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Because the origin is Welsh, the plural of “corgi” is actually “corgwn” which is pronounced “corgoon”.

Hello Dear Reader! Non-writing post ahead.

Well hello again!

Sleep Over has been optioned for adaptation to the screen, which I am very excited about!  Everything is sort of slow going at the moment as you may know though, but I’ll keep you posted.

For a break while I’m hard at work writing, I enjoy putting together educational posts about animals.  This one took a turn for the etymological…

I want to start posting them here, not just to reddit.  I put a lot of work into this one and I would like to use my website platform a bit more, so here we go.

I will say that I sometimes forget not everyone has tinkered with their web browser like I have; if you don’t already have the Chrome extension that lets you mouse-over image links for a pop-up view, I cannot recommend it enough; you can just get a little visual to go with things a lot of the time instead of having to click and leave a page. A lot of my linked text is actually just a picture 😉

Well folks this might be my strangest (and longest) awwducational post yet; it’s one third aww (awwviously corgwn -remember, corGOON– are cute as heck!), one third history, and one third language/etymology facts! Hope there’s something for everyone 😀

Onwards! I figure if we can all switch over from calling Phở “foe” to calling it by the proper “fuh“, surely we can get the plural of corgi to be as it should!

So WHY it is that we don’t use the proper word for a pile of corgwn?

(Source)

Culture erasure. In a single sentence: the English have historically been prejudiced against the Welsh language, and they have tried to suppress the use of the Welsh language. (Source 2) That erasure still echos into our time, in language remnants like this corgis/corgwn thing; let’s do our part to update our language.

Corgooooooooon!

I initially learned about this from an episode from the podcast “No Such Thing as a Fish”, where the final fact in that episode is that:

“The English language has more words borrowed from the Hawaiian language than it does from the Welsh language.”

And you’re not alone if you’re wondering how Wales, England, “The UK”, and the whole general British malarky are actually divided up and named; would you like to spend 5 minutes to learn about The Difference between the United Kingdom, Great Britain and England?

Now onto facts about, not just one corgi, but all corgwn (corgoon)! Because I know why you’re here (and I hope you’ll forgive me for tricking you into learning an etymology thing at the same time).

But first, obvs, PICTURES OF CORGWN!

Source. There are two breeds of corgwn; seen here on the left is a Cardigan Welsh Corgi, and on the right is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

View post on imgur.com

Source

Source

Here is an album with a ton of cute pictures of a corgi with amazing facial expressions!

Source@genthecorgi

Also, the source for the image I submitted is here.

FACT TIME

Okay it’s language time because I am a writer and for some reason words and etymology really floats my boat, really peels my grapes, really darns my socks.

Etymology

Borrowed from Welsh *corgi*, a compound of *cor* (“dwarf”) and *ci* (“dog”).

Sources for notes on the proper pronunciation are here.

And see here for the specific usage notes, which read:

Some breed authorities prescribe the etymologically consistent plural form corgwn. Nonetheless, the plural form corgis is considerably more common.

(So was “foe” until we got it sorted!)

Also: “The Pembrokeshire Corgi Handbook” (1952) by C.L.B. Hubbard states: “The plural of Corgi is Corgwn and not Corgis.”

Oh and is the Oxford English Dictionary a good enough source? I know I certainly knead it wile writing… “The Oxford English Dictionary [Second Edition]” lists corgi as:

Noun
corgi (plural corgis or corgies or corgwn)

I see “or” and “or” and I’m like fool of a Took! I really liked saying “go for foe” but we have to be proper twenty-first century citizens.

I must admit that the spelling is tripping me up a bit… But it’s definitely “corGOON”, I’ve some sources just to back me up. I really wanted to be sure on that, and it wasn’t just the accent of the podcasters where I first heard it!

Because I’m a poet, and I didn’t even realize it:

Very soon we’ll say corgoon.

Please get a spoon and feed corgwn. (One spoon twixt an unknown number of corgwn, I know, it could be *disastrous* but that is a risk I am willing to make you take.)

A bright full moon shines on corgwn:

Also I feel like there should be a D&D spell called Boon of Corgwn but I should not continue to procrastinate to the extent of making up magical items to summon a hoard of corgwn… must.. resist urge..

Furthermore, and extremely awesomely, if you type the proper IPA (*not a beer*) spelling

ˈkɔːɡuːn

into this extremely cool text-to-speach IPA tool, you can hear it being said! I may or may not have tried a bunch of accents XD

Bonus pics of Corgwn for all who made it to the end!

Source

Source is a deleted flickr account but I found it first here.

Source

 

Worth noting: I made a post over in /r/Wales before I felt confident enough to finalize my post… I am not Welsh, and, with any culturally sensitive issue, I would feel wrong to speak without first listening. So I asked, and they answered, much to my gratitude.

 

As ever, thanks for reading!

Source. I so enjoy putting these together! I ended up learning a lot, and hope you did too.

If you’d like to see more awwducational posts like this that I’ve done (much less etymology, more so animal facts), have a look at the following:

Binturong – Pangolins – Margays – Aye-Ayes – Nyala – Elephant Shrews

And if, for some regretable reason, you like my sense of humour, you can follow me on reddit here to get a steady stream of truly awful jokes, OC memes, and other nonsense in your general direction.

Cheers!!

HG out!

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I’m Back Baby!

Hello dear readers!

I’ve been pretty offgrid for well over two years now, and I thought it was high time to say hi.  HI!

I had an amazing journey in New Zealand.  It was exactly what I needed to help me process a massive life shift, and I will forever be grateful for my time there, and to all the people who helped me along the way.  It was truly magnificent. Winter in Vancouver:

I’m back in Vancouver!  I move into my new apartment in a few days and I couldn’t be happier.  I have a sweet job in an office; the days are long but that way my work week is 4 days, leaving me 3 days to tear into my creative projects. The view at work:

I’ve had a ton of creativity since I’ve been back.  There are so many things I want to work on, but, as always, I have laid out a plan to help me focus and get things done.  I’m living life in 3-month seasons, and it’s been an interesting exercise in sight-setting, adjusting course, and hurling myself full tilt towards my new life. It’s been so amazing to see my book on shelves:

The last three months have been: The Season of Re-Grounding.  My focus for that season looked like this:

  • Prosperity: make money at a stable job
  • Refuge: keep up a daily meditation practice, connect with local meditation sangha
  • Diligence: staying accountable to larger goals, working hard on creative endeavours

I have been mostly successful at staying on track. Life sometimes throws things at us that even the best-laid plans cannot account for, but that’s one of my strengths: I’m so damn adaptable that I can take it in stride, if only pausing for a bit to adjust course.

So I’m working up the pyramid of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The last two-point-five years have been the base of the pyramid, addressing my basic psychological needs. The past three months have been the next tier up: safety. The immense safety that comes with a stable income is… overwhelming to feel again. Once I move into my new home, I hope my body and mind can settle down a bit as I get to feel like I’m safe and sound on the very basic levels. The next season of my year is going to be focused on social belonging. Doing things with friends, finding new social situations, and generally exploring some of the amazing things Vancouver has to offer. I’ll be reestablishing some of my hobbies and activities. (Such as [AKA Heidi Likes to Do THINGS]: archery membership can be renewed next month, I’m recording several projects at a sound studio, I’m looking for a musical partnership, learning photoshop and final cut, discovering my brain loves to do jigsaw puzzles, and we’ll see what I get up to once I have some disposable income! I can sense that there’s a lump of clay somewhere waiting for my hands to get into it for some sculpture work.)

A thing I had very much looked forward to having again: propper doughnuts! ❤ Harmony ❤

So that’s me for now. I’m very much looking forward to having some objects which I used to take for granted, things I haven’t had for a long, long time, little markers on the path of “this is a safe and stable life”. Like basically not having to keep my belongings down to what I can carry. Conditioner for my hair, which, get this Dear Readers, now has a few white strands showing up in it. I feel about 400 years old haha. But what an amazing thing, to feel reborn, to be on the edge of seeing what new life I am crafting for myself, to know that I have the strength and tenacity to get through any damn thing thrown at me, and come out the other side with my heart shining like a beacon.

And my mind is on fire! There is so much to do! I have so many projects! I am so, SO happy to be writing again.

Thanks for coming along and witnessing me. What a wild and precious life, eh?

Bells out.

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Intimate Details of the Sleep Habits of the Author of the Insomnia Apocalypse

I wrote a book about what would happen if everyone on earth stopped sleeping.

Every night I sleep with an app on my phone which records my movements and translates them into neat data about my sleeping habits.

I’ve always been fascinated by sleep.  I’ve had bouts of insomnia, usually to go along with hugely stressful times, and periods of anxiety and depression.  It laid the groundwork for a lifetime of being fascinated by, and appreciative of, sleep.

Being a movie-theatre Film Projectionist for over a decade let me see a variety of sleep cycles, both in myself and in others who worked in the whacky world of a Grindhouse; closing the booth one summer had me on 17:00-01:00 shifts, which wreaked havoc on my sleep schedule.  When I took over as Head Projectionist I got to make the schedule for the booth, and set myself up with 10:00-18:00 shifts that better fit with ‘having a normal schedule’.

I watched as coworkers and managers were sick constantly.  I saw many become slowly crushed by the job.  I’m sure some of it was at least partially due to the abuse they inflicted on what should have been their ally, their treasured companion in life: sleep.

Seeing people close-open (close the threatre at 1 or 2 in the morning, and have to be in to open the theatre the next day at 9 or 10) was totally crazy to me.  When people are tired, they get sick more often, are less happy, and, from a business standpoint, cost money in the form of mistakes.  In the projection booth, these mistakes could equal big bucks.  Scratched prints, dropped prints, mistakes when splicing reels together (in the correct order, please), adverts and trailers put in upside-down and backwards… the list of things that can go wrong in a booth is long.  And when you sleep-deprived people, mistakes cost customer satisfaction and money.

We know that sleep deprivation can cause impairment.

My fascination with sleep bled into the career I’ve been working towards my whole life: being an author.  It seems inevitable that sleep was going to be the focus of a book at some point.  All my past experiences aligned and I got a bolt-from-the-blue idea that set me off on the wildest journey of my life: writing a book about an insomnia apocalypse.  “What if the whole world stopped being able to sleep?”  I set about crafting a book to explore just what would happen.  I wrote it in the style of World War Z, so every chapter could showcase some new element, a new character, a new location.  This let me produce a book with many windows into an apocalypse, and effectively illustrate just how badly we need sleep.

Spoiler alert: we need sleep a lot.  Like, so, so much.

Here’s where I can share some nifty things about sleep: I have been sleeping with an app on my phone that records movement and translates it into sleep data.  For two years, I’ve been tracking my sleep.

I have data that spans the most massive changes in my life yet:

  • going through a divorce
  • moving to the other side of the world
  • publishing my breakout novel, fulfilling a lifelong dream

I feel like my sleep data is personal.  It clearly shows the ups and downs of my life.

Also interesting are the periods where I’m on meditation retreats, contrasted to the times when I’m living in town, in ‘regular society’ and not in the peace and quiet of a meditation centre.

By far my favourite data is The Longest Night.  To celebrate my book launch, I stayed awake for as long as possible, live on a Twitch stream.  I made it 80 hours before I called it due to safety concerns.  After those 80 hours, I slept for a whopping 16 hours and 43 minutes.

It was amazing.  The days following it are also interesting.

Want to see some neat graphs about all this?  Hold onto your butts, here we go.  I give you:

Intimate Details of the Sleeping Habits of the Author of the Insomnia Apocalypse

First, everything all at once. Check it.

And here’s each individual graph so you can see the appropriate values:

But wait, there’s context.  My life during the past two years has been WILD.  Lots of ups and downs; ups from living a beautiful new life, downs from processing the end of a marriage.  Here’s the data with a bit of timeline:  

My sleep quality has been very closely tied to stress.  Moving out on my own for the first time was great; it alleviated the crushing weight of a failing marriage and I slept so much better than I had in ages.  The dip in January was me nearly dying of a broken heart.

But hey I’m still here, thanks in no small part to some Epic Meditation.  It totally changed my life, and I’m so grateful to have it.  It really helped get me through some rough times.

You notice that green line of sleep quality dips as it approaches January of this year.  You may know that I’ve been working my whole entire life to become an author, and my first book, Sleep Over, was released on January 16th.  The stress leading up to that was enormous, and you can definitely see my sleep affected by it.

The next increase in sleep quality was relief from Sleep Over hitting the shelves, in print, from a bonafide New York publisher.  I was so happy to have it behind me.  This started off a two-month period of intense meditation retreats to help process this massive life event.

Here’s more recent data in the same detail:

And again with some life events in the timeline:

And again, the separate charts for values:

The most interesting sleep, by far, is this one: The Longest Night, the night after I stayed awake as long as possible (80 hours!) for Sleep Over‘s release.  Check it.

Time in bed: 16 hours and 43 minutes baby!  Holy WOW.  Interestingly, I dipped into The Deep (deep sleep) my usual 5 times.  It was so good.  No sleep is ever going to top it, not unless something goes drastically wrong haha.

My previous Longest Night (and also one of the BEST ever) was the first night after I arrived in New Zealand, fleeing a life on fire and into the loving arms of so many helpful people.

Sleep is so helpful!  When things are hard it just makes life much easier and better if I can get the sleep I need.

Now, some nights in detail, just to show off what I know about my sleep cycle now, after observing it for 2 years.

My ideal night has 4 or 5 dips into deep sleep.  Whether I need 4 or 5 depends on how well rested I’ve been leading up to that night.  If all is well, I only need 4.  But if I’m totally knackered, I need 5, over 8 hours.

This is a recent sleep.  I’m super pooped from a new job.  As you can see, I have to be up really early, but it’s okay because I was in bed just after 7, leaving me enough time with my head on the pillow to dip into deep sleep those 5 times I need.

Now look at this one where I only need 4 dips and 7 hours:

Fun fact: on deep meditation retreat, I can be totally knackered but I only need 4 dips into deep sleep to feel well rested.  And I need far fewer hours with my head on the pillow.  The graph above is from an intense day on a 10-day vipassana retreat.  It was the hardest I’ve ever focussed and was totally in ‘the zone’.  (Absolutely MASSIVE days chockers full of sitting and learning vipassana).  4 dips woo!

Now a typical one from the heart of my month-long retreat:

I needed fully one hour less in bed than normal, and I was waking up naturally between 4 and 5.  I was often having a lay-down after lunch to get another hour with my head on the pillow, so some days when I only got 4 I was actually needing 5 (but it was too exciting to stay in bed, not when I could have the meditation hall all to myself haha).

Just to contrast these pretty great sleeps, here are some truly terrible sleeps.  The plateau leading up to the first dip means it took ages for me to fall asleep, and the plateau on the tail end means I was super restless coming out of sleep and didn’t want to get up, hoping I’d get another dip into good sleep, but not getting it.  This was the night after moving my things into storage and preparing to leave my friends and family.  A very disruptive time, and it definitely shows!  Only 3 dips into The Deep as I’ve come to think of it.

Here’s another bad one, where I wake up with anxiety twice in the night.

Nearing the end of my post, here’s a 100% quality sleep, from when I was helping do good in the world and feeling generally awesome.

So there you have it, some sleep data.  I always love sharing it in the hopes it gets people thinking about their own sleep health.

In conclusion, sleep is really important to me.  Its quality is critically linked to what’s happening in life, and how much stress I’m experiencing.

Questions?  Comments?  Have a gander at this reddit thread where I’ll be interacting to answer and chat!

And if you’re interested in a book about an insomnia apocalypse, Sleep Over is part of a Book Bub promotion this week- the eBook is only $1.99 across all U.S. platforms!

Or if you want to just toss me a gold coin, hit up Patreon.

Thanks for hanging out.  Cheers!

-H.G.

P.S. Sleep well ^_^

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Hello New Zealand, Hello The Wangapeka

I arrived in New Zealand on December 29th, 2016, summer in the southern hemisphere.  The air was fragrant with all sorts of floral aromatics, the warm breeze was fresh from the ocean, and I was excited to be in such a new and different place.  Just some of the things I noticed right away:

  • Cars drive on the other side of the road.
  • The plugs are all different and have individual switches.
  • The light switches are tiny and reversed (up is off!).
  • You hang clothes up to dry outside (no one has clothes dryers) because it doesn’t rain for months on end.
  • Everyone makes their own yoghurt.
  • The licence plates are just a number, no country/province necessary when you’re an island nation.

Nelson, NZ

Having lived in Canada my whole life, there are some things ingrained into me that I hadn’t realised until I came to NZ.  That shadow in the bushes?  Not a raccoon.  That rustling on the path at night?  Nothing to worry about, certainly not a bear.  There are no predators here.  There are no naturally occurring mammals here.  Mice, rats, stoats, and possums have made it over, but no large predators.  No snakes even.  It feels a lot like BC, but the ever-present feeling that there are hungry beasties hidden about is a vibe I still, 6 months in paradise, cannot quite shake.  There something deep and old about the fear of predators; I see fields of sheep everywhere and just cannot wrap my head around there being nothing for them to worry about.

Coming from the worst winter in my life (in all aspects; the weather was just terrible!) into a tropical wonderland was the most perfect thing.

I stayed with a wonderful woman, Rona Spencer, for a week.  She showed me all around town to orient me, and took me on a walk up to the Brook Wildlife Sanctuary.  The birdsong here is incredible; Tui and Bellbird have the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard, and Canada’s no slouch when it comes to bird life!

In the shuttle on the way to the Wangapeka

After my week in Nelson, I headed up to The Wangapeka.  I now know it by many names: The Centre, The Wanga, officially The Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre.  I and another retreatant took the shuttle up a day early (Colin is great if you ever need to get anywhere in the Nelson area, or book him up to the Centre, he really knows the drive!).  My early-companion had been to Wangapeka before and showed me all around to get me oriented.  I’ve had many kind and wonderful guides since coming here; they always seem to show up right when I need them most.

I walked up to the whare (pronounced “far-ay”- the “wh”s here are pronounced as “f”s), the beautiful teaching house.  I saw NZ’s first Stupa.  I heard and saw many things for the first time that made me feel like I was in a magical place.

If you don’t know what a retreat is, it’s basically taking intentional time away from life to do personal work.  The retreat I went on was a 2 week Chenrezig retreat.  It’s a form of meditation that helps explore many aspects of self, with the ultimate goal of cultivating compassion.  It was my first time using a mala, which are beads on a string to help count mantra.  I remain an atheist; there are many aspects of Buddhism I cannot get behind, but many that I can.  I have found it incredibly useful to explore the mind using some of the tools it offers, Chenrezig being one of them.

So many people have been doing work of various kinds at the Centre for so long that it feels… anything I say will sound like mystical hoo-hah.  It just feels special.  Knowing that people have faced their inner demons, have explored dark and deep crevices of their minds, have had the guts to delve into themselves and root around, gave the place a feeling of gravitas, of solemn importance.  It made me feel comforted; I am not the first person to be going through a great loss, nor will I be the last.

I think I fell in love with The Wangapeka when I arrived.  It could be that a drowning person will love any lifeboat, but as time has gone on, I don’t think I love it just because it helped me so much in a time of great need.  I see the work being done there, see that just having a place for serious retreat work is a gift.  The care and attention put into that place over the many years has made it a special place.

I did a solo retreat for a few days after Chenrezig ended.  I went to the highest hut, Omahu, and had uninterrupted time all to myself.  I has one of the most beautiful views I’ve ever seen, for what it represented to me as much as the actual sight.  I cried for joy when I got up there; how lucky I am to have landed here and get to be in such a place.

The view from Omahu

Since that first retreat I’ve been back several times; I did a week long “intro retreat” to further understand retreat work in general.  Then, I was back in Nelson and prepared to send my roommates and many friends off for a month-long retreat.  Many pieces fell into place: my roommate Chani was the retreat organiser, I had been cooking a ton and sending delicious food to Wangapeka-related meetings, I made it known that I loved the Wangapeka and wanted to help in any way I could, I was completely at loose ends (I cancelled my flight back to Canada) and I was looking for work.  This perfect storm was bubbling away when, three days before their retreat was due to start, they found themselves without a cook.

Badda bing badda boom, chef Heidi to the rescue!

I learned how to use the ordering system, how to portion, what the dietary requirements were, made meal plans, and got oriented with the kitchen in three days.  Then I cooked for a big group for a month!

It was some of the happiest time of my life.  Waking up every morning with a purpose, knowing I was helping support the work people were doing, making delicious and nutritious food, being around wonderful people in that place, and going to teachings in the morning and group meditations in the evening- it was exactly what I needed.

I even got a couple of breaks, and got to go on a hiking trip into the Nelson Lakes.

After the month, I stayed to cook for a work week, where amazing woofers helped with whatever needed doing.  Then I was asked to cook for a “harp meditation” weekend, and I spent my final days in one of the higher up huts, Skydancer.

It snowed a bit, heralding the start of winter.

It’s been nearly two months since I was last there, and I can’t wait to go back.  I’ll be cooking for a 4-day Chenrezig retreat soon, then for the AGM, then staying on to cook for a six-week retreat and all the ones that happen on the weekends concurrently.  I feel so lucky to have the opportunities that I do.  If you spend enough time setting up bowling pins, you can stand back and have a go at knocking them down.  I have been bowling a pretty terrific game since I arrived in NZ, that’s for sure.

Oh and during that month long retreat, my publisher sent me the final MS to proof.  I did some intensive editing in the caretaker’s office between lunch and dinner.  They also asked for the acknowledgements and my bio.  What hilarious timing to have to write a paragraph about who I am.

Because really, who am I?

…I’m Heidi.

Thanks for reading.  ❤

Heidi out.

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Hello and Welcome to the New HG!

Hello Dear Readers.  Personal post ahead!

Thanks so much for still sticking around with me.  It’s been a doozy of a time, a real top-notch shitshow for me personally.  The past 2 years have been awful.  But things are great now.  The Coles’ Notes: I was with my husband for 14 years, and now we’re getting divorced.  I had a home and two cats, now I no longer have a home or cats.  I was in Canada, now I’m in New Zealand.  I was awesome, now I am EVEN MORE FRICKIN’ AWESOME.

(Here’s me at my own private “Polar Bear Swim” at Tahunanui Beach in Nelson, January 1st, 2017!)

I love life.  I have had the best time of my life the past few months.  It’s hard to go through something as disruptive as a divorce, but I’m doing well, and have a new improved outlook on life, the universe, and everything.

I wanted to share some things about me and keep you in the loop.  As this blog is primarily about my writing career, you’ll be pleased to hear that my novel, Sleep Over, is coming out soon!  I am beyond excited that I’ve come this far and will finally get to see one of my books in print, from an amazing publisher.  (More updates to follow of course!)

(Here’s me in the shuttle being driven further into New Zealand to the Wangapeka.)

As you can see, I have opted for a new name.  H.G. Bells reporting for duty!  I picked a new name that I think will be easy to 1) pronounce 2) spell and 3) remember.  I hope to hit the ground running when Sleep Over comes out, and my new name will hopefully at least not completely hobble me when it comes to being the new kid on the block.

And it has the added benefit of being similar to one of the ‘fathers of sci-fi’, H.G. Wells.  I hope to follow in his footsteps and contribute to sci-fi as he did (ambitious much Heidi?  Baby you know it!).

So my next few posts will be about me in New Zealand.  It’s so beautiful here, and it’s been an incredible place to begin healing my poor broken heart, meet amazing people, and generally expand my horizons.

(Me up at Omahu at the Wangapeka… the most beautiful place.)

Writing-wise, I will say that going through a divorce was incredibly disruptive, surprising no one.  What did surprise me, was my ability to complete a major set of revisions for my publisher during the worst time of my life.  I have to tell you, when I got the email that my draft had been accepted it was such a huge weight off my back.  It made me realise that I have spent so much time and effort honing my craft that it was still functional while my whole world was being burnt to the ground around me.  I can still perform as a writer while my world is on fire.  I honestly didn’t think I could do it, and, while I was struggling to get the final draft done during those dark times, I thought for sure it was the end of my writing life.  But I have emerged from that process with a deeper appreciation and confidence in my work, my process, and in myself.  I built the foundation of my craft strong, and I built it to last.  Thanks Past Heidi, you did a real good job there.  (Future Heidi if you’re reading this: hi!  I love you!)

Also, I am strong as fuck.  If there’s a thing on this earth that can break me, I sure as hell don’t know what it is.  (ATTN gods of fate: this is not a challenge, pls leave Heidi alone for a while k thanks bye.)

But, while I am strong, I am tired as hell.  I would love it if Sleep Over could come out and do well so I can breathe a little easier.  I know it’s not easy establishing oneself on the world stage of authordom (and realistically I expect to need several published books before I can count myself as successful), but hopefully Sleep Over will be a good start.  And then I can really shine.  Because, while I can keep up with the process while going through hell, my best work has been while I’ve had a stable and happy life.  I hope to get back to something approximating that some day, and can continue on with a vague life trajectory.

We make all these plans, and then life happens.  We assume we will be the same, but we’re all changing all the time.  Things change, we change, and here I am surfing a big change.  Yeehaa!!!

So that’s me.  Thanks for reading my most personal update yet.  I truly cannot express how grateful I am to still have you with me, for your kind words, your support, your love.  As I’m rising from the ashes of my former life I can see so much to be grateful for, so much to love, so much to feel.  And through it all, be it from the sidelines or holding my hand, is you.

Much love,

Continually Yours,

Heidi Grace Bells

 

P.S. You can email me at my snazzy new email address:  heidi {at} hgbells {dot} com  And as you may notice, my website has changed to match!  hgbells {dot} com is the new me!

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A good week!

It feels really good to be deep into working on Sleep Over again. It also feels good to have a timeline nailed down. I didn’t put events in order because I wanted the narrative to mirror the confusion of the insomnia apocalypse, where time gets distorted and it’s really hard to tell when things happened or how long anything has been happening. Now that I’ve done it both ways (no timeline and now a solid timeline for revisions) I think I can have the best of both worlds.

I still don’t want my readers to know how long anything in the book takes, or even how long the insomnia lasts; I want it to truly feel like time has no meaning, and confusion casts doubt on any times given.

But now at least my publisher will have a better idea of the timeline, and they can better ask me for specific things they’d like to hear more of for the next round of revisions.

Hurrah!

Here’s some pictures for stopping by. In case you don’t know, if there’s a large version I will make them clickable! My site can only handle images so big. Cheers!



London police officer proposes during Pride:

And a video of some Irish fans serenading a baby on the tube.

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Getting it square

This week I worked on putting together a fictional timeline of the insomnia apocalypse for my publisher. I’ll see what sort of revisions they have in mind once they see a blow-by-blow of world events during Sleep Over!

Here’s some stuff I’ve enjoyed recently. Cheers!





That’s all for now folks.
Oh, except that Witness continues to be amazing- Aaron and I discovered something last night that opened up a whole new world of puzzles to solve. Puzzles, puzzles everywhere!!!

Cheerio,
Heidi out.

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Another round of revisions!

Well, my editor at Skyhorse has come back with comments on my revised MS, and they would like another round of revisions. We’ll see how much work it’s going to end up being, but I know in the end it will make for a more marketable book. I’m on board!

In the mean time, what else have I got for you?

I just got the new Dominion expansion and it is amazing! If you like Dominion, or haven’t played it but are interested in deck building games, this is a very neat expansion. It has some interesting new mechanics, like having different cards in a single supply pile. And castles! I can’t wait to use castles to win.

Oh and another thing! Check out this comic anthology: Dirty Diamonds Vol.7 is on Kickstarter! It looks like it will be amazing. I backed Vol.6 and was very happy with it! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/dirtydiamonds/dirty-diamonds-7-imagination-an-all-girl-comic-ant?ref=user_menu

Here’s some neat pics to leave off. Cheerio!

Thanks for stopping by. Heidi out.

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Mango Nightmares!

OK so I don’t know if I’m alone in this.  Maybe I am, or maybe somewhere out there in my readership is another person who also gets Mango Nightmares.  How do you tell if you have Mango Nightmares?  It is not, in fact, having nightmares about mangos, but the other way, where you get nightmares after eating mangos.

So here’s the thing.  Every year, usually in the summer, I go crazy over one type of fruit.  It changes from year to year, but whatever fruit it is that year, I eat dozens and dozens of pounds of it until my thirst for that particular fruit is slaked.  One year I had dozens of pineapples.  Another, golden kiwis (far superior to regular kiwis, try them!).

…Side note, why are we calling Pineapples Pineapples?! ?

Anyway! So one year, my glut of fruit was mangoes. And not the red and green kind like I thought were mangos. I mean, they are mangoes, but they are not the best mangoes.

I’ve gotta say, Haden mangoes have got nothing on Ataulfo mangoes!

Once I discovered how good these were I bought them by the bagfull. I learned a quick way to peel them using a glass:

And from there I was processing them and freezing them, then bagging them up in individual portions for smoothies! But always I was eating them straight up, sometimes having four or five for a meal.

…That’s when the nightmares started. I noticed a dramatic shift in my dreams on nights where I’d had a ton of mangoes during the day. I began having vivid and distressing nightmares. I did some experiments and found that they were directly correlated to having a bunch of mangoes.

So, the Year Of Mangoes ended and I eventually went back to a sane equilibrium with them, having one every now and then when they looked good. Then, at a games night at a friend’s last week, a bunch of fresh, ripe mangoes were brought out. I gleefully showed them the glass-hack and prepped them in no time. We feasted on the delicious golden flesh. One of my friends joked that it probably wasn’t enough to bring on The Mango Nightmares. I laughed. That time it wasn’t. But now…

A couple of days ago, I only had one mango. And that night: vivid nightmares. It could have just been regular nightmares. I like to have more data before I make a hypothesis…

Yesterday I only had one mango, I swear. It was good as hell. But my nightmares last night… Lordy lordy! Awful! Here’s what my sleep looked like (I use Sleep Cycle to track my sleep quality!):

I didn’t wait for the alarm to rise me and I alighted right quick to try and shake the dream of an old Asian lady coming for me with an AK while I ran upstairs (NO YOU FOOL! What are you thinking, UPstairs!!! Your friends are in the basement and she’s going to KILL THEM AHHHHHH). So yeah I got up.

And I will try another experiment. One mango today. I’ll see how I fare.

So, dear readers, am I alone? Are Mango Nightmares a thing of my own personal physiology? Or do I have friends out there who know the struggle between choosing to taste the delicious golden sweet honey flesh of a glorious Drupe, or having a peaceful sleep?

I will keep you posted!

Heidi out.