• Blog,  Blogging,  Guest Posts,  Star Wars

    Blog Squadron – Mission #6: Sharing and Social Media

    Blog Squadron is a series of posts from a handful of Star Wars bloggers sharing insight into how we got started blogging, what inspires us, how we succeed at our goals, and our approaches to blogging and writing. We hope that by sharing our knowledge, we can help others join us as Star Wars bloggers, and make it easier for newer fans to write about their love. Join us as we discuss sharing content, building audiences, and how social media has helped us as bloggers.


    Blogmatis Personae

    (Or, who the heckie are all these awesome bloggers?)

    Matt ApplebeeFar, Far Away Radio.com

    Jessie StardustTatooineDreams.com (Personal Blog, mostly Star Wars flavored) and PassionatelyCasual.com (Star Wars: The Old Republic podcast site.)

    Patty Hammond: I currently write for my own EverydayFangirl.com and also for The Future Of The ForceStarWars.com and TheBeardedTrio.com.  I have previously wrote for The Cantina Cast and The Detroit News Geek Watch Blog.

    Bryan:  I’ve posted on a few blogs along the way, but I’m exclusively on hyperspacepodblast.comnowadays.

    Sophie: My personal blog is outerrimreviews.wordpress.com where I am chronicling my journey through the Star Wars Expanded Universe. I also write articles for farfarawayradio.com

    Johnamarie MaciasTheWookieeGunner.com

    Saf: I write sporadically for ToscheStation.netMakingStarWars.net, and TheWookieeGunner.com. I also write about Star Wars on my own site, NotSafForWork.com.


  • Blog,  Blogging,  Chronic Illness & Neurological Disorders,  Personal Posts

    Medication Can Be Good, Actually

    Content warning: suicide, depression, death.

    What a fuckin’ shocker.

    Before I get into this, I want to make it clear that I am not a medical professional in any way. This is just my (very) personal experience. Got it?

    Good.

    I was raised in an environment that was negative about modern medicine. I was made to skip school so I wouldn’t get vaccinated, my pleas for a diagnosis of asthma fell upon deaf ears, and I imagine discussion about medication for mental illness was so far off the table it might as well have been flying into the sun. As a pretty sick kid, I was always told that I should eat more spinach, or do yoga, or shine yellow light on myself, or follow what-fucking-ever the new-age health mags were saying.

    And because I was young, I wanted to believe my parents when they said these things would help. Then I looked at my friends, who went to doctors and hospitals and had prescribed medication for their bad flus and infections and other ailments, and I got that strange sense you get as a kid, when you start to think, Why is my family so different? 

  • Blog,  Blogging,  Events,  Travel

    Look At Me Talk About Things

    Hey all!

    I’ve been a little (a lot) absent from my site (and other places) for the past month and a half for a couple specific reasons: travel, health, and organizing podcast things. I went to Canada, USA, Wellington, Australia, and then came home to be diagnosed with Fibromyalgia. It’s been an intense few weeks! But more on that stuff later.

    For now, here are the recordings of the talks and panels I did while travelling and some little write-ups about the events I was lucky enough to experience. Travelling for a month and being accepted to speak at multiple events was a huge privilege, and though I’m paying for it now with my health, I wouldn’t have had April any other way.

    Play By Play

  • Blog,  Personal Posts,  Photography,  Travel

    2016: A Year in Photos

    2016 was a massive year of travel, writing, getting into game development professionally, and taking my health seriously. There were a lot of ups and downs, almost more than any other year of my young life, and I have way too much to say about way too many things.

    So, instead of words, I’m going to let photos do the talking. From both my phone and my DSLR, here’s a year of photos that sums up a lot of my 2017.

    Photos below!

  • Blog,  Mountain Sound

    Mountain Sound | Postmortem

    When it comes to my own personal work, I view deadlines as more of a guideline than hard law. I’m not bad at time or project management, I just have 0 accountability when I know I only have myself relying on me to finish. Mountain Sound was one part testing my ability to start and finish an on-going project, one part forcing myself to share creative writing, and one part actually making myself consistently write my own story.

    My initial goals were to post chapters on time and to write a story I could be proud of. Whether or not it gained an audience wasn’t part of my plans, so when people did read and enjoy Mountain Sound, that was just a super cool bonus!

    What worked:
  • Blog,  Gaming,  Personal Posts,  Star Wars

    Three Ways Social Fandom Can Inspire Us

    I’m a nerd. I’ve been one since Pokemon first aired in little ol’ Aotearoa and I tried to make Pikachus out of modelling clay with my mum. The attempted Pikachus melted, I still loved them.

    Much of my childhood was dominated by Pokemon, to the point that I would actually say my childhood was defined by it, as well as Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. These franchises helped me form strong friendships, find a love for the creative, and explore an interest in books and film. Most of all, these things helped me encounter joy in hard times. Being a nerd is as much a part of me as my love for food.

    Recently, cynicism has been everywhere. Or, has it always been? It seems that whenever enough people love something, a vocally negative group pops up to disagree. So let’s talk positive:

    There have been three defining moments for me recently that sparked something inside me. As if, for just a second, the clouds had parted and sunlight had shone down upon me. Weird, right? Who even remembers what happiness feels like these days? Not me, apparently.

    Wait, didn’t I say I was going to talk positive?

  • Blog,  Personal Posts

    State of the Blog (and Where It’s Headed)

    April was the second birthday of this blog (April also happens to be the birthday month for both me and my Twitter, too) and at the time, I didn’t have much to say on the fact. Plus, last month ended up being impossibly busy—the coolest thing being volunteering at Play by Play (NZ’s first international games festival), running a Twine workshop and doing event photography.

    So, where is Not Saf for Work headed now that it’s in its terrible twos? Well, for what feels like the first time since I first posted here, I’ve actually got a somewhat solid plan.

  • Blog,  Blogging,  Mountain Sound,  Writing

    Letting Your Character Grow

    You have a character, and she’s your new baby. She has a picture-perfect face, and a name researched for days that exactly sum up her personality and her role within the narrative. Three chapters into the story, and she’s already pulling at the leash, wanting to turn left when the plan dictates turning right.

    Sometimes, a character grows beyond their creator, forming opinions and traits that alter their trajectory. If you’re unprepared, an especially rebellious character can entirely throw a story’s path into turmoil.

    Not every writer experiences their characters suddenly gaining a will of their own, and others will very seriously state that these characters must be kept very firmly on their destined track—you are in control!

    No two people write exactly alike, nor will they experience the writing process the same way. I’m going to talk about how I—as someone who throws the reins free the instant I begin a story—approach character creation and growth.

  • Blog,  Diversity & Media Criticism,  Gaming,  PAX Aus

    Female Protagonists, Who Cares?

    While at PAX Australia earlier this month I tagged along to a panel called, Who Cares About Female Protagonists? with a friend because, well, I care about female protagonists a hell of a lot.

    There’s a reason the majority of my favourite games are headed by women and girls, or at least give the player the option to pick their gender (props to you, BioWare.) These games make me feel like I can be a hero in a way male-led games do not. They make me feel like I can be something more than I am.

  • Blog,  Chronic Illness & Neurological Disorders,  Personal Posts

    MHAW: Silence and Stigma

    This week has been one of mental health awareness, and in typical Saf fashion I left this post to be written at the last day. In NZ it’s been Mental Health Awareness Week, while elsewhere it’s been Mental Illness Awareness Week. Exactly a year ago I wrote a post about why awareness is important, and a year later it’s still just as vital.

    It was maybe a month or two ago that a friend on Twitter opened up about their own struggles with mental illness, which prompted an open discussion among our little community. A lot more of my friends were struggling with mental health than I realized, and I’m sure others felt the same about me.

    Despite my personal vows to be open and honest with regards to mental health, I suddenly realized that I am essentially a freezer of feelings—I carefully tuck the bad ones away in a back shelf and leave them to freeze for a few months, until the power breaks down and they begin to thaw. I fully contribute to the lack of awareness, in part because I don’t like to show weakness, and that is a failure of mine.