Monthly Archives: February 2022
The GREAT BACKYARD BIRD COUNT is COMING!
Our cat, Mikey, watches juncos and white-throated sparrows from the comfort of his perch in the breakfast nook…he’s ready for the Great Backyard Bird Count! Are you?
The Great Backyard Bird Count is slated for February 18 – 21, 2022 (that’s President’s Day weekend)! This is a really great way to contribute to environmental science—as well as get to know your avian friends!
Participating in this event is free and can be done at home. You can learn all about it here: https://www.birdcount.org/participate/
Unboxing JURASSIC PARK MONOPOLY!
Weekend dinosaur action!
It’s my birthday weekend, and this year I wanted to celebrate my love of dinosaurs, so I got Jurassic Park Monopoly for my friend Bruce, my husband Nathan, my housemate Charles (if he wants to) and me to play in between some dinosaur movies like Area 407 and The Dinosaur Project (and probably others we’ve seen a million times). It was so cool I wanted to share it!
If you like this game and want to pick it up, I got it for about $26 on Amazon (it happened to be on sale when I was looking), but normal list price—at least there—seems to be more toward $30-$40. It’d make a nice gift for the dinosaur/JP freak in your life who has everything else. Here’s the Amazon link: https://amzn.to/3GoDNDX
Enjoy!
A little fun with forensic entomology …
My heart actually broke for this poor fly that died in my empty potato chip bowl in June of 2020.
Writers—especially of the darker genres—often joke that after we die, people would find things in our browser histories that might indicate we were actually something more sinister: how long does it take someone to drown, could you actually kill someone with a steak knife?, what kinds of poisons have no smell, how do you rob a bank?
Recently, I had to do some research on types of bugs that might be associated with a dead body. I had taken a really interesting forensics class back when I was working toward my (still unfinished) certificate in archaeology about twenty years ago, but digging up those notebooks in the basement was more daunting than Googling it.
I found this interesting little article from the Amateur Entomologists’ Society called “CSI Entomology: Insects at the scenes of crime.” You can check it out here: https://www.amentsoc.org/insects/insects-and-man/forensic-entomology.html
It’s not complete or very detailed, but it’s a good place to start if you’re a writer and you need to work on this particular level of realism in your stories, or maybe if you just need to make one quick mention (as I did). Have fun!
Fan of RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER? My short story “No Sweet Bird” now available!
I actually scared myself writing my contemporary gothic ghost story, “No Sweet Bird,” which is now available to read for free over at Crow & Cross Keys! See below for link to the story.
I read this and all I could think of was ‘WTF—didn’t these guys read The Rime of the Ancient Mariner?
Every one of my tales has a story behind it. This one is about what happens when you spit in fate’s eye. I’ve recently seen this happen to someone—if you believe in that sort of thing—and I think it’s interesting that a story I wrote two years ago saw it coming. It seriously is weird that, metaphorically, I described what would happen.
While the brain’s a really amazing thing, the moral of story? Karma’s a bitch. When the universe gives you a gift, you don’t throw it back.
And for God’s sake, don’t be dumb enough to kill an albatross. After all—the Franklin Expedition actually did this, and look what happened to them.
You can read “No Sweet Bird” free online over at Crow & Cross Keys here: https://crowcrosskeys.com/2022/02/02/no-sweet-bird-kristi-petersen-schoonover/
I’m incredibly honored to have this story featured in this publication. They publish some stuff that’s in my wheelhouse, so be sure to check out the other stories, as you might like them, too (no really, if you do enjoy my stories, you will definitely enjoy what they’ve got going on over there).
Free Facebook Live Writing Craft Discussion THIS Thursday night, February 3
Grab your favorite beverage for a special cocktail hour! Author Katherine Silva and I will be discussing Character Driven Horror at 8 pm Thursday, February 3, on Facebook Live. The discussion will last about an hour. It’s free and open to the public.
If you’re not familiar with a Facebook Live event, it’s the easiest thing out there—it’s just like watching television. If you’d like to attend, you simply click on this link at 8pm ET on that day, and the video will play right on the page—you do not have to register, sign up, or login to anything except your Facebook (and most of us stay logged in to that anyway). You will not see yourself on screen, and no one will know you’re there.
W-interview Series 1: Episode 4 – Character Driven Horror with Kristi Petersen Schoonover
https://www.facebook.com/events/532611934501325/?ti=ls
I hope you can join us for what promises to be an interesting chat!
