it’s not like I was listening to Millennial music, but still. If I wanted to listen to The Who’s discography, I had to buy that sh—

A moment ago, I just listened to a full Monkees album I’d never heard before because I didn’t own it. Am I nostalgic for a time when information wasn’t at my fingertips? NO! I just think it’s unfortunate and not necessary that we as a connected, better-informed society have gone from “I learned a thing! :D” to “everyone who disagrees with me is stupid and doesn’t deserve to go about their day without me telling them how badly I think of them.”

And now to awkwardly pivot a little. On Sunday, a literary agent tweeted this:


This is bad. This is really bad. I would hope that the majority of literary agents would not ever even think of doing something like this. Not only is it embarrassing for the writer she rejected, but it’s basically saying, ‘you gave me this idea, now I can take it and have someone else write it instead of working with you.’

It’s quite disheartening to see this behavior from a literary agent. They are supposed to be the ones writers can trust and turn to for support and advice. I don’t want to write off all agents because I know for a fact that most of them are wonderful, but it certainly doesn’t help their case in the growing traditional vs. indie publishing debates.

What do you think?


*Or maybe some of us did. Nerds.