Crosshairs

I wrote this about ten years ago. I have a piece that I’m working on that is based off of this original idea.

The point of the piece is the contrast of the colors black and white and the cultural significance of both colors being used for mourning depending on where you were in teh world.

Crosshairs (The Agony of the Color White) by M. Sano (October, 2008)

He was wearing white again, she thought as she let out a sigh. He only wore white when he had successfully completed a job. This meant that there was a family somewhere that was in mourning, it meant that he was in mourning too. Why he did the work he did, she would never know. He had other skills; killing was not the only thing he knew. She feared the day that he wouldn’t be able to get away when a mission went badly, when he wouldn’t come back. He knew of this fear, and he promised that she would stop soon. She had no choice but to believe him.

Continue reading “Crosshairs” →

Just relaxing

The last few days have been busy and stressful. I’ve been writing and also working three 9-hour shifts at work. Usually I work about three days a week and never all together, but a coworker took the weekend off. This is fine normally, but the entire weekend was under staffed and I have a few call outs. Also customers can be out right nasty.

WP and I have been working on our project but there have been some road blocks. We realized we weren’t on the same page with our timelines so now there is a major edit and such happening. Which is fine. Except I’m so stressed out from this weekend that this latest road block is causing me to be more stressed than I should be.

So right now I’m pant-less on my balcony enjoying a cigarette in an attempt to relax. I have eight files to edit and space out to make eight months instead of it only spanning six weeks. I don’t know how I’m going to do this. WP says he’ll fix it but I’m kind of protective over this part of the project.

I feel sleepy but I can’t afford to take a nap when I’ve already slept half the day. It would be nice if I could get paid to write this project. I work 4.5 hours tomorrow beginning at 5:30 in the morning. And I’m already exhausted thinking about it. But this is life.

As always feel free to leave a comment or question. I’ll post more writing later this week.

The Wall

I’m going to change things up a bit. Here’s a piece that I wrote years ago, it’s just a short piece and I could probably one day make it into a short story or something longer. Let me know what you think.

The Wall by M. Sano

Up close, it didn’t look so bad. Red raised bumps that made hills over the blues. Yellows and greens sat on the brown, while the various shades of pinks and purples were smooth and stood out against the harshness of the colors around them. Ridges and bumps covered the entire piece. Up close, it really didn’t look so bad. But once she stepped away from it, she could see the flaws.

Continue reading “The Wall” →

Well I cooked this week and other mundane things

Disclaimer: I am not getting paid to write about this company, and I don’t think they know I exist beyond my frantic phone call of “Please can you see if you can cancel this order because I’m an idiot and assumed no reminder emails meant that I canceled this and the $40 this took from me is going to hurt because I don’t get paid for the next two weeks, but it’s okay if you can’t because it’s food and I’ll eat it, and I’m the idiot here.”

So I forgot to double check to see if my Martha and Marley Spoon meal kit subscription was still active and got charged for a meal kit this week. I called the day my account was credited and they said they could not cancel it because the order went straight to processing. Oh well, that was my fault anyway and that’s life. Plus. I cook more with meal kits so I’d use the food anyway and I’d actually eat. So besides being completely broke now until next pay day, it was a win.

My box came in on Tuesday so on Wednesday I made the first meal. It was lemon garlic chicken and green bean meal that was in a Greek style. Served with pita and a lemon garlic yogurt sauce, it was one of the best tasting meals I’ve made in a long time. One of the things I like about using a meal kit is that the steps are laid out and I kind of get an idea of what the meal is supposed to look like. I made the steak dish last night, it was Asian inspired flavors, and I substituted the potato salad I was supposed to make with it, with a pasta salad instead. Used the same sauce. It was very good. But I liked the Greek dish better.

I like the meals I’ve been getting with this company. I tried Hello Fresh, and while I liked them, I felt they were too complicated and had more steps to make dinner. I like the six step set up of Marley Spoon. I actually started ordering the meal kits when I had extra money to see if a structured meal plan was better for my post TBI brain than trying to go to the grocery store and attempting to put meal ideas together by myself. This does help more, so when I get more money again, I think I’m going to subscribe back again. I’d like to try that $5/meal subscription kit I’ve seen advertised but I’m not sure. Any one tried one of those? Leave me a comment if you have with how you liked it.

I haven’t done much else this week except for do some light cleaning of the kitchen. I picked up a couple of extra shifts at work and my body hates me for it. But my next pay check will be better.

Writing wise, WP is back and has tasked me with more work. I’m supposed to be working on it right now but I’m tired and I’m procrastinating. I’m going to select an old short story to post later today or tomorrow.

My small epic I wrote for him ended up being about 12 pages and I’m still working on some parts. I feel that is an accomplishment.

For now I’m going to try to get a few pages written.

Writing but not getting anywhere…

WP is on his trip. So I’m trying to work on our project alone without him being able to answer my questions. I find that working with WP makes it easier for me because I have someone to help keep my attention. I’ve been working on the same piece for days but I keep walking off, switching to Facebook, watching television, or taking naps. Nothing new is being written.

I’m not sure if its an attention disorder or boredom, but I’ve always found it easier to complete a task when someone is with me. With any luck WP will be back soon and I will have some real content written.

Good morning.

Good morning. I’m trying out the mobile app this morning. And yes that is my cup of coffee.

My roommate needed a ride to work. Her shift starts at 6 am. I haven’t been able to get back to sleep and I’m exhausted. So lots of coffee this morning. And a few hours to write.

I’m debating which short story to post up here. I’ve got one or two that I think are okay enough to post. They are years, of not a decade old.

The cat is enjoying us being up early though. At least one of us is awake.

Retail is a motivator

I worked a closing shift on a holiday weekend today. For those that don’t remember, I work for a home improvement retailer. (The red vest one). It’s a holiday weekend and we are running on a skeleton crew as many of our seasonal temps have gone back to school.

I have no idea why people think they can yell at us. I’m pretty sure I had a customer do something unethical and when we had to figure out why his items which were only sold by a pack (30 individual unit in one sealed pack, no way to piece it out), he started to get loud and saying he wants a manager and why would we sell a half opened box (That was torn open and had half it contents missing — we’re good at marking returns like that and other things down, so no mark down, it didn’t come that way). I ended up giving him a mark down and only charging for the pieces in the box. Then emailed Loss Prevention.

Got yelled at by a customer because his wife’s card wouldn’t go through. She wasn’t in the store so I tried to look up with her information but the system wouldn’t let me and I can’t do anything else. I suggested they call the card company. He blew up at me, yelled at me for suggesting that he may have to call. His wife wasn’t in the store, I’d get fired. Called my manager over, she swipes his card in a huff and it goes through. She walks off. He yells at me more for suggesting it was his fault and it was a system problem.

I need to find a new job.

All work and no play…

WP texted me around 2 in the morning. Says he’s available this evening to work and we joke around a bit. Then it was bed time.

I didn’t get back out of bed until around noon. I had nothing on my agenda for today except to get some mystery shops done. I like mystery shopping because it’s quick and easy. I don’t like mystery shopping because I have to drive out to the next cities to get anything worth doing.

The first shop was at a mobile phone seller. They are an authorized dealer of a major phone company. I was in and out in less than 15 minutes. The sales man, who was a manager, had no desire to make a sale. I’m actually not sure I’m going to get paid for this one.

The second one was at a famous burger eatery. This one was easy. I used the last of my money to make this one happen. I should be reimbursed but it will be over a month before I get paid for this.

And now I’m back to “livewriting” with WP. Hoping we get somewhere tonight.

I might pop in with something more to say.

Until next time….

I’m not lost, I just like taking the long way

Hello.

It’s been a while since I last was blogging. Years actually. I’m really bad at being consistent so I’m not sure how long this attempt will last. My writing partner has abandoned me for a few days and I don’t know what to do with myself, so with my parents encouragement (Hi Mom! Hi Dad!), I’m doing this. While also writing a short epic to teach my writing partner (hereby known as WP) that he shouldn’t leave me alone with the instructions to “do something fun”.

So a little about myself. For those who know me, you can skip this section.

I’m a 30-something who works as a Head Cashier in a home improvement retail store. (The one with the red vests.) I work part time and I write full time. But the writing has never paid. I’m hoping to someday be paid to do it. Right now it’s a hobby.

I have a cat. Her name is Miss Murder Kitty, but in polite company her name is Miss Kitty. She’s cute, but her favorite activities are biting for attention and scratching. She also believes that she is being starved but no such thing is happening.

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WP and I are working on an series. It’ll end up being somewhere between like six and ten books. We’d also love to see it become a television show or a movie. We both work jobs with schedules that vary so writing is hard some days. Our series is mainly a science fiction drama, as there are two of us working in a partnership there’s a little genre crossing but (I may be biased) I think it works. It’s also not for the easily squeamish.

So I guess the big question is what is this blog about? My journey in getting back to writing and being a retail worker in my 30’s. Some cat stories. Some food. Me. I hope you enjoy it!

Also, let me know if you’re the pay for content type. I’ve got an idea for a serial that will tie in with the writing project. I’d love to sell it through a platform like patron. Let me know! It would more or less be the journal of Mia, our main character about two years before our story starts, and would probably go into the first day or so after it starts.