this and that

There’s a new rule in town

Moriah Jovan

There’s one dead giveaway your content was written by ChatGPT. It’s not the tone, it’s not the phrasing, it’s the em dash. No normal, non-seasoned writer writes like that. Sure, there are people who definitely use it. But 99.9999% of the population has never even heard of an em dash before. Let alone use it in their content.

Go die in a fire.

Stranger danger

Moriah Jovan
Go away, boy. Ya bother me.
I am sitting at a table in my local public library, my laptop, a bottle of water, and my Galaxy Note in front of me. I have headphones on and I am listening to nature sounds because the not-very-socially-graced woman behind me (she and I have a history) is muttering to herself loudly enough that it’s clear she wants someone to ask her what she’s working on and her laptop is making funky bubble-popping sounds loudly. Read more →

Back to blogging, maybe

Moriah Jovan
  • Dunham’s wrapping up and going into production, which means I’m right on track for my July 4 release date.
  • I have the attention span of a gnat, and I’ve always thought/spoken in bullet-point lists. It just got worse since I fell in love with Twitter oh so long ago. 140 characters is just about perfect.
  • I had a midlife crisis recently when I turned 45, realized I might not actually die young like a lot of people in my family do, AND realized I’d done everything I intended to do and that Dunham is the culmination. It’s the book I’ve worked on sporadically since I caught the idea in 1990 and had no idea what to do with it. That may have been a miscalculation.

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Look at me! Look at me!

Moriah Jovan

[[07/15/2025: This’ll teach me to use an embed plugin instead of screenshots, and also not to put in the text.]]

★★★

So this morning around 10:13 a.m., I read a piece in HuffPo about a possible alternative chronology to the New Testament that puts a new spin on things. I thought it was an interesting concept. I RTd the link, though I forgot from whom I lifted it. Read more →

A story

Moriah Jovan

Uh oh I Get in Trouble

by Tax Deduction #1

(3rd grade)

Chapter 1

Uh oh I get in trouble for drawing on the walls. “[FIRST MIDDLE LAST]!” Mom yelled really loudly. “WHY DID YOU draw a little dot on the wall!” “[FIRST]!” my dad snapped. “You are not going to have chocolate chip pie for 1 month.” “Ha. Ha, ha, haaaa, ha, stinky head!”* said [Brother]. “You are not having apple juice for 3 months.”

*do not say this to your mom or dad

Chapter 2

Now after 2 months I am getting bored. “When is my grounding over?” I asked. “After another two months,” my mom said.

Chapter 3

It’s been 4 months and I am not grounded anymore. “Hurray!” I shouted.

Zennification

Moriah Jovan

Paring down is my life’s ongoing quest.

Why? I have ADD1 and Stuff kills me. Kills my ability to focus on anything. If I get in a work groove, I still have that little niggle at the back of my mind about children’s clothes that are outgrown that need to be gathered up and put out on the curb for Disabled Veterns to come pick up. As I get older, mid century modern gets a helluva lot more attractive. Read more →

I’m outtie …

Moriah Jovan

… for the rest of the year, most likely. I reserve the right to come back and rant. It is my blog, after all.

Many projects on the table, most of which I’m behind on (oh, there’s a surprise):

  • Re-doing my foyer and living room. What, you thought my DIY re publishing thing is a new development? No. I’ve been a DIYer at heart since I saw the first episode of This Old House when I was a wee bairn (as in, their first episode, too).

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The core of genre romance

Moriah Jovan

For every woman who’s made a fool of a man, there’s a woman who’s made a man of a fool. —Samuel Hoffman (near as I can tell)

I read this quote long, long ago, and I swear to high heaven it was in one book of Anne Rice’s vampire trilogy (maybe Queen of the Damned?).

It resonated with me then and it still does, and I finally figured out why.

This sentiment is the heart and soul of genre romance: What woman doesn’t like to think she has that much power in either direction?

Biting my tongue

Moriah Jovan

Blogs are, by their very nature, niche. One person, or a group of like-minded people, write stuff that generally espouses one point of view.  Dissenting opinions are usually always welcome, but even those with opposing opinions like those blogs for whatever reason and become regulars.

Then we have the people who stumble across a blog whose agenda doesn’t coincide with their own, and they do a hit‘n’run. I did this once (that I remember) and I was very embarrassed with myself. I had no reason to haul off on that guy. I went back and apologized, but the damage was done and I can’t take that back. Read more →

Redecorating again

Moriah Jovan

Okay, my last theme was annoying me to death. Could barely stand to look at it. I’m working on the sidebar now because, you know, i R a righter and I gotz me sum bookz to sell. Need to make it easy for you to get there to buy them.

Anyway, this is much cleaner and easier on my eyeballs. I hope to get back to blogging semi-regularly, too.

It’s work time.

Moriah Jovan

I have nothing to say and too much to do. I meant to get my edits on Stay finished this weekend, but the widespread WordPress attack [dead link] hit theproviso.com and I spent my weekend, instead, cleaning up after that mess. And I still have a bunch to do before I’m satisfied with my sites.

The blog I just linked made the assertion that we should’ve upgraded. I made a deliberate decision not to because the last time I auto-upgraded, it broke my shopping cart and photo gallery plugins. I had to rebuild Peculiar Page’s shopping cart twice (which still doesn’t work and redirects to B10 Mediaworx), and B10 Mediaworx’s once, which, thankfully, works. To me, it was a no-win situation and in hindsight, I see that I would’ve had to waste all that time anyway. Read more →

Stuff tacked to my office wall, part 1

Moriah Jovan

On power:

You have to come to it on your own, through hardship and fear. You have to know who you are and what you believe and you have to take stock of that every day. You have to walk barefoot through fire on broken glass. You have to stand up to people who frighten you under conditions that terrify you. You have to be honest with yourself about what you really want. You have to be willing to fail. Read more →