As The Child Of A Librarian, I Grew Up In The Library. I Was Reading By The Age Of 2, And My Mom Ended

As the child of a librarian, I grew up in the library. I was reading by the age of 2, and my mom ended up relenting and allowing me full access to the library early. Did I abuse that? Absolutely. In small towns, even librarians have opinions about appropriateness of books, especially for their own kids, but I was indeed signed off to have access to the entire library at 9, so as long as my mom didn't see me with it, I was gonna read it. I was, and still am, a sponge for knowledge.

Omg! This! 100× this! And that at 40 things will change and it will confuse the hell out of you. I went from a harbinger of doom migraine for the period to it moving to announcing my ovulation instead, and it was insane and unexpected and essentially overnight. I went from one month feeling like absolute disaster right before the period to the next month being surprised by my period because the harbinger was gone, other than the slight mood thing (and that first month it could easily be explained away by jet lag) and then it socking me a couple weeks later during ovulation. Discover that there is a such thing as Mittleschmertz. Like PMS but for ovulation, and some people with ovaries suffer with that. Apparently, my 40s are gonna be a whole new adventure in learning my body all over again.

I'm actually surprised that this system allowed sharing. My stepmom got really sick with a mystery ailment, which, when finally was figured out over a year and a half later, was a rare bacterial infection that had eaten some of the bones in her spine because it was left to rage in her body so long.

She had a lot of sick and vacation days accumulated, as she'd been at her job over 20 years, and was allowed to roll them over to the next year if they weren't used, and since her job was a desk job, she didn't take a lot of time off.

As the sickness got worse, she took more and more days off and eventually burned up all the time she'd accrued over the time she'd worked there. Her coworkers, some of whom she'd worked with since the beginning, tried to donate a week of sick days or PTO each. There were many in the office and a few from the crew that did the meter readings that tried to donate time.

The powers that be said hell naw. Not unless you can convince everyone to donate. Since there were a few people who didn't want to, and should have had to, to be perfectly honest, it was not allowed.

My stepmom eventually got on disability, because they had to rebuild the upper part of her spine with a cadaver armbone so that she can still walk on her own, but it's hard for her to stand for long periods of time. Even that was an exercise in patience, since they tried to refuse her the disability the first time.

This the current joke about our Artificer in D and D, and I'm living for this.

Credit: @pet_foolery

Today, I submitted a short story to a professional editor. I went to a symposium over the weekend, and there will be two rounds of edits, then submission into a contest. The winners will be published. Here's hoping I get published for the first time.

Collection: I Search the Bookcase!

This 3-page collection of ideas for books on your in-game bookshelves should help you figure out what to say when one of your players goes to inspect the mad mage's books. Books are a great way to embed lore into your world and share it with your players. Additionally, some books may have been owned by magical creatures, or a wizard may have left a note or two in the margins, creating a whole new adventure for your players to chase after. Or maybe you'd rather make your own books? These tables will help you decide what it looks like, how it's written and what's so special about your books.

For better, full-page high quality imagery, take a look at the collection "I Search the Bookcase!" at the Homebrewery here!