Author: Erin Penn

Arts: Embroidery – Shell Cross-Stitch

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TIMELINE: May 2, 2026 – July 17, 2026

The Shell Cross-Stitch Project is about using new tools.

5/2/2026 – The kit: Cotton embroidery thread, precut, Aida cloth (14 count), directions AND a frame with matting and glass. The point of this project is to learn new skills related to sewing. Primarily framing embroidery, which I have never done before though I have framed my painting. If this works out, I will then from the Two Fish with Seaweed canvas-work project which I have completed and have brought all the materials for framing over a month ago but haven’t gathered the bravery to cut it out.

5/2/2026 – For this project, I am using a thread sorter. I’ve never used anything like this before, but it has the PERFECT number of holes to hold all the different threads of this project. I am adoring the magnet in the center to hold the needle as I pull the flosses apart before I thread the needle. I will be using this tool in the future if only to hold the needle instead of sticking it into furniture.

5/5/2026 – I’ve done four nights of work on the project. The threads are really light in color, mostly pastel. The cross-stitch is easy, keeping track of where all the subtle shades need to be stitched less so. Below is pictured both the front and back of the project so far.

   

5/9/2026 Four more nights of work, usually about an hour each, for a total of eight at this point. There is a total of 12 different colors to sew; I am beginning to finish off some.

5/13/2026 Four more nights of sewing complete (upto 12 now). All cross-stitch is complete and now onto the backstitching and the French knots.

5/15/2026 Two nights of sewing done (total nights spent on embroidery was 14). All embroidery complete – the backstitching and French knots. Only things left to do is the framing. We shall see how long that takes. Below is the front and back.

   

7/16/2026 I finally grabbed an hour, and the framing process ending up taking only about fifteen minutes using the kit provided. All framed and ready to hang on the wall.

     

GeekingScience: Small Town Universe

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Imagine living in a town where wi-fi and cell phones are illegal; where every person in the town works together to create the smallest electronic footprint possible. Does it sound like a science-fiction horror story where people are hiding from aliens (like in David Weber’s Safehold series) or a governmental overreach restricting information transformation?

It’s neither. Green Bank, West Virginia is the National Radio Quiet Zone for the most sensitive radio telescope in the world. The entire valley is monitored for excess electronic interference. And through everyone’s due diligence, we just might hear aliens sending out signals, their television shows reaching across the galaxy.

A documentary from 2024 is available on the subject. You can find the trailer on YouTube (posted below).

Editing Rant: What did you see?

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Photo by Michael Dziedzic on Unsplash

Remember, readers have an easier time of visualizing what is there rather than what is removed.

In a recent edit:

As the youth spell turned back time, his hair changed to tar black and most wrinkles were removed from his face.

Recommended change:

…and a few wrinkles remained on his face.

Give your readers clear visualizations.

Don’t write: an object was missing from the desk.

Write: a cleared space in the dust indicated something was missing.

Your readers can’t see the missing object, but they can see the results of it missing.

Don’t write: John realized there was an invisible person in the room with him.

Write: John eyes said nothing was there, but his ears heard a shuffle.

(Okay, both the Write and Don’t Write suggested above have filtering problems…let’s try the invisibility unfiltered.)

Don’t write: The invisible lad tiptoed through the room.

Write: Little creaks crackled the wood flooring from the bedroom to where the cookies were cooling in the kitchen. John tracked the mischievous child with his ears. 

If the readers (and the point of view character) can’t see it, tell us what they either can see or provide details through other senses. Stop giving descriptions like someone handing out rural driving directions. Have you ever gotten directions like “Turn at the barn that burned down last year.”? This is useless. It’s useless in writing too. Direct your readers better. Write what the Readers CAN experience.

Do you see how this works?

Flash: The Tree Grew Tall

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Photo by Robert Bye on Unsplash

One of the Facebook groups I am on posts a weekly prompt – genre and words – to which one is to write a short opening paragraph as would fit into a Facebook comment area. This week’s challenge was: Genre – Either romance OR horror; “The tree grew tall.”

The tree had been watered by the blood of patriots long ago. Its roots were entangled with buckshot and cannon balls. Fifty years later, when its limbs had regrown strong and round, people decorated it with Strange Fruit. The ropes remained long after the bones had fallen into the leaf mulch below. Yesterday, a family had hid in among its ground cover ferns and blackberries only to be pulled out by immigration agents and beaten before being taken away. The tree had had enough.

(Words 84; first published 7/10/2026)