Haus of Rhi

There haven't been many instances for me to catch actual butterflies in the garden. There were three of them, the other day. All adults, two of them with colors so faded and wings so damaged and battered that I was astounded they were still flying. The one I recognized from a few days prior; that time, though, it had been alone. Guess it loved the bush so much it came back and brought its buddies. Took these with a faster shutter speed and the auto-focus function engaged (the default "sports" setting on my camera) because I'm terrible at gauging these sorts of things. It reminds me of when I was young and my parents would give me their camera to take family and group photos. It was an old Kodak, 39mm with a five inch manual lens. And I was a myopic adolescent without corrective lenses. Suffice it to say the photos were always blurry and messed up. "I can't tell if the camera is focused or not." It was one of the more supremely frustrat...

I'm not a terribly avid or educated gardener. Evidence of such: a few years ago I trimmed back the juniper outside my front door--and chopped off ALL the aged berries in the process. They ended up in the trash with the rest of the yard debris. I didn't know what they were until about six months later when I was looking for a way to use juniper in a natural herbal mixture for a very specific application. I was suitably horrified. Those berries take three years to form and mature. I'm hoping for my first crop later this fall. Most of the other plants in the ground at Haus of Rhi have been foisted upon me by the matriarchal Master Gardener among my close relations. Among that number are: a T-Rex variant hosta with these gigantic leaves that gets the daintiest little lavender flowers later in the year; a butterfly bush that has started to rival my juniper and cypress bushes for girth and height; and the most recent addition last fall, a deciduous bigleaf hydrangea that I cra...

I have this enormous TBR list, and I don't find much time to read anymore. Between the day job routine, writing projects, and general boring mundane stuff like finding time to eat, do yoga, and keep the house from looking like a landfill, reading is rather low in clout when it comes to prioritizing. It's taken me months to finish a single book, in fact. I've been reading Meyer's Into the Fire  since last fall when I received a complimentary hardback copy. In that time, I've added another five books to my pile. Meyer's book has left me with mixed feelings. I knew writing a review for this one would be difficult. Just reading it has been a roller coaster of emotions for me. Over the months, I've shared quotes from the book on #soldierporn [you can find them by scrolling through the Reading List tag, here ]. But even those don't convey what it evoked as I read it. I need to figure out how to describe the impact this writer and his story have, af...

Thank you to everyone who participated in the HAHAT blog hop, and especially those who stopped by and took the time to engage in some conversation about personal identity. The winner of my HAHAT giveaway is... Andrew J. Peters! Please contact me at rhianon.etzweiler@gmail.com with a valid email address for your copy of "Blacker Than Black." If I don't hear from you within 24 hours, I'll select an alternate recipient.

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Haus of Rhi! Today we're joining in on a blog hop that's raising awareness about a very important subject. Today we're all dedicating blogspace in recognition of the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia . And Haus of Rhi is joining in. This week I'll be giving away an ebook copy of "Blacker Than Black." Leave a meaningful comment on this post with a valid email address before midnight on May 27th to enter the drawing. Each comment will be counted as a separate entry (so if you leave more than one comment, each one will be a separate drawing entry). One winner will be selected via randomizer and announced here at Haus of Rhi on May 28th. It's about time. It's about losing the labels that discriminate and delineate. It's about accepting that not everyone's identity will fall neatly within the definitions you create in your unique perspective. It's about realizing that you have t...

April's editing pass went better than I expected it to. Cleaning up prose and addressing a couple consistency issues I stumbled upon, that was the worst of it. Since Piaffe  sits at 80k it was no small task, but thank fuck I can call it done. Done enough that I need a break before tackling the completion of Levade , the second volume. I know I struggle with writing short stories, or even shortER stories, but really, there comes a time when one must stop and breathe or it becomes downright arduous. So, with that first volume of Dancing Circles  wrapped up rather neatly, I'm shifting on to the second project on my 2013 To-Do List. Finishing a half-complete project, Fang and Fire.

I should make an update, shouldn't I? Especially since it's been over a month since my last post, and my self-imposed deadline has expired. I bought seed starter kits and entirely too many packets of seeds, all of them the same thing: sage. I decided, back at the beginning of March, that since I buy so much of it to dry and burn, that I should really just grow my own. My seeds are actually sprouting! I have a tray of them in the kitchen window, and they are happily doing their thing. The packet said they needed to germinate for a few weeks, so imagine my surprise when I noticed them popping out after only a week. I will have a LOT of sage to plant outside in May. If I don't manage to kill the seedlings somehow, between now and then. I'm not ruling it out. After all, I do have a black thumb, haha. On to the latest writing news. That last push through the end of March actually went well. I won't pretend that I'm exorbitantly satisfied with the current state...