personal – Witha2ist.com

Oct122021 by cleasaalNo Comments

I am the Invisible Kind (non fiction/asexuality)

Title: I Am the Invisible Kind Author: Clea Saal Born: October 8,2021 Genre: Asexuality/Gender Issues Format: Paperback/Kindle Page count: 115 pages ISBN:‎ 979-8487410337 Price: $9.95 (paperback) $7.75 (Kindle eBook) Gay or straight? Maybe bi? Trans? These are all identities we keep hearing about on a daily basis. They are literally everywhere. We live in a world that seems to be obsessed with sex, gender, and gender identity, so we can’t even take two steps without tripping over half a dozen references to them. Maybe we are just trying to make up for lost time, as it was only a few decades ago that these words were basically taboo, ones we barely dared whisper. My, how have things changed, and for the most part I would say it has been for the better, as we try to f...

Jul222021 by cleasaal1 Comment

Your Dog Is NOT a Primate (dog care/rescue)

Front page, Non-fiction Books, pets

Title: Your Dog Is NOT a Primate Author: Clea Saal Born: July 22,2021 Genre: Dog care/Dog rescue Format: Paperback/Kindle Page count: 124 pages ISBN:‎ 979-8528059693 Price: $9.95 (paperback) $7.75 (Kindle eBook) (more…)

Jun72021 by cleasaalNo Comments

Neutering Is Forever (dog care/Kindle eBook)

Front page, Non-fiction Books, pets

Title: Neutering Is Forever Author: Clea Saal Born: June 8, 2021 Genre: Dog care/personal/controversial (general) Format: Kindle eBook AISN: B0936SXJ95 Price: $4.95 1. Signs ‘The only balls your dog needs are the ones he fetches,’ so reads a sign outside a veterinary clinic. I guess they thought it was funny. This story, unfortunately, is anything but. It is the story of my best friend, whose life I basically ruined by listening to a vet who shared that casual attitude towards his physical integrity; a vet who saw dogs as a bunch of bits and pieces that could be taken out at will... who saw dogs as things that were there for humans to play with, and to be modified in any way we saw fit. (more…)

Oct312019 by cleasaalNo Comments

A Moment In Time

Front page, pets, rants, Uncategorized

What you have here is one of my favorite photos of my three boys, one in which you can definitely see their distinct personalities shining through. It is also one of the few I have of my three babies together, as the kitten was only three and a half months old at the time, he had been with us for a little more than two months, and it had only been a few days prior that I had finally allowed my dogs and cat to hang out together (okay, so maybe it would be more accurate to say that it had only been a week since one day, much to my horror, the kitten snuck past me out of the room in which he was being kept, and didn’t get eaten), and we lost Terri less than two months later. In fact we lost him three months ago today, that’s what drove me to share this picture, and yet I hesitate to do it, kn...

Oct172019 by cleasaalNo Comments

Of an Unexpected Encounter, and a Lesson Learned

Front page, Personal, pets

This is not the post I set out to write today, in fact this is about something that is likely to be totally irrelevant for anyone but me, but for once I don’t care. This is my blog, and I’ll break my rules if I want to... and yes, this is another post about pets, about what losing Terri did to me, and about a seemingly small incident that left me absolutely devastated a couple of days later, one that, especially in the aftermath of what happened a few hours ago, made me confront some of my own prejudices. This is the story: (more…)

Dec302016 by cleasaalNo Comments

What’s in a name?

Front page, Personal, pet-peeves, rants

A few days ago I tried to join Quora. It sounded like a good idea at the time, but instead I came across yet another unpleasant reminder of one of the most ridiculous aspects of my life. In a nutshell, the site insists on real names. I fact they are pretty adamant about it (facebook at least allows you to use the name you go by in your everyday life). That doesn't sound so bad, and considering its nature as a Q&A site it sort of makes sense, as it can help keep things honest. The problem is that I am one of those people for whom the very concept of a 'real name' is somewhat problematic. Why? Well, because I had the misfortune of being born in one of those countries with stupid laws that restrict the names parents can give to their children, and the name my parents had chosen ...

Dec92016 by cleasaalNo Comments

My adventures in language learning

From the archives

Okay so I figured I might just as well write a short post to introduce what I hope will become one of the main features of this site: a section dedicated to language learning, which is one of my hobbies... and yes, I do realize that, as far as hobbies go, that one really needs to get a hobby. (more…)

Dec82016 by cleasaalNo Comments

On the (service) doggie wars

From the archives

A few days ago I was fooling around in Buzzfeed when something caught my eye. It was one of those silly 'can you make it through this post without spending $50.00' listicles that link to a bunch of pointless things that look cute on screen but only add to the clutter out in the real world. I usually don't even bother with those, but this time around the picture was that of a dog wearing a service dog vest, and yes, among the items they were promoting was a fake 'service dog' vest. That gave rise to a rather lively comments section that was far more interesting than the so-called article, and that comments section in turn got me thinking, especially because when I came across that debate I was already looking into the impact of the changes in the role animals play in people's lives over the...

Nov122016 by cleasaalNo Comments

Pencils 101

From the archives

As some of you may know, a couple of years ago I got into a fight with my cover artist, one that not only caused me to lose one of my dearest friends, but also left me in something of a bind, as at the time I had two books that were ready to go to print, but no covers to go with them. This year, in an attempt to avoid a repeat performance, I decided to try to learn to draw. (more…)

Oct222016 by cleasaalNo Comments

Talking to myself for fear of talking to anyone else

From the archives

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. I've been working on this website for a month, tinkering with countless little details, but dreading the day when I would have to tell others it actually exists. I don't know why am I so worried. I guess it's just that this is a big change. My old site was comfortable, familiar, and now I feel like I've just moved into this new house that looks nice, but where I'm not sure I know where anything is. Did I mention the fact that I hate moving? Well, I do, but it is something that I've had to do often enough. This is a different kind of move, so I'm writing a bunch of tiny posts that get deleted without ever seeing the light of day, but enough of that. The time has come for me to stop procrastinating, so tomorrow I'll let the world (or rather the three people ...

Sep192016 by cleasaalNo Comments

So how did we get to this point?

Front page, Personal, projects

Okay, so maybe I should be saying 'Welcome to my new home on the web!' or something along those lines, and I do welcome you, but I also wanted to take this opportunity to explain why, after so many years, I decided to move to a new site, rather than keep updating booksandtales.com as I had been doing since the dawn of the millennium. The reason itself is simple enough: in the fourteen years since that site came online the web has changed too much, and booksandtales itself has accrued too much dead wood. The problem is that it's a kind of dead wood I don't really want to get rid of, not entirely. There is the print on demand comparison, which is now ridiculously outdated, but which was once a useful starting point for people looking to self-publish, and also my early attempts at writing ...