About Me

K.A. Crittenden is a public employee in the beautiful Pacific Northwest by day and professional cat herder by night. A master of finding cat toys with their feet at 3am and forgetting to turn their microphone on, K.A. loves dark humor, quirky romance tales with a supernatural flare, and the snarky but faithful sidekicks in fantasy and sci-fi tales. Follow K.A. Crittenden on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr to see new content, photos of the feline supervisors, and updates on current or upcoming projects!

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Hello! I’m K.A. Crittenden and this is my author blog/webpage. I’m in my 30s age wise, am a full time employee at a job I really enjoy, and am owned by three cats ages 3, 5, and 16 respectively. The picture you see above is my middle child and ‘oldest’ son; Strider. He’s about as inquisitive and naughty as his expression suggests. Two of the three cats are rescues and I am a strong proprietor of the “Adopt; Don’t Shop” catchphrase. One of these days I will manage to catch all three of them in a row and will introduce the readers of my blog to them that way.

Other than reading, writing, and hoarding music like a dragon, my hobbies include rock collecting, bubble baths, drinking a lotof tea, archery, and light gardening. I do like video games but you cannot imagine how terrible I am at them. I have joked that I need to start a YouTube channel called “K.A. CAN’T Play” and just intentionally invoke rage/disbelief over how bad I really am.

It’s a pleasure to meet you all!

Tomorrow’s Come Too Soon

“The rains have ceased, and we are blessed with another beautiful day. But you are not here to see it.”

I’ve had a friend on my mind quite a bit the last couple of weeks. It’s been 3 years now, time gone by so quickly and it feels like yesterday that we got the news.

This is a normal part of the grieving process. I know this, I’m familiar with it. Not my first rodeo nor will it be my last when it comes to losing someone dear. But he’s been on my mind a lot. Sometimes briefly, other times he’s there in my thoughts in a way that makes me just… want to see him type/hear him over voice again. To banter back and forth. To have serious talks/vent.

Still here and that counts for something.

It’s difficult to believe it’s been yet another six months that’s passed. Some days it feels longer, like we’re heading into 2022 already, and other times it feels like the day cannot be over fast enough.

I think this is a year of personal growth and change. There’s a restlessness beneath the surface of skin and mind, a whispering that says it’s time- for what, I don’t know, but when that something comes along? Maybe I’ll be ready enough to withstand the consequences and the choices/decisions that have yet to be made. Maybe I won’t, but that’s what the future will reveal in time.

After all, the only way we stop growing, we stop changing, is when we’re on our deathbed or dead.

Belated Update

Remember how I said one of these days I’ll actually be good about updating this? I’m still waiting for that day to come.

Hello again, after a good 5, almost 6 months of silence. My apologies for that. Life and everything it entails got in the way. If you’re reading this after the last update? Yes, I lived and that did become quite a few peoples’ problems- my own included. This will be a fairly lengthy update, so don’t be afraid to skip over or come back to read later.

On Physical Health, Emotional Fortitude, and Writing

Currently Listening to: Entropy – End of Silence (feat. Alexa Ray)

I watched the sunrise for the first time in a few years this morning.

The darkest part of night before the dawn. The way the sky turns black-blue and deepens in color. The shadows that grow darker, stiller, and then start to fade as the sun peeks over the horizon. The sky is dyed with a pale purple this morning shot through with golden clouds. It’s a moment of silence before the crows in my neighborhood start their morning. As of the time I write this (5:52am Pacific Standard Time), the sun is also blessing me with a direct shot into my face/eyes as it rises between two trees.

Thank you, sunlight, I appreciate you.

Grieving in Quarantine

There are people who come into our lives for a reason.

They may not stay long, you may pass one another by, and you may very well end up missing one another entirely by the time you realize just how much those people mean to you. But the impact they have on you and your life remains the same… regardless of how long or short their time was in your social sphere.

I lost a dear friend this week to complications of COVID-19.

He was 31 years old.

For those reading, there is a memorial fundraiser being hosted with 100% of the proceeds going to his wife and family. If you would like to donate, please check out the link here: Jacob Page Memorial Fund. If you are unable to, a share of the link would be appreciated or even just a kind word/moment of silence in his honor would suffice.

That said… let me tell you a little about him.

Short Update + Short Story

Every time I tell myself I will do an update more than once every few months, it somehow invokes some variation of Murphy’s Law. Oof.

So there’s been more health nonsense that’s transpired, and it kicked me harder than I anticipated it would. It isn’t COVID-19 related, I’m safe from that for the time being and am actually going to set an appointment to be tested for antibodies here in the next week or so after a prolonged illness in December into mid-January that mimicked the symptoms almost exactly. I have a follow up appointment in June to make sure things are doing what they’re supposed to and there’s no extra risk. Worst case scenario, some fairly major surgery to get the problem organ)s yanked out and dealt with.

As a result, writing has been… next to non-existent and I hate that. Writing is my ‘safe space’ and comfort. It’s where I go to get away from things going on as well as how I process and download. I have fanfiction chapters to write and by God I want to finish a fic for once. Like any unused muscle, I just need to get back into the swing of things.

My D&D campaign has been going rather well, thankfully, and we’re closing in on our one year anniversary. Some people who may read this are in my campaign. If so? You’re in for a surprise. 🙂

But, thanks to quarantine, I’ve had some time to rest and get some of the health nonsense back under control. I’m feeling more like myself instead of some existential dread and tea filled mess. I rediscovered an old thing I’d written and, instead of hating and deleting it, I gave it a bit of polish so I could post it here + my writing tumblr.

This short story is called “Store Bought Heroes”.  Please enjoy!

Stay well and here’s hoping I don’t take another few months between updates again!

– K.A. Crittenden

Happy New Year + Updates

One of these days, I will be able to write an update post once per week as I’ve intended to since starting this blog. This is not that day and has not been since October when I posted this initially.

Oh well, Happy belated 2020!

NaNoWriMo 2019

Uh oh, folks,

It’s that time of year again. The tea is stockpiled, the snackening will commence, and there is a nice patch of floor and blanket with my name on it I dub “The Despair Place” for when I can’t write and need to dramatically angst about it as if I were Lord Byron.

In short, I am about as prepared as can be for National Novel Writing Month.

Inktober

Hello, everyone!

I’ve decided I’m going to use the month of October to participate in Inktober! Writing is a form of ink, in the end, after all and why not make good use of it to exercise the good ol’ brain muscle and create a strict schedule before National Novel Writing Month?

In all likelihood, I’ll be placing them up on my writeblr on Tumblr and potentially, if they end up fanfiction related, on Fanfiction.net and Archive of Our Own. I’ve been happily writing for Fire Emblem: Three Houses as of late and want to keep riding that inspiration for as long as I can!

Speaking of, I’ve finished two of the four routes on Three Houses: Golden Deer and Blue Lions! Just finished the latter today and ouch! Those are some pretty intense feelings those two routes inspired. I appreciate the characters in this series and find them some of the most realistic and well written in the games I’ve played thus far!

The rest of this year is definitely going to be used for exploring, practicing, and breaking out of my comfort zones writing wise. I’ve also decided the first step in doing that is writing the popular “One Blanket in a Blizzard” fanfiction trope that was around while I was a wee little fandom baby in the 2000s. I love the wide range of scenarios, personalities, and situations you can use while holding those two key things (and what it usually results in ;P) as mandatory to include in the fic.

What are you going to be working on for National Novel Writing Month? Are you participating in Inktober? Let me know!

Brief Updates and Future Projects

Good Morning everyone!

Been about a month and a half since last update, life gets a little busy and a lot has happened in my personal life. A new job position I’m thrilled to bits about, some sad news, and some happier times as well.

I’ve admittedly been completely absorbed in Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The characters and story are some of the best yet, in my humblest of opinions and I’ve actually broken my original writing only streak to work on some fanfiction. I’ll be gearing up for some fun collections and consider fanfiction to be an excellent exercise in exploring character dynamics, personalities, and different scenarios that can only help me improve and grow as a writer myself.

On a fanfiction note, I don’t believe in removing/deleting older works– flawed and problematic and awful as they may be. As we grow and change as people (or should be growing and changing, rather), so do we as writers. We learn better grammar and spelling. We choose to ignore the fact that commas and semi-colons need to be protected at all costs and not thrown under the bus. We’re better educated about the world and complex topics around us and how to/not to handle them.

We know and understand what is and is not okay in the ‘real world’/outside of fiction. For some of my more graphic/problematic works nowadays, I’ve begun adding author’s notes/chapter notes/etc in the beginning that works pretty much as the 1990s and early to mid-2000s disclaimers just to be on the safe side, however.

As stated, it’s a precautionary measure on my part but one I feel might help some of the divide/miscommunication between writer and reader base I’ve seen as of late. It’s pretty much a “I, the Author, hereby declare I acknowledge and know the acts/words/behaviors in this story aren’t okay or acceptable and am attempting to write on the subjects with the care and gravity they deserve while also weaving a story to be read and do not condone or believe the actions/words/etc are anywhere near acceptable.”

It shouldn’t be necessary to state such a thing, but in today’s climate… you have to be on the safe side and safety comes first.

I have a spiritual/almost direct sequel to my upcoming short story “The Answer” slowly taking shape in my brain starring Barron’s fiery younger sister and her beloved. We’ll see where that goes! I also have some ideas percolating regarding a new full length novel as well as a short story that takes place prior to the events of it.

I’ve also been attempting to be a little more active on Twitter and Tumblr lately, still pretty spotty but it’s a bit difficult to get into the habit of being social/throwing it all out there while you’re a more cards-to-the-chest personality. Let me know what sorts of things are interesting to post about/that I should talk about!

That’s about all I have for now. You can find me as Kireon on Archive of Our Own, Kiraeon on Fanfiction.Net, Kireon on Tumblr for my ‘personal’ blog full of shitposting and MyEmpireOfSalt for my writing tumblr aka my ‘writeblr’.