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Computer Challenges and Superb Owls

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Sometimes my goals don’t quite come to fruition as intended:

One of my goals for this weekend is adding a bluesky feed to my writing website. I'm using WordPress and I've heard through the grapevine that it's relatively easy to add as a widget, so here's hoping.

— Frances Mihulec (@chaosmoonmage.bsky.social) Feb 7, 2025 at 5:37 AM
https://embed.bsky.app/static/embed.js

Was the grapevine wrong? Not entirely. You do need a business-level WordPress subscription to upload the “free” plugin or much of anything beyond Jetpack. My website writing budget isn’t that big and I’ve no desire to increase it. What I can do is embed specific bluesky posts. So I am counting this a partial success.

We call them “challenges” not “problems” these days, don’t we? In other news, my poetry manuscript is in excellent editorial hands at the moment. I will share more in the coming weeks.

Happy Superb Owl day for the rest of my fellow weirdos! If you find anything fun that’s owl related, share it to your loved ones. Bonus points if they have no idea why you’re sending it and you don’t explain. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

For Indie Authors and Poets

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Does this sound like you and your work?:

  • Self-published or published through a lesser-known publisher
  • Your art does not pay the bills
  • You don’t have a following yet (or it is small)
  • Reviews are sparse, if they exist at all

Then I have a proposal for you: send me an email or comment below with a link to your website, the book you most would like me to review, and information on how or where I can purchase the copy. I’m not asking or wanting free copies, but I am collecting a list of books and e-books to review and showcase on this website for my own practice.

Since I don’t have any reviews up as examples yet, I want to give folks an idea of what I’m going to be looking at:

  • Is this a novel or collection I would read again?
  • Would I recommend this to others and what audience(s) do I think would most enjoy the work?
  • Top three likes and dislikes about the book.

All reviews will include a link to the author’s website or any page that gives readers a place to go to learn about you, your work, and purchase your book(s). If you send along a brief bio as well, I’ll use it!

Goals for 2020-2021

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This is a list mostly for myself for what I’m thinking about moving forward with the website, but I thought I’d share it. This is also highly my own wish list for my hobby. I intended this site initially to be a showcase / portfolio but it’s mostly about me having fun with words and other creative interests that catch my eye. I geek out about random subjects at various times – it’s my joy!

  • New digital camera (I’d really like to get some photography, audio, and maybe videos on the site)
  • Paid web hosting
  • Define a new publishing plan (which might honestly be define a publishing plan at this point)
  • Possibly consider ko-fi and other platforms as I refine my content goals
  • Offer more chances for interactive engagement (social mediaaaaahhh, dahling!)
  • Have fun, be safe, be kind

What would you most like to see in the next few months? Topics, types of posts, you name it. Let me know what your goals are, if you’d like – whatever it is on your mind! Comment below!

Eight Months Later

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I realize I’ve not been the best with keeping up with this blog after I started it to be a writing portfolio (of sorts). I’m still not sure where I’m going with Dead Cat Bounce ultimately, but here’s the run down of how the bulk of my first year in Seattle has gone:

I had three weeks of panic upon my first arrival here, because my spouse had lost the job that had gotten us through the move and into an apartment on my first day in the city. I took the first job that I was offered, grateful, albeit a little daunted, but it turned out to be the best decision I’ve made in a long time. I was promoted to an assistant manager position after six months.

My mental and physical health had taken a dive back in Kansas and it had worsened since I wound up in a position of shouldering the bulk of the household expenses in a city notorious for its high cost of living. Enter company health insurance and actually taking care of my own health for the first time in probably twenty years. For the first time in a long time, I’m living with a thought on the future, instead of bare-bones survival running on nothing but adrenaline, caffeine, top-notch fiction, and cheap whiskey. At the end of this journey, I hope to ease the nightmares and start to appreciate myself as a person, as well as hopefully survive my next decade without wearing down my organs anymore than is necessary.

In short, I stopped writing and creating for a while. I no longer had a taste for it, so this is a move back toward making art (or something in that general direction) and growing as a person. I’m not sticking to a regular writing schedule yet, but it is happening again. I’ve been working on my programming skills and I have a game concept that I’ve been poking at when inspiration strikes. Baby steps, as they say.

At this point, I can’t honestly promise I’ll keep up with the site like I originally intended, or that it won’t take on a new direction in the future, but thanks for popping in on occasion to read! I hope to have more to share in the coming weeks. Let me know in the comments if you have any places in Seattle you want me to review, photograph, and/or mention. Or anything that strikes your mind on what you’d like see next on readcatbounce.

Best Laid Plans

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I had full intentions of keeping up with this blog more regularly but the past couple of weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind. I picked up a new day job and I think I’m almost through with my training. I imagine next week I’ll be flying solo and getting used to a (hopefully short) bus commute since my assigned location is not the one I’m training at. The whole experience definitely has been pushing me out of my comfort zones. Growth is always uncomfortable, right?

Since I have the day off today, I’m trying to get an e-book editing project off my plate. I’m waiting on approval from the client and then I should be done. I might spend some time working on personal projects today. I think I’m starting to resemble Kafka’s quote regarding what happens to writers who do not write. It’s been too long since I put fingers to keyboard for anything other than mundane matters or editing others’ work and I’m starting to turn monstrous.

Perhaps all writers are monsters anyway – barely contained in cages to exhibit social niceties and other requirements of being a modern “civilized” being – but this one needs to stop courting insanity or they just might implode. I’m starting to feel a little less rough around the edges already from this short blog post, but I’ve a need for more time spent in my own invented worlds. What are your favorite tips or tricks for keeping enough time for your own creative outlets? Asking for a friend. Or an enemy. Or both.

The Move

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I safely made it to Seattle, WA after a three day move with cats that refused any calming medication of any kind and who might have acted a little like rock stars at the hotels. Nothing damaged, thankfully, although I can’t imagine what the pizza delivery person thought when a gray-and-white tuxedo cat with attitude slipped out and sauntered down the hallway as if he owned the place. The same cat also thought it was amusing to sit in the window to “wave” (raise his paw) at everyone who walked by in the hotel parking lot.

This is the official start of my second week in the Emerald City and I adore it here, especially now that the record-breaking heatwave I brought with me from Kansas has abated. The city is beautiful and the people are friendly enough while still making a point to mind their own business. I’m still getting a feel for the pace here while I try to figure out my next moves on this journey.

I have a few friends in the city, but this is a new adventure and one that I’m excited to continue in the time ahead while I meet new people, find new places. Look for more writing from me in the near future as I get back on a regular publishing schedule now that the exhaustion from the move has finally sloughed off me.

Is there anything you want to see or hear about in the Seattle area? Let me know in the comments below and I’ll do my best to show you interesting things about my new home.

The Journey Begins

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Thanks for joining me here at Read Cat Bounce! This is my first brief blog post to make sure the poor chronicle isn’t wholly blank. Please come back once I’ve had the chance to add more work across the next few weeks.

It’s the job that’s never started as takes longest to finish. — J.R.R. Tolkien

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