You can’t say thanksgiving (chuseok) without mentioning family. This year I find myself viewing the word family in a different perspective, a non-traditional way. My friend, Moon, says that with each year we grow older, but also more clearer on things. What I know today, will definitely change next year, or be more refined. I’ve come to realize that the people who make me feel the most comfortable, the most myself, are now family to me. At times blood family won’t always be where you can be comfortable, this has been hard to accept, but since I’m smiling as I type this, it seems I have come to accept it.
Welcome to dinner
Thanksgiving this year was having some alone time, being in an absolute quiet space. I value these moments because they’re a source of strength. My old, old friends who are now staying with me made lunch, that ran into afternoon, and into dinner. I’m amazingly grateful that I’m laughing easier having them around. Gosh, a good laugh will truly put you in a great mood. You don’t realize how lonely you are, until you have someone calling you to ask how your day is and when they don’t do it once, you miss it and wonder how you lived without that call before.
I’m babbling now on the good fortune that has moved into my house.
Happy Chuseok! (Korean Thanksgiving) and cheers to you!
I bet you have no idea who we are, but when Sui first started writing….four years ago?…No, I think it has been five years now, since 2012. Hold on while I lose my marbles. Five Years! Stupendous! We are Sui’s peanut gallery, and would push her into writing and posting because she was so shy and unsure of her work. I still remember reading, That Dog, Young Jae, and smiling because I thought she had a lot more to give, and it would be amazing. Well, the We is Scot and Moon. Sui’s original fans.
We lived with her then for over a year or two…after she started writing and publishing it
Some Idiot made a joke the other day. Said our names are short for SMS – Short Messaging Services….I was stunned! Stunned! – Moon
out. Around 2014, we all had a displacement. Our jobs are not easy to deal with, we’re constantly on the move, or setting out on adventures across different parts of this strange planet. We separated, and Sui sort of moved from here to there, and here to there….okay, she moved a lot. Now, we’re having an incredibly time as we’ve all managed to circle back to living in one house together. Yass!
We’re older, stranger…definitely not wiser, just hurt and learned to hide it better, deal better. Sui, my dear friend, has written so much, we’re amazed and stunned and awed, and of course teasing her silly for her dedication. Hence, the Peanut Gallery has decided to join Sui’s blog, and basically, jump and down here and there, spilling on adventures, activities, and insane things Sui is always up to in between all the writing. Hoping our time together takes us longer than two years this time.
Scot: Should we talk about falling in love? All our mothers are worried about us still being single?
Moon: I’m worried about still being single…
Scot: laughing. (Moon input: he laughs like a mad man) I at least have a willing candidate. Though dating is seriously the new-already-married.
Moon: Rubbing your happiness on us, you’re evil you know. Sui’s mother is the most frightening. She thinks Sui is going to petrify from being single.
Scot: (Immitating Sui’s softy voice) Yah! You crazy bastards, I’m a happy single woman, stop backstabbing me behind my back.
Moon: More like a crazed woman who is married to her keyboard and the billions of characters swimming in her brain. We still love her though. And you, who is reading this.
This strange band will keep you posted on the new stories on Sui’s desk, and the fun activities we might get into living in our new spiffy home in Nairobi. An uber green place, a quiet place, but seriously…I miss the beach in Diani, so we might visit there often. And share pictures. Nothing is more healing than the sun rising over the sparkling blue ocean. So,…Okay, we’re done with this introduction. In case you see strange posts on Sui’s blog and wonder who has hacked this space, don’t worry, it’s just one of us (Scot or Moon), or both of us.
Now, after this raging intro – We’re off to celebrate Chuseok! Happy Korean Thanksgiving! Lots of food and tasting Sui’s songpyeon. Will tell you if we got sick eating Sui’s cooking. Its a 50/50 with this one. Meanwhile, we take three days off and pretend we don’t have jobs, and simply laze around. Sui-noona you’re not allowed to edit this part out!
There are moments when a single word is more powerful than an action. One word can send you catapulting into the ether, throwing off events in a day, ruining a perfectly harmonious dinner party, cracking a heart into pieces…
No thinking too much, just Smell the Cherry Blossoms
One word, it seems, can make or destroy.
This I’ve come to experience of late, and it has turned into a humbling? Or should I say educative moment in life.
Do you know there are people in your life, no matter what they say, you find yourself analyzing their every word. Why did he/she say that? What is she/he thinking? How does it relate to me? Goodness is this self-centered or what? But seriously, what did they mean? This is the endless cycle of questions that leads to insanity. Perhaps, the education here is to take statements at face value. Not to overthink what is not stated, but…truthfully, this is really hard to do.
So, is this overthinking situations, words, and over analyzing people a woman thing? Or is it the result of having an over-creative mind? Could be both, in which case, this writer continues to learn the hard way.
All I have managed to realize is that I need to check my thoughts, my own words, because I might be over judging scenarios and turning them into mountains when they’re only pebbles on a path.
Works – in – Progress
Good news is, I’ve been writing, challenging news is that I have yet to turn completed work into downloadable e-books. Will work on that this coming June as free time is on my way. Look forward to these WiPs.
Sundays are beautiful and bittersweet. Sunday morning hours are always the best part of the week. Our morning was rainy today, and I say ‘our’ because the house is full of people. Friends and Lovers, staying the weekend, looking for adventure in my corner of the world.
Spent most of my morning reading, enjoying the sun coming up, with rain mixed in. The blankets felt warm and the cat snuggled up right in there, it was perfect. Then the horde woke up, and suddenly it’s a frenzy of making breakfast, brewing coffee, slicing fruits…randy jokes from the Lovers. Gotta love the lovers, they spice up the morning with kisses. The rest of us tease them, but they don’t seem to mind it. I love that they’re all in the kitchen, making my day.
Then it’s out in the garden for all of us. After a busy week, just sitting outside, enjoying the sun after a refreshing rain and arguing over who is going to cook the turnips for lunch, I feel like this is heaven.
It’s a Thursday morning, sitting at my desk, looking at a work day spent writing. Some four to five hours. I often work with music on, and as I’m on a great One Ok Rock binge, their song Hard to Love comes on and nostalgia sets in.
You know they hit the lyrics right when they have your mind wandering on a trip. This song has me thinking of my Dad. My Dad remains this great mysterious man in my memory. I can only imagine what he thought of me, as he died when I was too young to comprehend much about life. I often imagine he’d have given me advice like in this song when I think of him.
A hard-working man, who loved his family and did what he could to create a future for us. This picture is different depending with who you talk to, but for me, it really never changes. In my memory, he is firmly a super hero who I know I will always look up to.
Full of nostalgia feels, magic hour takes over as I plan the next part of a story taking shape. The beauty of fiction is that it can take you places you never expected to be.
Hideki Takada’s life is in danger. Kazuma Daiko tortures himself with guilt over the death of his last charge. Can Kazuma protect Hideki when it matters most?
Kazuma Daiko, a skilled bodyguard, is haunted by the tragic loss of his previous charge. His guilt has led him to avoid close-contact assignments, and he questions his ability to protect. His inner turmoil grows when he faces the enigmatic Hideki Takada, unsure of his capabilities.
Kazuma’s world shifts when he first sees Hideki. A magnetic force binds their souls together, compelling Kazuma to hold on to the assignment despite his reservations. Kazuma embarks on a journey that challenges his reservations, but his love for Hideki blurs the boundaries between duty, desire, and the pursuit of redemption.
“A Haunted Love” weaves a tapestry of passion, guilt, and forbidden desires. As Kazuma and Hideki’s connection deepens, their love blossoms against all odds, forcing them to confront their haunted pasts and navigate a hidden villain’s plot to separate them.
Will Kazuma find the strength to face his guilt and allow love to heal his wounded soul? Can Kazuma and Hideki’s love withstand the tests of time and adversity?
Stabbed and left for dead, Toshiro Shindo is at the end of the road: no hope, no one to care, no reason to live. Jason rescues him and shows him kindness and love. When the man who stabbed him returns for him, Toshiro fights to keep the life Jason rescued.
In the depths of the woods, Toshiro Shindo finds himself brutally stabbed and left for dead by the merciless Kaito Takumi. Clinging to the thin thread of life, Toshiro wrestles with a momentous choice: surrender to the encroaching darkness or summon the strength to defy death itself.
Desperate and bleeding, he stumbles onto a lonely road where fate intervenes in the form of Jason, a compassionate stranger who rescues him.
Back on his feet, Toshiro gathers the strength to unravel the mystery behind Kaito’s brutal act. As he unearths a deeply personal betrayal, Toshiro decides to sever ties with Kaito Takumi for good.
As he awaits the cost of his decision, Toshiro returns to Jason, seeking temporary sanctuary. Amidst the solace and safety of their blossoming connection, an unexpected love blossoms between Jason and Toshiro.
However, Toshiro’s choice to betray Kaito Takumi places himself and Jason in grave danger. Faced with the daunting task of safeguarding their newfound love, Toshiro must summon his courage to fight for the life they yearn for—a life of love, hope, and the promise of a future together.
Talin focuses on work, barely paying attention to anything else. One encounter in his club’s parking lot drags him out of his dull life.
Talin’s life revolves around his club, where he seeks solace from a haunting loss. Consumed by his work, he rarely allows anything else to capture his attention. That is, until an electrifying encounter unfolds in the club’s deserted parking lot, igniting a spark that jolts him out of his monotonous existence.
Description:
Talin focuses on work, barely paying attention to anything else. One encounter in his club’s parking lot drags him out of his dull life.
Talin’s life revolves around his club, where he seeks solace from a haunting loss. Consumed by his work, he rarely allows anything else to capture his attention. That is, until an electrifying encounter unfolds in the club’s deserted parking lot, igniting a spark that jolts him out of his monotonous existence.
Dimitri has watched Talin for so long that when he storms into his workshop for answers, Dimitri decides he won’t stay on the sidelines any longer. He wants Talin for life.
Soon, Dimitri’s path becomes intertwined with Talin’s in ways he could not have foreseen. The boundaries that once held him back from approaching Talin disintegrate, replaced by an unwavering determination to claim the love he’s been yearning for.
Talin and Dimitri’s love story grows, but a confrontation with The Brotherhood, a ruthless criminal organization, tests their newfound happiness. With their lives and families at stake, Talin and Dimitri must confront their pasts and stand against the shadows that threaten to engulf them.
Sui Writes 