Drops of Inspira

  Hello! It's good to meet you here in this corner of the internet in the year of 2024.  I won't bore you with tired jokes about the new year. They were old five years ago.  I had intended to give you my top reads of 2023, but I need to create more graphics for that post so it will have to wait for another time.  So, in the meantime, I would like to invite you to view my word for 2024: Recently, I put out a call on social media for people to leave a positive word beginning with the first letter of their name on the post so that I could carry the words with me into 2024. This is perhaps the third or fourth year I've done this? I don't know. I lost count.  I used to do resolutions, but I broke them during the first week. I used to have a lot of goals, but after 2020, I felt like a lot of those goals were just not happening. More like wishes than goals. I still make goals, but they're not hard and fast goals, like I MUST get these done or the world will end goals (...

  Hello! So, I realize that 2022 began nineteen days ago, but I was waiting for results from a sort of poll I was running on social media. Now that I have the results, I can proceed with this post! Before I reveal any "words of the year" or goals for 2022, let's see how I did for 2021. Read 90 books in 2021? I actually read 100, surpassing my Goodreads Goal by ten books! This has been a number I've been trying to read for at least three years, but I've finally read 100 books in a year! Did I learn to draw a hand? Sadly no. A few months into 2021, I had a whole host of medical tests and drawing went out the window. I would love to start learning to draw again, but I just started a new job so we'll see if and when it will make its appearance in my life again. So, this didn't happen by March of last year, but it did happen. Sirens of Fate , the first book in my Harbinger Trilogy, did go to a developmental editor last year! It needs another rewrite, but hopefu...

  Hello! No. I didn't forget my blog. I've just had a slew of changes that came with the new year, some of them bad and some of them good, but they've kept me busy. But I am back with today's poetry prompt and my response. My life has been all about change these past few weeks, and I know yours has been too. It kind of comes with a new year. Hopefully, your change has been the good kind. Please feel free to use the above prompt to generate any creativity. Here is my response: (Apologies to anyone who looks at this poem on a phone. It's coming out blurry for me, so I assume it will for you. Double-click on it to view it.) I am hoping in the next week or two to be back with another post, but like I said, things have been changing drastically over here, so the post will come when it comes. Until then... -Julia Garcia / Arysta Henry

Happy New Year's Eve! I've actually been working on this post for three days now. Between recovering from a cold and battling Wi-fi problems because of bad weather, it's been a journey. I hope wherever you are, that you are well and that the weather is good. This is my yearly "bookish" awards post where I choose the top 5 books that I read this year and the top reads in certain other categories. This was really, really hard this year. There were a lot of contenders, so while this is a bookish awards post, know that this list is very limited so far as having all my favorites up here. If you want to see what I mean, follow this link to see all my 2021 reads:  GoodReads Challenge 2021 Link   In no certain order, my top 5 reads of 2021 are: Cry of the Raven by Morgan L. Busse Romanov by Nadine Brandes Oath of the Outcast by C.M. Banschbach The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner What Is and Could Be by Katelyn Buxton Here are some special mentions: Most Influential Theologic...

  Hi there! So, I'm only ten days late. I meant to get this out earlier, but *shrugs* life happened. To be honest, the holidays exhausted this introvert and she kind of went into hibernation for a little.  Before I reveal any goals, let's see how I did for last year... Read 60 books? In 2020, I read about 84. Hurray for surpassing goals! Draw a hand without instructions? Nope. Better luck this year. Finish secret writing projects? Yes, and no. I did finish one, but it needs revision something fierce. I made a plan for it though, and it will happen. Continue writing poetry? Absolutely! It's been a good challenge and a good way to get the creative juices flowing. I've even had the odd event of waking up at 3:00 a.m. to write poetry about four days in a row.  Take any trips? Like to the grocery store? Yeah, it was 2020. That didn't happen. Maybe this year? Spent more time with friends? Over Zoom, yes. In person... not so much. Ye good ole lockdown kind of made that imp...