Reshaping Reality

July 6, 2021

My Open Letter to City Designers

I originally wrote this email for the Des Moines City Council. For the past year, I’ve adjusted the verbiage to reflect what I’ve heard in their City Council Meetings with the Public. I also adjust the bullet points and actions I (and others) wish to see them take. Otherwise, most of the letters are verbatim Continue reading

activism, Author, disability, Race, transgender

ableism, access, accessibility, Accessible Cities, disability, disability justice, Disability Pride, Fight Ableism, Homelessness, No More Ableism
June 28, 2012

Technology in Ancient Times

Often when people consider ancient civilizations, they picture societies with little to no technology, but recent studies and archeological discoveries show that this is far from the truth. One of the most famous ancient devices was recently discovered by the island of Antikythera by Greece. Known as the Antikythera device, it is a fascinating glimpse Continue reading

History, Physics, World Building, Writing

ancient civilizations, history, technology, world-building
June 21, 2012

Update

I have this tendency to outline after I write the story. I go through and catalog all the scenes – the characters in it, the time and location, and the main point of the scene. I use this to check for consistency errors. It works fairly well, but if I try to do this before Continue reading

Author, Writing
June 13, 2012

Tropes Vs. Women and Diversity in Literature

My world-building series takes time to craft, since I often sift through my old notes and textbooks to make sure all the information presented here is accurate. For all my readers wondering, this is why the next installment on Atmospheres and the various cycles on planets is not yet ready. In the meantime, I can Continue reading

Author, Blogging, Characters, Elivera, Writing

Characters, diversity, feminism, fiction, literature, tropes, women
June 7, 2012

Languages and World-building

Languages often play a crucial role in society, for since we, humans, are social creatures, much of our actions, thoughts, worldviews, and so forth are expressed through the filter of language. Some linguists have gone so far as to speculate that language can influence the way we think and how we perceive the world. This Continue reading

Linguistics, World Building, Writing

culture, languages, world-building
June 2, 2012

Characters with Disabilities

It is rare to find any book that has a character with a disability. Usually if they do appear, the character spends the book finding a way to defeat the disability, to conquer it, and to become able-bodied again. There are quite a few disability tropes, and these tropes in general are bad. It’s rare Continue reading

Characters, Writing

Characters, disabilities, disability, fiction, inclusion, people
May 29, 2012

Music

I updated my page content here on the site. There is a new page called musical compositions that details the musical side to my writing. Be sure to check out that update! I even included some uploaded tracks of songs I’ve recently had performed for your enjoyment. In time, I hope to upload some improvisations Continue reading

Music, Writing

music
May 20, 2012

Planet Geology – World-building Part 3

Note this is a series: Part One and Part Two. Now that you have a sketch of your solar system, we can focus on the individual planets. Terrestrial Planets First, planets made of rock – terrestrial planets. They are largely powered by geological processes such as hot spots, volcanism, and plate tectonics. Rocky planets tend Continue reading

Physics, World Building, Writing

chemistry, geology, physics, planets, plate tectonics, science fiction, solar systems, world building series
May 17, 2012

Finding One’s Voice Again

Due to everything that has happened, finding my voice again for this blog has been a struggle – mostly due to the lack of Internet access I’ve had for awhile. To tie into that idea, I’ll talk a bit about how I spent several months unable to write much of anything. A writing block of Continue reading

Author, Elivera, World Building, Writing

world-building, writer’s block, writing prompts
May 8, 2012

College Graduate

As of Saturday, I sat through the official ceremony proclaiming my graduation. The only significant moment was when I tripped down the center stairs, after shaking the university president’s hand, and tumbled into the department head of my major. Thankfully, people in the audience assumed we were hugging, but the physics department head and I Continue reading

Author, Blogging
April 12, 2012

University Student

I graduate May 5th from my University. The month of April has consumed my life with projects, musical compositions, tests, and making sure the final details of my degree is in perfect order for graduation. So this blog is on a temporary hiatus until May. The world-building entries were simply taking me too long, but Continue reading

Author