From M. Narf

The Thoughtful Spot

Essays, updates, and musings from M. Narf.

The Thoughtful Spot

"While he was thinking, all of a sudden…"

A blog of random thoughts.

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Posts

Monthly Blog

Blog for May 2026

May blog, 2026 Blog, I must blog… I have been trying to keep up with things, and now my word program is predicting what I’m going to type next. F* how do I stop that? I hate this program. AI needs to stop trying to help me. I have enough problems without contributing to them. […]

Uncategorized

sitting

This is not the first time that I have sat with the dyeing. I’ve done it a lot in my life. I have had the honor of seeing many spirits off into the greatest of the unknowns. I do not care about their beliefs; they are all very similar, plus there is no real need […]

Monthly Blog

Blog for February 2026

Feb 1st, 2025 Blog It has been quite a week in our little city and across our whole NC state. First, we got about 4 inches of ice and sleet. It refroze every night, as we had barely seen temps above freezing. Then this weekend, it snowed continuously for about 23 hours. My foot-l

Monthly Blog

New Year: 2026 post

The trials of these last few months have been rolling around in my head. I have tried to stay positive but… It’s beyond difficult. Maybe all humans are feeling this way. For me, there is another layer, perhaps, and it feels slightly deeper. I see many of the things I have written

Monthly Blog

Mid-month December blog

This mid-month blog is usually only for my Patreon group, along with many of the things I do. Please feel free to join me there for more interaction with my characters. That would be the ones I write and the ones who are in my membership. Just click here Last post of the year is

Monthly Blog

December 2025

Hello, all you wonderful people. It is December already. It’s cold, very cold. Good to stay inside and write. Well, edit to be specific. I’m learning the new tools and ways of doing things. The info I got from that class I took is settling into my daily writing. I see improvement

Daily Prompt

Who is the most famous or infamous person you have ever met?

Daily prompt 11/11/25 I had the opportunity to attend the NY Metropolitan Opera for a production of Lulu by Alban Berg. It was awesome, the orchestra, singers, staging… all of it. Lulu is a tragedy that surpasses most others. Up from the sewers into the high-foulant world, then c

Uncategorized

November 1, 2025

Hi all. It has been a crazy month. I spent time at a writers’ workshop this month. It was all about getting everything ready to sell my book(s) to an agent. I learned a lot; there was so much information that it has taken weeks to fully understand it. This last week was the scary

Monthly Blog

Blog October 2025

How is it October? What happened to the year? It feels lost in all of the chaos of the world. Will it ever calm down? I feel like I’m on a freight train barreling down a mountain pass, at full speed and no breaks. I just can’t stand it. Feeling like you are holding onto […]

Monthly Blog

September 2025 blog

Last month has been crazy for me, and probably for you’al. Things have been busy both outside and in my head. The old greenhouse is almost revamped and ready for the winter. I hear that it will be cold and snowy. I’ll believe it when I see it. So far, it has been one of […]

Daily Prompt

Prompt: How would you describe yourself to someone?

I don’t. I’m a bit crazy, very nerdy. I don’t care, but pay attention to everything. I am. I just try to be. I’m focused on my goals. I’m not sure what I will be when I grow up. I have severe PTSD with anything medical, yet I work in an adjacent field. I think […]

General Blog

Open the Sky

This is a blog I started writing two years ago. I have been holding off until now. The first photos from our newest Observatory are now here. Vera C. Rubin is one of my heroes – or should I say Her-oes. She was a scientist back in the day when women in a science lab […]

Uncategorized

I got in!

Just a short note to all of you. THANK YOU to all of my Patreon members. Please consider joining my page there for more updates. I applied to attend a workshop for commercial writers. I had no hope of being accepted. It was one of those moment when I had some ‘what the fuck, why

Daily Prompt

What are you passionate about?

Today’s prompt. I kinda feel like writing about it, or maybe not. My passion runs thin at the moment. There is so much happening in the world. Everyone seems to hate everyone else, whom they see as the ‘other.’ We have been fortunate in the last 50-80 years to enjoy (basically) p

General Blog

Daily – anti-prompt

What are you good at, you have asked me today… I’m quite confident that I am good, if not excellent, at many things. People tell me that, and I know they are not just blowing smoke up my ass. Everyone has those few things at which they excel, even if that is just the perfection [

Uncategorized

May flowers

Blog time. It is May, and I can hardly believe it. I have watched the trees go from their naked true selves into flower-covered pubescent prom dresses. That has brought joy to my heart and eyes every morning as I drink my tea. My looking window gives me great peace, as the trees

Monthly Blog

February 1st Blog

The year of the dragon is gone. It was my year, and boy did things fly high and fast. Power was brought back into my life. Drastic moves were made. My whole life changed yet again. Now we go into the year of the snake, it is time to come home to the ground to […]

Updates

A novella

This year I’m starting to explore KindleUnlimited. If you have unlimited please read Sitting Room. Also available: The first two books of the Spec in Time series. Curl up with a hot toddy and have a good read.

Monthly Blog

New Years Blog

January 2025 2024 has been a year of totally unexpected, life-altering things for me. The challenges and the trust needed to just let the past go and move forward into the unknown have been huge. So much soul-searching has been filling my brain this year, it has been hard to over

Monthly Blog

December Blog

December. It is the end of the year graced with a touch of snow, and one late blog. I should be waxing poetically about the tilt of the planet as the reason for the season. I tried and failed. I am stuck in the 5th layer of Hell: Moving. The house is stacked with boxes […]

Learning

November 2024 Blog

How is it November already? This blog is late yet again, for my Patreon peeps (they usually get this a week early). Yes, I know, I said this last month but real life happens. Right now, boxes are being packed, furniture is slowly disappearing, and everything feels disheveled. Luc

Monthly Blog

October 2014 Update

This will be short for there is much to do. We have had a bit of rain and wind here in North Carolina during last week. Hence, why this blog is late. Sorry, but unforeseen circumstances have been a mainstay around here. I have been worried about friends and family. Luckily, I did

Monthly Blog

September, 2024 Blog

Things, stuff, real life… They all make it difficult to work on words. When you have to get a new dishwasher and have to have service on your wash machine that may also need to be replaced, it all sucks. That is what my life has been like lately. But now, it is a long […]

Uncategorized

Sitting Room

Episode #5 is now ready to read on my Patreon Page. https://www.patreon.com/posts/110223398 Join and read it. Keep up on the details of my work Sitting Room is also available on Kindle Vella

Monthly Blog

August Blog

“May you live in interesting times.” The curse of my lifetime. If I had a dime for every time someone said ‘your life has been so interesting, you should write a book.’ How about six? Okay, these books are not about my life, they’re Spec’s life. But right now, everyone can say th

Monthly Blog

July 2024 Blog

It’s July first, and life is a speeding rocket ride. The fireworks are an apropos analogy for my life right now. For me, it has been full of joy, wonder, excitement, fear, duck and cover, shock and so many more ooo’s and ahhhh’s. So, I have a lot of plans going forward. I will ne

humor

My google search trouble

As you can imagine, I spend a lot of time asking the great oracle questions that might be a bit odd. Today was trying to find something similar to a sporran, as I just didn’t feel that was the right item to give the visual I wanted. too furry. As always I went to my […]

Monthly Blog

June 2024 Monthly Blog

Sometimes I get caught off guard by these monthly blogs. I turn around and it is the 30th. Keeping on my schedule is sometimes nearly impossible. Yes, I make my schedule so I should not complain, I need to fire my scheduler. YOU’RE FIRED! There now. I guess I told me. I still ne

Monthly Blog

May 2024 blog

I did something completely different this month. I wrote a quick short story. It took me longer to post it into the Kindle Vella program than it did to write it. Okay, not really but it sure did feel like it. I know nothing of this program, it seems like a good spot to put […]

Uncategorized

Morning texts

Sometimes a writers texts are a little bit different. Good to have people who understand. Who would not want to have a convo with a sexed up little gray alien? K-lac certainly wouldn’t mind Spec’s interruption.

Monthly Blog

Blog for April fools

Yeah, getting fooled is fun. We need to love good jokes and pranks. Creative and smart ones are always the best. It would be easy to get me this week as sleep has continued to be elusive. I’m becoming used to the emptiness and the quietness of the house without Sammy and Gandalf,

General Blog

I’m done with February. March forward.

This month has been marred with death. My Betta fish died. Not a big deal, they do that a lot, and Flame must have been my 15th or so wet pet. I’ve even found another very pretty Betta to keep the tank lively. However, my beloved African Gray parrot was right on his fins. This […

Spec

January is done. Look out February!

January is done. Look out February! THE DOMES is now for sale! That’s one gigantic item checked off my list. YEP, book #2 has been freed into the world. I have struggled writing this month, it’s not that I’m doing nothing. My time has been used to get The Domes uploaded into all

Spec

The Domes is Available

The Domes is now available – It’s time to read about your favorite Freaks and Geeks again. Spec and her team have so much to do in such a short time. Phase two must be completed quickly before the earth’s scheduled maintenance. Are you as excited as I am? Wow. That was easy…Oka

General Blog

SOON!

Hi, guess what? My next post here will give you the links to book 2 – The Domes. It is about to be released upon the multiverse. Yes, It is true. I’ll be doing some major upgrading of site pages by the end of the week. Spec is pleased that the work finally finished. She is also d

Uncategorized

Very soon!!!! It’s coming.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/start-of-2024-96047798?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link Join my Patreon for earlier updates.

Monthly Blog

January 2024 Update Blog

The author expresses relief and joy at completing book two, “The Domes,” and plans for its release. Winter inspires more writing for another project, and a plea for peace in Ukraine.

General Blog

Domes almost done!

The layout is all done. The page numbers worked on the third try, can you believe that? I can’t. Page numbers last time was nearly a three night project. Now, did I have to change my header because of that… but it turned out much better anyways. Sometimes limitations are a good t

Uncategorized

November Wrap-up and on to the end

December 1, 2023 blog Here it is, the last blog of 2023. I made it through the pain of the final Dome edits. I’m in the middle of my final read-through, and that of a friend, to see what else needs to be tightened up. Domes is slightly smaller in word count, slightly is the […]

Uncategorized

StarShip 11-18-23

Another step forward towards the moon. An exciting morning. The next HOP done. Yes, Two RUD’s, one for each stage. (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly) All goals met. Made it through MECO(main engine cut off), Separation -booster was quick to RUD. Hot staging(the big goal), and on to

Learning

Leaving a site. Not this one.

Okay, I have done my best to do NaNoWriMo this year. It’s not that I can’ t write enough on book three; even with being in the middle of editing book two. I’m almost done with that. I do want to finish it up soon. Maybe even in the next 4 days. That is over […]

Spec

Word count Nov. 1

The totally useless and not trustworthy word count: The Domes, Book #2 of A Spec in Time series The Domes is through its editing! The totally useless and not trustworthy word count: At this point is:?? Now: This is what you are missing: Patreon Page Inception, Book #3 of A Spec i

Spec

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together

I truly believe that there is a part of every author, in every character they write. That seems true as for how I’ve built mine. Ultimately, I think we cannot create a being without creating ourselves. Physically or mentally. It’s not because we are that egotistical, though it’s

Spec

September 2023 wrap-up. Domes and more.

The Domes has now moved into the process of deep edits, and the proofing nazi. I need to say that I’m NOT, pulling my hair out this time. I am not concerned. It gets a little stressful because it is being done in small sections. Proofing during Harvesters was so stressful that I

Spec

Done? Yes.

Outside of one math problem, a glossary, edit suggestions, proofing, and lay out. The Domes, book two of the Spec in Time Series is done.

Uncategorized

The Domes up-date 9-1-23

It has been an exciting space week. It was great to see the Chandrayaan-3 made a successful landing in the southern region of the moon. The first photos are now on the web, and great to see. The Russians were not so successful. I hear and have read a lot of ha ha’s about that […]

Uncategorized

Jai Hind!

Congratulations to everyone in India who got the Chandrayaan-3 lunar lander safely on the moon’s surface. Great Job!

General Blog

Did you know – you can help?

Would you like to see me go to the mountains for a week next month? This trip would be used to get a good start on book three, while book two is in final editing. If so, please join my Patreon page so you can have more updates on each books’ progress. Also, cute photos […]

Uncategorized

The Domes update 8-1-23

Creativity verses Fantasy. Do I live in a fantasy world? Am I just overly creative? Where does imagination fit in? When does it become pathological? These are the questions that floated through my head this morning over tea. They have come and gone before, but for some reason tod

Spec

7-1-23 Update on The Domes – A Spec in Time

Blog for July 1st Cartography is the study and practice of making and using maps. Maps, lunar maps to be specific have been filling my life. I’m working though some details that have been left blank and highlighted in yellow. Yellow means – hey, lookie here, you left something im

Updates

The Domes update 6-01-23

This whole month has felt like a knife stabbing into my side. I have had a lot of downs and very few ups. I feel like a lot went bad or as I call it: sideways. I feel as if I have done nothing in the pages of this book. I also know that to […]

Spec

The Domes update 5-01-23

Stage 1 (barfing) is done. Stage 2 (crafting) is well on its way… oh that’s the hard part. I have taken many of those rough sections of barf and have crafted them into much goodness. Subjects, raw thoughts, and ideas. Layouts of the important parts of the dialog have been expande

rant

Mouth Ouchie

No one likes the dentist. I keep hearing this from people who have no clue as to my dental care in my past. Nor the PTSD that plagues me because of it. Most offices just classify it as a phobia – that is until they see me in action. We will get you in early […]

Uncategorized

Sunday in the park with George

Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you. First I told him that it would be better to rearrange that sentence. Describe a random, positive encounter with a stranger that stuck out to you. Then I would remove the redundancy of ‘that stuck out to

Spec

I’m too excited

I don’t want to do life. No, that is not a cry for help. I have no time to jump off a bridge. I just don’t want to do anything but work on the story. I don’t want to clean, walk, eat, or see people. I want to be left alone. Yet there are jobs, […]

Uncategorized

No Food!

What food could you “not live without” The question is figurative. Cherries; coffee; lingonberries; zucchini? What would be the most difficult plant to give up? Potatoes, corn, sugar? Let me know in the comments, I really do want to know. If you were on your way to a distant plan

Spec

The Domes update – April

It’s done. April fools. The Domes – the second book of the Spec in Time series – is actually more done than I thought it would be at this point. All of that aforementioned puke of ideas and possible dialog is done. What is amazing is that I already have around 80% of that word […

General Blog

430am

Note: When I wrote this, I was very raw. I was right at the end of a panic attack when my brain was still not functioning. If you have ever had one, you know what I mean. It takes hours to get things ‘right’ again. The temptation to rewrite and clean it up is unbearable, […]

General Blog

Count those ‘its’

Why are we so very concerned with word count? Really, it is because no one wants to read War and Peace. This isn’t a rant against Tolstoy. I really liked Anna Karenina. I gave W&P a good go at it for about 10 years. I finally gave up after it had been moved to the […]

Spec

Domes update for March 1st

It is March. It was a crazy February for the next book. Domes got a huge amount added to it. At this point, all of the parts and pieces are in place. All the extra notes have been removed, along with the stuff I mistakenly put in twice. Then there were the sections that I […]

Learning

Artist Temperament

I got a review? I got a review! On Amazon, I got a review…on my book. Things are kinda happening. I have now sold more books than I thought I would. I forced both my friends to buy 2 books, I thought that would be the end of it. I must have more friends, because […]

cooking

12 Steps of chicken buying recovery

Step 1: I admit that I am powerless over the cheap chicken in the meat case. So much so, that my life and those around me have become unmanageable. Step 2: I have come to believe that a power greater than ourselves known as beef or pork or even vegetables could restore me to sani

Spec

NAMES

I have a job for you… I need names. First Names, Last Names, Nick Names. English, French, Jewish, Palestinian, Russian, South African, Saudi, Icelandic, Uruguayan, Japanese… EVERYWHERE! From this planet or others. Any info on these names would amuse me as well. This is really the

humor

Barfing words

Blog. Blog: Bllllooooooggg!!!!! “THEY” say. They say a lot of nothing. I don’t see they doing anything. If they really wanted me to blog, they would blog for me. Right? I hurt; I am tired; I don’t feel good. I want to write important things; Spec is very busy with the penguins ri

Writing

Wordfalls

Words wash down over the smoothed rocks of the mind. Splashing onto the page that exists no more. Old idioms die hard. Tapped keys with a rubbery feel, keeping tea from where it does not belong. To the hard drive, to the cloud. The new basin, where the waterfall of the words resi

General Blog

Persons and mud

It’s raining again. The puppy whines from the other side of the gate that keeps his muddy feet in the kitchen. It doesn’t matter right now, even though I wipe his feet every time we come inside from attempted potties in the rain, there is mud everywhere. I have mopped two, someti

Learning

The Harvesters 1.01

Well, it is done. Version 1.01 is available Saturday 12/3. I have a thing about the number 123. I am glad that I pulled it and redid the mistakes. The typos and hominins would have driven me crazy(er). I also learned so much during this regrouping process. I learned to let things

Uncategorized

2.0 or 1.02?

Not that anyone looked, but I pulled my book down. I needed a break. I need time to fix the errors that I and others have found. I am so neurotic on a good day, on a bad one, look out. To be honest, I am not sure I did it over fear, or the […]

humor

We’re all goin’a DIE

September 24, 2022. Yep, the end of the world is once again upon us. We are all going to die. I keep track of these things so you don’t have to. I have voluntarily taken on this job for years now. Who knows? Maybe it will actually happen today. Unless you are in Nova Scotia […]

General Blog

Unexpected things

I never know what to expect in life with the exception that it is usually not what I dreamt of, or hoped for. I may be a bit pessimistic or jaded; that is what others say. It is more that I am just a realist for the most part. No one’s life goes as they […]

Writing

7 Years

Just less than 7 yrs. That is how long it took to get the courage to get here. To settle into my characters, get to know them. Know what it is they needed to say, what their dreams are. 7 years to get the courage to write. To make the time in my busy life […]

Learning

The Creative Precipice

I never really thought I would be here, but now I am. The precipice. Precipice: A high and vertical or steep rock face. Presumably, a place where one stands, looking out and down at what is to come. Usually used (in this country) to be a positive feeling of setting out on a new j

dreams

First Snow

First snow of the season, it’s going to be big. The weather forecast said so, but that’s only modern say so. On the porch you look out to the northwest, far off, the wall is coming. Too far yet, but you can easily see the puffy billowing clouds. The edge of the wall, and it […]

Learning

Everything has to be learned

Writing is the easy part. I know how to get it started, then refine, and refine, and refine. The story has been there since day one. Sure there are things that change that come and go. Additions that pop into my head as I move through the story and think about cool new things. S

General Blog

Dreamsicle

I hear the painfully out-of-tune siren of the ice-cream truck as it wanders into the neighborhood. A sound all on to itself. As it nears, I run out to the street. Novelty ice-cream, my heart skips for joy. What do I want is the question asked; a dreamsicle! It is all I have ever

General Blog

“Those people” are us

This was written as a prompt from a real magazine article. I didn’t bother reading the article, I knew what it said. Although this is taken from the point of a country/city view, it is the same with all of our communities: black, white, brown, yellow, political, religious, and al

General Blog

I just want to write

I feel like right now is the time with all the time in the world. I should be able to settle down and work on my book. But there are unemployment forms, the pile of rebate forms I haven’t filled out yet, and SBA loan forms and some other Covid19 stuff to fill out and […]

cooking

Adventures in the kitchen with pooh #5

Thai Cabbage salad Tonight we are actually doing something from a cookbook OMG shocking but I realized just putting them on my countertop was not getting me food so I opened one up to have a talk with it and realized there were words in it. 10 minutes prep time and 5 minutes coo

cooking

Adventures in the kitchen with pooh #4

Tom Yum Soup I was told: Take out a cookbook and look at it. I did. I even put it on the countertop. After 4 days it still has not produced food for me. I know, how crazy is that! It even says “Simple Thai Food” right on the cover. I was not expecting great […]

General Blog

Adventures in the kitchen with pooh #3

Sausages Just a quick pro-tip this morning. When heating the remaining 4 pre-cooked sausages that you put into a convenient zip-lock bag please remember to remove them from the bag before nuking them for a minute. Perhaps put them on a nice plate. Also, I would suggest only 30

cooking

Adventures in the kitchen with pooh #2

Moviehouse popcorn I am great at making popping corn just ask anyone who knows me. However, getting that ‘at the movies’ taste I have not been able to do. Of course, I have never tried either. How-to’s and lessons learned today: Pull the four purple potatoes(so pretty!) out of yo

cooking

Adventures in the kitchen with pooh #1

Dish: Thai Chu Chee Curry with sticky rice Lessons from today’s experience: 1. Of course, start sticky rice first – it’s not like I haven’t been making that for years – I got this one. 2. Defrost the large veggies (bag from Trader Joe’s) prior to cooking them. 3. […]