Eric Shay Howard

Bad blogger. Complicated. Gay.

Eric Shay Howard lives in Louisville, Kentucky. He’s the author of the fiction collection, Crushes, and is a literary editor. He also works at a law firm and is writing his second book. He’s a graduate student in the Bluegrass Writers Studio MFA in Creative Writing program at Eastern Kentucky University.

Read the blog, below. Eric blogs about creative writing, business, education, lgbtq+ AND DIVERSITY, and other things. he’s a little bit complicated. he blogs in first-person.

the blog ⬇️

  • Knowledge Gaps

    Knowledge Gaps

    Knowledge gaps are inevitable at some point, no matter what degree you get or how much experience you have, I suppose. I finished my MBA in January of 2022. Aside from leadership theory and management courses, there were some practical skills that were thrown in as well. I had to do some data analytics work in a few of the courses and there was some study of project management in one of the courses. While creative Eric is on break from the MFA program until spring classes start, Business Eric decided to try to gauge just how much of a knowledge gap there was in data analytics and project management a year after graduating from the MBA program.

    I did the Google Data Analytics Certificate and the Google Project Management Certificate programs on Coursera over the break. Here’s my experience with both.

    Google Data Analytics Certificate Credly Badge
    Google Project Management Certificate Credly Badge

    The Google Data Analytics Certificate

    Google estimates this to take 6 months for a beginner, working on it about 10 hours a week. I was able to get through it a lot faster than that. I learned about the data analysis process and the data life cycle, practiced more with spreadsheets and spreadsheet functions, and learned how to use both spreadsheets and SQL to prepare, process, and analyze data. Basically what the means is that I learned how to use data ethically, how to clean data for analysis, and how to use the data for data-driven decision making. I also learned the basics of R Programming and how to use Tableau for creating useful visualizations.

    The data-driven decision making aspect of this was what I’d done in the MBA program already. I’m also already pretty familiar with spreadsheet programs (Excel, Google Sheets, Numbers) and have been using them for many years. I had a high school teacher in the early 2000s who was probably a little ahead of his time and made us learn Excel, including how to use functions, inside and out. The school had transitioned to a program for grade tracking that was also based on Excel, and he talked about all the issues associated with that a lot. After he taught us Excel, he had to go assist with recruitment or something when the war with Afghanistan started, because he was either former or active military, and to be honest I don’t remember much else about the class after that.

    I’m not saying I’m an expert on data analytics yet, or even that I ever will be, but if I HAD to get an entry-level job in data analytics, I probably could, maybe. The Google certificate program was well crafted and accessible. I can see it being a great entry point into the subject for an entry level job if someone was really interested in going in that direction after being in another field or something.

    R Programming was really new for me, but I have some experience with the Python programming language already. However, R was almost nothing like Python. I can learn R, though. What I would struggle a bit with is anything that dives deeper into statistics and mathematics, which I’m sure happens at the mid and senior levels, or maybe even at the entry level, too. There wasn’t a lot of math in the Google certificate program, at least none that the spreadsheets or SQL databases couldn’t be made to do for you.

    Google Project Management Certificate

    The Google Project Management Certificate

    After I finished the Data Analytics Certificate, and felt pretty good about my knowledge of it, I figured I’d try the same thing with Project Management. There was a Google Project Management Certificate on Coursera as well, so I fired that up and got to work. There was definitely more of a knowledge gap here than in data analytics, but probably only because I’d never had the chance to practice it. I’ve only read about it and taken tests for classes, and most of those tests didn’t get as in-depth on the subject as some might expect. My MBA program sort of included it within an operations management course, so it was there, but the emphasis wasn’t on the framework of project management as much. This Google certificate was all about the framework.

    I took me longer to get through this one, but I still got through it fairly quickly. I had to actually create a lot of the artifacts, and a lot of the assignments were peer-graded, so none of us could just say we did it and move on. While the project management process was discussed a lot and pretty close to that of the Project Management Institute’s version, it wasn’t exactly like it. However, for an entry level project manager, it was close enough.

    Google Project Management Certificate

    I find project management and the framework that the Project Management Institute uses as the basis for its certifications fascinating. I was so fascinated that I went ahead and did another certificate in project management afterwards, this time from the University of South Florida, called the Designated Project Manager Certificate, and completed that one just as quickly. This certificate program did keep the framework consistent with the Project Management Institute, which would be helpful with certification exams. But, it didn’t discuss the Agile frameworks, which the Google certificate did. Also, if you’re counting, that’s 2 project management certificates that I have now.

    Designated Project Manager Credly Badge

    What’s Next

    I didn’t have to do any of this for my job. I’m not a project manager by title, though I do end up occasionally managing a light project here and there. I don’t necessarily think I’d be able to put many of those projects within the framework of Project Management for the Project Management Institute. I do qualify to sit for the CAPM exam, though, so I’m taking it this month. I probably won’t pass it the first time, but it will help me see what I need to work on if I do want to pursue project management in some way.

    Then, Business Eric probably has to take it down a notch so that Creative Eric can focus on the MFA in Creative Writing program for the rest of the spring.

    I’m fairly fascinated with both Data Analytics and Project Management for some reason, but Project Management is the most interesting to me so far of the two. We’ll see what I end up doing this year. For now, I’m satisfied that I’ve explored my knowledge gaps and learned a few more things.

    But, this is just how I personally deal with knowledge gaps. It’s not necessarily the best solution and might be a little bit overkill. Actual experience is probably better. I don’t know. How do you deal with them? Or, do knowledge gaps even bother you? Leave a comment below and share tips, or your experience with data analytics or project management, or online learning platforms in general. Do you like Coursera? EDx? LinkedIn Learning? Udemy?

  • My Thoughts On Twitter

    My Thoughts On Twitter

    These Are My Thoughts On Twitter

    For a few weeks, I’ve been sitting in the back row, watching my Twitter timeline and the blogs that blog about it. I don’t want to say anything about it. Businesses change hands all the time. Usually, it happens behind closed doors, or as less of a spectacle anyway. Not all of these leadership changes are good, and not all of them are done well. There are often issues with office culture and new leadership not seeing eye-to-eye at first, or even forever. But, Human Resources does their thing, both internally and externally, Marketing does their thing, both publicly and privately, and executive leadership does their thing, and all hopefully in accordance with the companies “new” agreed-upon values and mission statement, which sometimes takes a few months to develop. So, I’ve not been worried, really. Just sort of watching and taking notes. But, it’s reached a point to where people in my personal life are starting to question why I haven’t closed my Twitter account yet. And the answer is, I think about it sometimes. I’ve thought about it before Musk acquired Twitter. And, yes, I’m thinking about it more now due to the spectacle that is before us all. But I haven’t yet because I’m falling back on what I know, or what I think I know, which is probably not as much as I think I do. But basically, it’s what I said before: businesses change hands all the time. These problems happen all the time in private companies and even publicly traded companies, but the nature of the product being what it is has presented us, the public, with an opportunity to witness it in an easier way than we have before. So, I’m watching because I can, preparing for the worst because that’s just smart, but also not deleting my account because I kind of like having access to the spectacle, and because everything I’ve learned these last few years about business suggests that this isn’t really anything that new, what’s new is our access to it, and if Twitter does shutter down, it likely won’t be as a direct result of anything that’s happened these last few weeks, but as a cumulative consequence of a company not doing well for so long already anyway, and the decisions they’ve made because of it, including the decisions over the last few weeks. Having said all of that, I guess I did want to say something about it, or maybe I didn’t want to but just did anyway. It doesn’t matter.

    Let Me Add Your Website To My Sidebar

    But, I did add a bunch of people’s websites my blogroll on my website’s sidebar so that I can keep up with people off Twitter if that time comes. If you wanna be mutuals, drop your blog link in the comments and I’ll check it out.

    If internal leadership gets its stuff together and Twitter continues as a service, then great. I’ve got some projects I need to finish that will utilize the service, and I’m sure I’ll continue to post announcements and nonsense on it just as I have been. If it does go away, then I’ll just keep up with people’s personal websites and blogs. I will miss Twitter; it was a great tool for when I was growing the old literary magazine I used to run.

    I have some projects I need to finish for classes, and all of this Twitter stuff has been distracting me from them. And of course I haven’t been able to check Twitter in front of anyone else without them telling me about how I should close my account because it’s dead or because some decision made recently didn’t quite fit into their framework of what is right. Having chosen not to delete my account (yet) doesn’t mean I disagree with any of those frameworks (I am a registered democrat and tend to lean on the liberal side of things), it just means I didn’t reach the same inevitable conclusion as some of my friends have about the service based on the disconnect of leadership’s decision and that specific framework (yet). None of this is meant to be definitive, or meant to serve as a “final thoughts” statement on the subject. I’m watching the shenanigans daily, just like everyone else.

    Anyway, I’m a little behind. So, with that, I think I need to get off of here and finish these projects. I have two class projects, an editing project, and a project that I didn’t have an exact deadline for but I’m sure has passed even though I haven’t been scolded for it yet. Thanks for letting me vent about my thoughts on Twitter. I think I just needed to get it out of me so I could focus on my class projects. Of course, all these thoughts are subject to change daily, or in accordance with something new I learn or find about it.

    I’ll write again soon.

  • My Fall 2022 Semester, and Reasons Why I’ve Been Too Busy To Blog For A Few Months

    My Fall 2022 Semester, and Reasons Why I’ve Been Too Busy To Blog For A Few Months

    Wow, it’s been a whole semester. Well, give or take a few weeks. Sorry about that. The Fall semester in the MFA program started out kind of steady but then it got really intense this last month. I honestly think it was just how my assignment due dates ended up falling on the calendar across my two graduate courses. I’ll take some time here to just do some basic updates, if only because I have a website that I pay for and I might as well use it for something. I will have a little bit of downtime in a few more weeks, so maybe I can post a little more before the Spring semester starts. Maybe the due dates for assignments will just magically work out more convenient for me during the Spring semester. Maybe it will be worse. I don’t know. If it does, I suppose I’ll just have to do this again.

    Fiction

    So, this semester, I decided to do something that I don’t normally do when I study fiction academically–I wrote and workshopped sections of a novel I started. I’ve probably written about this before, but novels are… well, novels are hard. Short stories are hard to, and you can certainly take your sweet time with them if you want to (I’ve been known to rewrite short stories at least ten times, in new documents from start to finish), but it’s also possible to get what you want out of a short story in a few drafts and be done with it. Novels though… I don’t know because I’ve never finished one. I finished a novelette once. It sucked. I still have it somewhere. I wrote it while listening to “I Will Always Love You” (the Dolly Parton version) over and over again for about two weeks.

    Anyway, I still have to do a revision of one of the chapters I wrote this semester, then try to get through the rest of the draft of the novel before too far into Spring because I want to write something else for my thesis, and I think I’m going to have to figure out what that will be super soon if I’m going to stay a full-time student.

    The Firm

    I still work full-time at the law firm. I work in IT, so I’m not a lawyer. I coordinate video conferences, webinars, and support for IT equipment throughout our 13 offices in 8 states. It’s been busy. I think it’s a slower time of year, but there’s still a lot of stuff going on. I can’t talk about work much. You know, confidentiality and all of that. Add me on LinkedIn I guess? But I can’t talk about it there, either.

    The Literary Magazine

    I’m doing some stuff with a literary magazine. I don’t know what I can say or can’t say right now, so I’ll just leave it at that. I do love editing and working with others on literary adventures. I’m sure I’ll be able to talk about it soon. When Likely Red Press shuttered during the pandemic, a little piece of me fell off and died somewhere. It’s probably still at my old apartment.

    Working The Polls In November

    On November 8th, I worked the polls here in Louisville. It wasn’t crazy busy in my opinion, but we’re never sure exactly how many people voted absentee while we’re working at the polling location on election day. Working the polls is an experience, one that I would love to talk about sometime. But, I’ll have to gather my thoughts about it first. I think it’s one of those things that’s easier to talk about if asked questions directly. Feel free to ask in the comments and I’ll do my best.

    Certs

    Even though I’ve been really busy with classes, I had a little time recently to think about something new. Or, maybe I just needed for force myself to add something else to my plate once I got in too much of a circadian rhythm with the flow of coursework. Either way, I am now the holder of a Workplace and Personal Wellness Foundations Certificate from the University of South Florida. I was interested in wellness in the workplace from an administrative angle. It was a unique certificate program. I’m upset that my middle name didn’t get put into the certificate. It was my own fault. I should have double checked before sending off the application. It’s fine. Still waiting for the credly badge.

    Next, I’d like to look into a project management certificate program, then maybe perhaps look into steps for a PMP certification. But, you know, after the MFA. I could do the certificate program whenever though, I guess. Anyone know of any good ones? Post them in the comments if you do.

    My TIkTok

    I think that’s all I’ve managed to squeeze in this season. I didn’t do much for Halloween. I’m still so single that I’m talking about History of Wolves by Emily Fridlund in letters to my straight high school best friend who I had a crush on and who is in prison. I did start posting about how I’ve been closing my Apple Watch rings everyday on TikTok, though. You can follow me on TikTok if you’re into that. I can’t promise how long I’ll keep managing to close the rings, though. It’s getting colder and I don’t like that.

    @ericshayhoward

    I did it. #fitness #applewatch #moverings #gay #gaytiktok #ididit

    ♬ original sound – Eric Shay Howard

    That’s all for now. I’ll try to post the next one sooner.

  • The MFA Residency

    The MFA Residency

    Blogging is actually kind of hard. I’m tempted to start over every few years. My interests change over time. So do my opinions. I’m not consistent. Sometimes I declare I’m going to do things one way, then I do them another way. Years ago, I wrote a blog post complaining about a boyfriend, or at least that sounds like something I would have done. When I was self-publishing a collection a few years ago, I was blogging about that. While I was getting my MBA, I blogged about that some. Now I’m in an MFA program for creative writing. I don’t know if I want to blog about it or not, but odds are I will, at least some.

    The truth is, I have to stop writing as much for my blog because I have to write other things that I can’t post on it. I have to start saving some of my fiction for some literary journals and things again. Savings my rejection letters. Framing them. That sort of thing. I’m convinced I can come up with a happy balance between writing for my blog and for my literary submissions, but I haven’t exactly figured out a plan yet.

    I could do a few things:

    • Save my blog posts for announcements and stuff. This will likely be only a few year, if even that. I doubt I’ll get any real publication credits while I’m in the MFA program, so there just won’t be many things I’ll need to announce. This option would be more effective later, if I ever do get some vetted publications, perhaps in a few years. (Probably more like 10 years from now.)
    • I could just not talk about my writing at all and start blogging about—I don’t know—urban sketching? I’m really not very good at it. Or, I could do book reviews. I’m not very good at those either. If I finish a book, I liked it. 5 stars. Good job. Let’s go get a coffee.
    • I could try to write some pieces every few months specifically for the blog while I’m also writing for school and for lit journals and things, and try not to go insane. I’d have to be very decisive about what I posted on my blog because once I post certain pieces on my blog, most lit journals won’t take them. (Though there are some journals that do reprints. There are also a few journals that really just don’t care.)
    • I can use my blog to play around with creative nonfiction work, playing around with things like tense, titles, and tension and things like that.
    • I could just stop blogging.

    The right answer is probably somewhere in-between all of these things. I know my posting frequency will continue to be less. Judging from the summer residency, the reading and writing requirements in this program are going to be pretty up there.

    The residency itself was really great. It was a lot of writing and running around for twelve hours straight every day for about two weeks, but the craft lectures were interesting and the workshops were helpful. Everyone seems nice. The issues I had at residency were more personal, one of them being something that caught me a little off guard.

    My mom died two days before the end of the residency. It was an unexpected death. She was in another state. No one really knew why. I had to step away for half a day or so and make a bunch of phone calls, but after that there wasn’t much else that could be done besides wait for the coroner to cremate and ship. The funeral was a dinner with a small group of friends and family. She didn’t have insurance. I distanced myself from her a few years ago. Some version of our issues will probably end up in a side-story of a novel some day. I’ll save it for then.

    The fall semester started Monday, August 15th. I’m still working at the law firm full time. I’ll see what my schedule is like over the next few weeks—I should have some idea about how often I’ll have something to blog about soon. If I had to guess, I’d say I could write something for the blog once a month, or every six weeks, or something like that. Something about a book I’m reading, a funny story that happened to me recently, or a few of those really-really-short stories a year on occasion, too.

    We’ll see.

  • Putting Together My LinkedIn Profile

    Putting Together My LinkedIn Profile

    I don’t know exactly what my area of expertise is, but people often ask me what it is. I suppose I should probably have a good idea of what that is, though. Most people do, I guess? Do you? What is it? For me to find out mine, I’d probably have to look at an organized account of all my past jobs and experiences that I currently find relevant to what I want to be doing. I think there’s something for that. LinkedIn? Well, I have been getting my LinkedIn profile together more recently. Everyone else was, so I figured why not? I can be professionally interesting. I can be Mr. Business. I can network.

    What My LinkedIn Profile Says I Am

    I did some things to my LinkedIn profile since I last brought it up on my blog. I updated my headline with titles that I consider myself to have. Those things include “author” because I self-published a book a few years ago. I’ve also thrown in “creative professional” because I’m in a creative writing program and also blog and do other creative things. And finally, I added “coordinator”, because that’s my day job.

    If nothing else, I hope these things help with people who are searching for authors and coordinators to network with. I don’t know if anyone is searching for creative professional – I thought about putting “writer” in my headline but I already have author in there, so I’m not sure writer would be that helpful. Maybe I should add it in, though.

    Prior to having these things in my headline, my headline just read as whatever my job title was, which was a weird job title that people would never search for on LinkedIn.

    My LinkedIn Experience and Skills

    My experience section has been kind of okay since I had to build up my LinkedIn profile for one my classes in the MBA program. However, I knew that I needed to overhaul my skills section. I was listing skills that I really needed to have for my current roles, but hadn’t really fully developed into skills.

    What I did to solve this problem was use a newer feature of LinkedIn – I added some context to my skills by telling LinkedIn which experiences and activities my skills were applied to. You just open up the skills and check boxes. If I couldn’t find an experience that I still had on my profile for that skill, I deleted the skill.

    I was able to apply the work I did as founder of a student organization to leadership, communication, and interpersonal skills, for example. The literary magazine I used to edit? Marketing. Publishing. Editing.

    My day job? Administration. Communication. Organization skills. Mentoring. Technical support. Diversity and inclusion.

    What was once an attempt to show management skills that I wished were fully developed is now an attempt at showing what has developed, including some mentoring and teaching skills.

    Now, my LinkedIn experience and skills are much more connected and understandable to me. I now have a fairly decent idea of what I’m good at and what experiences helped shape my expertise.

    So what is my expertise? Well, I said that I figured out what my relevant skills were and what experiences they applied to. I haven’t said that I know exactly what my area of expertise is yet. It’s like an abstract painting. It’s not just the viewer that has to think about it; the artist does to.

    Now that my profile is built up and my skills and experience make sense to me, I’m looking at the abstract painting.

    What Does My Experience Say About Me?

    Let’s see.

    I love writing, and am pretty good at writing fiction. At least, I think I am. I tell people when I go to creative writing events that my concentration is fiction. I’m in an MFA program, so I could say creative writing is my main gig. However, I haven’t exactly mastered any of it and probably won’t for a long time.

    I have experience as a literary editor. I founded and edited a small press for a few years. But, I wouldn’t say it was the MOST successful thing I’ve ever done because I definitely made mistakes, otherwise it would probably still be running. I could say I know what I would do differently next time.

    I have an MBA. In the program, I studied management and leadership pretty extensively, plus got enough exposure to communication, marketing, finance, and data analysis to be able to manage if needed. I don’t think I’m very close at all to being an expert in those specific subjects: communication, marketing, finance, or data analysis – but I can tell you how they fit into the structure of an organization as a whole and I could oversee them if I was in a position to do so. I could teach a class on leadership theory or some aspect of management.

    My current day job is a coordinator. Technically, I work in an IT department. My position is a little weird though because I get to sort of come into contact with all levels of organization and work with many different departments. I can really “see” my MBA sometimes.

    Like, “Oh, that’s what Human Resources does?” Or, “Wow, that’s how marketing is embedded into the strategic plan of the organization.”

    So, my expertise?

    I imagine that my expertise is somewhere along the lines of business administration and creative writing. Maybe administering a creative writing program or something? But, as you may know, I don’t work in administration in a creative writing department. I work at a private firm. So, I don’t know. I coordinate stuff I guess.

    What’s your area of expertise? Have you done a LinkedIn profile overhaul recently?

    You can comment below, and add me on LinkedIn if you want. I’m trying to post more on the platform. Maybe I’ll share this blog post. I don’t typically share my blog on there, but the more I think about it, the more I wonder why I don’t.

  • I’m Trying Out A Traveler’s Notebook

    I’m Trying Out A Traveler’s Notebook

    I’ve blogged a little bit about how I’ve not been very good at writing in notebooks in the past – I don’t really keep up with notebooks very well and tend to start most of my creative writing in the digital format. Sometimes, if I really want to play with a piece of fiction, I’ll do that in a notebook, but that notebook tends to only be dedicated to that project, and I don’t always even finish the notebook. I wanted to try to get better at writing in notebooks recently, so I bought myself sometime nice. It’s a Traveler’s Notebook from the Traveler’s Company.

    I’ve had it for about 4 days so far. I’ve been “journaling”, so not really writing any fiction (novels or short stories). Instead, I’ve been reflecting about my day, sometimes multiple times a day, reflecting on the things I’ve done that morning, what new things arrived in the mail for me that day, or the TV shows I watched that evening. It’s a very casual journal, but I also give all the reflections/journal entries titles so that it feels a little more official, like a creative nonfiction piece I’m working on or something.

    I think that it’s good for me, but I guess it’s really too soon to tell for sure. I definitely like the shape of the journal; it’s an interesting size and it’s actually a good fit for me. I got the regular size – it’s sort of like an A5, only a little skinnier. There is also a passport size, but I don’t have that one (yet). I think the regular size works for now. It’s enough space to write whatever I want. The leather cover has already started taking on a character of its own with little blemishes and scratches. Supposedly the leather ages beautifully over time, so I’m excited to see how my cover looks in a few months.

    I love the paper that it comes with – the blank Midori MD paper inserts. The inserts are 64 pages. I’m wondering how quickly I will fill it up. The refills aren’t too expensive, $5-$7 dollars depending on where you buy them. There are also a lot of different types of inserts and paper that Traveler’s Company makes for it, and I imagine there’s a lot of other brands that will work for it, too. If I fill these pages up quickly, maybe I’ll feel that sense of reward that I rarely ever feel since it takes me so long to fill up my other notebooks.

    I guess I’ll keep you in the loop on how using this notebook is going. There are a few accessories I want to get for it soon, including a pen loop and a pocket/folder/place to put loose scraps and things. There are some official things that Traveler’s Company makes that will work that I’ll probably end up getting.

    PLEASE let me know in the comments if you like a certain kind of notebook, or if you have any journaling advice or anything.

  • My Writing This Week – Incorporating Writing Back Into My Daily Life

    My Writing This Week – Incorporating Writing Back Into My Daily Life

    Holly crap, you guys! I have been busy and I haven’t posted any blog posts this week. I’ve actually been working on a few “more useful” blog posts, but I didn’t get them finished this week. I’ve also been using my time to write more throughout the week, because I know when I start the MFA Program this summer, I’m going to have to kick that into gear. One of the advantages of a low-residency MFA was pointed out to me this week – I’ll be learning how to incorporate writing into my daily life at home better.

    I’ve been taking it really slow, writing about five new pages a week for the last two weeks. That’s more than I usually do, which the last few years has been a page or two a week, maybe. But, that’s NEW pages. If you know me, you know that I tend to spend a lot of time rewriting, and that’s where I think the majority of my writing time goes. Not sure anymore if that’s good or bad. There’s a story I’ve been rewriting since December and I’m thinking about doing one more rewrite of it and then sending it off into a particular contest, but I only have another week or so before that deadline.

    I don’t want to stress myself out before I even start the MFA program, so I’m trying not to do too much. I’ve been attending more literary readings lately, mostly virtual. I even attended an open-mic night recently. I didn’t read. I just listened, battled my cat over Zoom, and tried to be present. I also became a member of my local literary arts organization, and have been attending readings and virtual events that they’ve hosted as well.

    Anyway, I hope you’ve all had a good week. Let me know how it was in the comments. I’ll try to post more next week.

Bluegrass Writers Studio MFA Summer Residency, 2022. Photo by Ben Keeling.

I’m Eric Shay Howard and I’m a bad blogger. I’m also an author. I live in Louisville, Kentucky and work at a law firm.

I’m currently a graduate student in a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program. Lately, I’ve been blogging about that. I also have a Master of Business Administration and have completed a few certificate programs in Human Resource related studies. Occasionally I blog about business and other MBA-related things. Blogging about my day, bad dates, or package delivery issues are also not out of the question.

I wrote a fiction collection called Crushes and self-published it because sometimes I just like to push buttons and see what happens. I think this book is pretty alright, I suppose. Buying a copy helps me out. Feel free to leave a review on Amazon as well.

crushes by eric shay howard fiction collection book cover

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I had a hot buttered rum and people-watched yesterday evening, and stood and listened in the middle of the dance floor to all the classics. I did it. Going to bed now. Goodnight. #applewatch #fitness #moverings #gay #gayguy #exercise #workingout Just closing my Apple Watch rings… #applewatch #moverings #fitness #gay #tiktok #guy #work #busy Just completing my Apple Watch rings. #applewatch #fitness #gay Wow! Sorry it’s been a few weeks since I posted. I wanted to post 3 photos of me outside with my traveler’s notebook (so my grid on my Instagram stays neat, lol) but I got the flu (tested negative for COVID) and then I got really busy with work, and now I have school reading assignments and some other stuff to complete. I also wanted to post all 3 photos with my red hoodie, but it was dirty and I just kept forgetting to wash the dang thing. Anyway, I got my third photo with my GoPro and my red hoodie and my notebook now! I have been trying to think of a way to really start using Instagram reels that won’t stress me out. I figure notebook stuff would be kind of easy. Maybe I can try to make some interesting videos when I take my traveler’s notebook places, when I write or even just bring it along to have for moral support. 😂 Got my physical diploma today from @westerngovernorsu. Attempts to use the MBA to market a blog about my own writing are now underway! Miles. New Apple Watch SE to hold me over until the Series 7 comes out. Went to the dog bar. Miles is hard to photograph.

Eric’s bookshelf: currently-reading

The Silkworm
The Silkworm
by Robert Galbraith
tagged: currently-reading
Words of Radiance
Words of Radiance
by Brandon Sanderson
tagged: currently-reading
The Cloven Viscount
The Cloven Viscount
by Italo Calvino
tagged: currently-reading
Dark Rise
Dark Rise
by C.S. Pacat
tagged: currently-reading
The Gunslinger
The Gunslinger
by Stephen King
tagged: currently-reading
It
It
by Stephen King
tagged: currently-reading
Mistborn: The Final Empire
Mistborn: The Final Empire
by Brandon Sanderson
tagged: currently-reading

goodreads.com

Blogs and People I Like

Here are some other blogs and people that I like to read or keep up with. The order is arbitrary because I started out going for alphabetical order but then got busy with classes or something so now sometimes I just rearrange them for no reason.

Equipment Test! Podcast Artwork

I made a really bad podcast over the summer called Equipment Test! because I bought a microphone. But if you like really bad podcasts, you can listen to it here, or find it on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other places.