Life – Page 2 – Cheryl Low

Northern Lights Tour

24 January, 2019 No Comments

My mom and stepdad visited us in Sweden for Christmas and New Years and I tried to take them on some truly Swedish adventures. One of those adventures was a Northern Lights wandering out in the arctic wilds near Kiruna.

I had to ask Linn (@booksnknitting) how to take pictures of northern lights and she talked me through setting up my camera with screenshots to help.

We went out with Britt from Guide in North and it was amazing! She met up with us and provided a bunch of winter clothes. After we suited up, we drove out of the city and into the dark. Already there were some waves of northern lights in the sky. And then we got into the sleighs behind scooters and went out onto a frozen river, farther out into the country.

The lights were amazing but I was even more blown away but just how many stars we could see. Britt even pointed out mars, winking red at us.

We saw a few moose, who stopped to stare back at us for a while. I did not get a picture of them. I happen to be weirded out by moose–they absolutely give me the heebie jeebies BUT my mom and Papa Pat got a kick out it.

Just when we were freezing our toes off, the tour continued up to a little cabin where we got to warm up by the fire, eat some food, drink some tea, and even have a bit of cake.

The lights were incredible, moving from one side of the sky overhead and to the other. It seemed like as soon as you marveled in one direction someone was pointing out the lights in another.

I don’t think Phong and I would ever have done anything like this if we weren’t entertaining guests.

If you find yourself in Kiruna and have any interest in going out to see the lights or look at moose or go fishing, I can’t recommend Guide in North enough. Britt and her husband were absolutely amazing and we had an evening we’ll never forget.

Blog, Books, Life

2018 Recap

13 December, 2018 No Comments

What happened in 2018?

I didn’t do all of my resolutions for last year, and it wasn’t all amazing all the time, but here are the highlights!

I became lactose intolerant. It happened all of a sudden. It was awful. I miss eating cheese without having to take a pill first BUT for the first time in my life I don’t have the acne face of a fourteen year old. It turns out, cheese was my enemy all along.
I published my first ever horror novel, Infernal, with Grinning Skull Press! I’m so excited to have it out in the world.
I discovered audio-books. When I was younger I couldn’t listen to books because I got distracted and stopped paying attention. I went on with life believing that I couldn’t listen to audio-books. I WAS WRONG! I spend so much time outside walking or at the gym and this is perfect! I love it. I can finally multitask reading.
I wrote another horror and outlined a few more!
I discovered Stephen King. I know, I’m behind. I tried reading Stephen King as a kid and totally hated it. I was reading fantasy almost exclusively back then and doing it for escapism. Stephen King’s work was just too close to reality for my younger self and I didn’t get it or appreciate it. I went on from there with the continued assumption that Mr. King and I did not jive. The truth is, I just wasn’t ready. I wasn’t at the point in my life where I would appreciate his books. But I am now and OH MY GOSH there are so many to read! So far I’ve consumed: Carrie, Cujo, In the Tall Grass, A Good Marriage, The Outsider, Joyland, and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. <3
World Weaver Press published the second book of my Crowns & Ash series, Detox in Letters! And @writendesk did live tweeting while reading it and it was one of the coolest, most thrilling, events of my life!
I visited my family in California for my mom’s wedding party, survived the aggressive heat, and ate matcha soft-serve in a fish shaped cone in San Francisco!
I wrote a rough ROUGH first draft of book 4 of the Crowns & Ash series and sent the 3rd off to my amazing editor, Laura Harvey!

Blog, Life

Being Outgoing Online

11 May, 2018 No Comments

I went from being a painfully shy child, to an awkward teen hiding behind sarcasm. At some point, when I needed to get a job, I decided to just fake confidence. I pretended to be someone else, kind of. It was all me, it was just a side of myself I didn’t usually use. I’ve pretty much been riding the “fake it ’til you make it” train ever since.

I like saying nice things when I think them. I compliment strangers in line. I say hello when I pass people in my building. I smile.

But, somehow, none of that carried over to the internet.

I click the hearts and the thumbs up on things, but I almost never left comments. I had this idea that it was somehow bothersome. They already know they’re funny, or their art is amazing, or that their books are delightful. I had the gut-feeling that if I commented it would somehow be intrusive or annoying.

Well, that was nonsense. So, over the last half year or so, I’ve tried to be interactive on social media.

I try to comment on twitter and instagram. I actually use my youtube rather than just lurking on it. And I send messages to authors to tell them they’re amazing–even though I’m 95% sure they know it already. And it’s great! It feels good and, of course, people like when you tell them the nice things you think about them. Why wouldn’t they?

I get so much more out of my social media now. They’ve become communities and I really enjoy getting to know so many people.

Artists and authors are all looking for a rainstorm. They’re farmers, desperate to grow a crop and share it with the world, but they need the rain. It’s okay to be a drop. It’s okay to be a little voice in the world saying you like something–screaming it even. Because maybe one drop will become a thousand and an artist will get that monsoon they’re looking for, and at the very least, they’ll know someone somewhere enjoyed their work.

Blog, Life

You were right. -An open letter to my mother-

8 February, 2018 No Comments

Dear Mom,

You were right.

The things I thought were so important in my teens, were completely forgotten by my mid-twenties.

You were right.

I am beautiful. And you weren’t saying it in that annoying, all moms think their kids are beautiful, way. You meant it and it was something deeper. I am beautiful and it has nothing to do with my hair or my skin or the way a dress fits.

You were right.

Some things are wrong even if no one knows about it, because I’d know about it and that’s enough.

You were right.

Vegetables are amazing and I was missing out as a child.

But you were wrong about Buffy. That show is awesome.

Love, Cheryl

Blog, Books, Life, Vanity in Dust, Writing

2018

2 January, 2018 No Comments

I’ve never been particularly sentimental about New Years but I do love the opportunity to make lists and organize. It’s like each year is a drawer full of the things we did, thought, read, and experienced.

In 2017,

I published my first novel, Vanity in Dust
Did a bunch of writing and editing on other projects
Read piles of books
Wrote a scifi
Put together half a dozen Ikea things
Visited my family in California
Dyed my hair pink (admittedly, I did very little of the work, but I did sit still for a long time)
Visited New York for the first time ever
Went blonde
Turned 30

And what do I hope to put into the drawer of 2018?

Publish the second book in the Crowns & Ash series, Detox in Letters
Read all the books piled in my Amazon cart plus all the ones I run into this year
Figure out how to put screws in that concrete wall in my kitchen
Find an agent for my scifi series
Do a bunch of book giveaways!
Get pastel mermaid hair
Publish a horror
Write at least one more book

Wish me luck! And I hope all of your years get better and better.

The beautiful picture at the top is another amazing photo by Linn Arvidsson of Books and Knitting. Check out her webpage or add her on instagram if you like pretty book pictures in your feed.

/Cheryl

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