Ingrid Díaz's Blog

“The more open you are about sharing your passions, the closer people will feel to your work. Artists aren’t magicians. There’s no penalty for revealing your secrets.” — Austin Kleon, Steal Like an Artist

“There’s no penalty for revealing your secrets,” but I do think art can be considered a kind of magic.

Writing as a trick of magic

The key for an artist, writer or magician is figuring out how to “break the rules convincingly.”

As a writer you can make anyone believe anything if you set up t...

When it comes to potential danger, my wife and I have polar opposite responses. If there’s a strange noise in the middle of the night, my first impulse is to hide under the covers, while hers is to put on her shoes and “go check it out.”

This is the difference between someone who spends her time listening to true crime/paranormal podcasts and someone who does not.

With that in mind, here’s something that happened a few weeks ago.

It was around 3AM or so and K had gone outside to get our cat aft...

Spoiler alert: I have not cracked all the secrets of the universe, but I’m back all the same.

I’ve been unplugging for an hour every day this week, and it’s become something I look forward to. There’s been minimal staring out the window. I find myself finding lots of things to keep busy with in the absence of other distractions, and some of these activities are even productive. I’ve been keeping track of all my wild adventures on index cards.

Thinking I might eventually extend this to tw...

Day 01 of my quest for boredom failed spectacularly. I had every intention of unplugging for an hour after I finished my blog post yesterday, but life had other plans in the form of family. And then it was dinner time. And then it got too late to unplug because I had to check my World of Warcraft auctions and feed my Hay Day animals. You understand.

Today, though. Today we’re unplugging.

Worked on Love in the Light a bit earlier. I’m still trying to figure out what this book wants ...

I thought I’d kick things off by doing the thing I said I was going to do months ago but never actually did: start blogging again. I’m very rusty at this rambling in public thing, so please bear with me while I find my footing. Or don’t. I’m not the boss of you.

First things first: Happy first day of the brand sparkling new year to the one or two spam bots still reading this blog, and also to you, lovely person who is not a spam bot, and who maybe wandered here by accident. Whatever bring...

Happy October 1st! In celebration of my favorite month of the year, I thought I’d share a post-TBSOL Halloween story featuring Julianne, Kris, Leigh, and Karen. Join them on their visit to the infamous Crawley Manor, where nothing is as it seems. Muahahaha!

Note: This story takes place some time after the final version of TBSOL, which will be published Soon. Rough, early drafts of the pre-publication version are available in thei...

Hi all! A heads up that Twitter has permanently suspended my account for “Violating our rules against evading permanent suspension,” which is weird because I’ve never gotten so much as a warning, let alone a suspension before, so I’m unsure what it is they think I’m evading.

I’m attempting to appeal the suspension, but haven’t heard back, yet. Just wanted to let those of you who follow me know, in case you were wondering what happened. My cat video retweets were too powerful.

While I’m not sup...

I’ve been trying to decide how to best approach this returning-to-the-blogging life thing, which is just another way of saying I’ve been procrastinating on the returning-to-the-blogging life thing. I’ve been asking myself uplifting questions like, “What’s the point?” and, “Does anyone care?” But all of that is just the fear talking and I hate letting the fear talk, so here I am.

I suppose the only way to return to the blogging life is just to return to it. Put the words down and then release the...

blows the dust off the blog

coughs

sneezes

tries to type through blurry eyes

Hello, world! Thought it was about time I brought this blog back from the dead. I’ve always wanted a zombie blog. Not a blog about zombies, mind you, but a blog that drags its feet and groans and grunts and wanders onto your lawn. A blog that’s only mostly dead. Mostly dead and slightly alive, persevering against the odds in pursuit of its One True Purpose: finding the six-fingered man.

I may have los...