Character Masks

As a new hire, job duties are explained, but inter-personal relationships are not. A neophyte learns the pack structure and identifies leaders, power players, and possibly, staff with their own agenda.

If the work environment is dysfunctional, fitting in can feel like navigating a mine field. Who will have your back? Who will stab you in the back?

Jo, the new volunteer at the Binkley House Museum, is a loner. She’s not interested in finding her place in the pack; she just wants to work with the antiques.

She meets and clicks with Monty, the maintenance man-slash-gardener. He tells her about her co-workers and what’s happening at the museum behind the scenes.

Later, Jo has reason to doubt Monty’s motivation. Was his friendly and helpful approach merely a mask? Was he actually misleading her to further his own personal agenda?

My Life as an Emoji

The internet refers to this emoji as “Nerd,” but I think of it as my writing / author emoji. Same glasses, same buck teeth, same stupid grin.

I’m taking an online class that helps female authors write realistic male point-of-view characters. But life happened, and I ended up procrastinating on my homework.

Yesterday I had a pile of lessons to make up, but I chose to do long-overdue yardwork instead. I’d work on my lessons after dark.

I mowed the grassland, pulled some weeds, then began trimming the vines growing on the back wall. I worked until the light faded, and my yard waste bin overflowed.

This morning, I felt like I’d been attacked by an army of giant allergens. One of my eyelids was swollen closed. I’d become the winking face emoji.

Truly a case of life imitating art.