Brandiwyn🎶, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
La Bene Vita
You Are Welcome Here Life is good. Let's share it.
New Year, New Strategy For 2026, I launched a weekly topic rotation designed to help me stay d i s c i p l i n e d while ensuring that you, the reader, always know what to expect. Unfortunately, I have yet to acquire a million followers and gain official WDC "influencer" status, and I often find myself seduced by whimsy. Thus, my blogging strategy continues to evolve.
So, What Can I Expect?
I'm glad you asked. For now, until whimsy strikes again, here's what you can expect (updated March 2026):
Weekly Topical Posts - Apply Generously to Affected Areas Music & music education The art and business of writing Owning & managing a small business Science & technology Parkinson's disease, type 1 diabetes, and other medical topics
Personal News & Updates - May Be Boring! You've Been Warned Health news Family, work and leisure Weekly goals & progress
The Occasional Rant
Although I try to post rants at "What the Fork?" (and you should, too!)
Robert Waltz - Awesome article, thanks for sharing. They did way more research than I was prepared for today. You also managed to find an article that threw a bit of etymology in the mix. Well done.
I can see both sides. Especially when you add that they're learning it and want to use what they learned.
However, creating extra deadlines without notice or even communication is really tough.
I definitely see your point. When one hires someone to do a job, the employee should do the job as directed by the employer. Failing to do so satisfactorily for whatever reason, the employee should simply make any corrections the employer requests, and request (without drama or debate) a clarification to avoid similar issues in the future.
Many years ago, I hired a young man to neatly stack a jumbled pile of old lumber that had been dumped. I showed him exactly where and how to stack it. When I returned a little later to check his progress, I found that he had stacked about half of what should have been stacked in the elapsed time, and he had stacked it about ten feet from the place I'd shown him. He got agitated when I told him he would have to restack what he had stacked because it would be in the way where he had it. He asked if he couldn't just stack the rest on top of the mislocated stack he had started. He never seemed to understand that he had not done what I'd hired him to do. Even his proposed solutions would not accomplish the work as it needed to be done.
Ah, DBS. I am well aware of it thanks to my employer. Even though I work in the IT world of med tech, there are still lots of opportunities to learn the basics if things like DBS. We'll see if I can get back to that kind of extracurricular activity anytime soon.
PD research is very well funded, so I'm sure opportunities are there. I have a piano student, Lily. She's 16, but she was 5 when her mom enrolled her, so I've been her teacher more than a decade. Her mom is a doctor, and Lily has decided she wants to study neurology. She knows about my diagnosis - all my kiddos do, so they understand why my voice doesn't work sometimes, why I can't play the instruments I used to, why I drop everything to take meds, etc. So she was super excited to tell me that when she went to Neurology Summer Camp (!!!!!!!!!!), she got to watch a DBS procedure on a Parkinson's patient, live. (!!!!!!!!) This was probably two years ago, so she was 14 or 15 at the time.
For those who don't know, DBS = Deep Brain Stimulation. Until very recently, the procedure could only be performed while the patient is awake. They screw your head into a halo that holds your head still, then implant an electrode in your brain. Some patients require two implants (one for each side, two separate surgeries), and either way, you have to have yet another surgery where they implant the battery in your chest. Sounds like fun, amiright?
In case you're wondering, my MDS said today that I'm the PERFECT CANDIDATE for DBS because I respond so well to levodopa. I'm like.......... thank you? The good news is, there's an option where they knock you out now.
Brandiwyn🎶 Cool! Yeah, a PhD in Neurobiology. I'm a research scientist / data scientist, worked in a lab at a research institute. Very niche, I know. I'm actually trying (and failing) to break out of the academic research trap. Unless you're a tenured professor, it's a very poor career choice. And, turns out, not terribly useful in the real world. Who knew?
But yeah, I really did enjoy the subject and the research. I'd like to go in a more clinical direction so I can actually help people with diseases like Parkinson's. Especially when I read first hand accounts like yours and Carol St. Ann 20yrs (06-26).
Ѧͷͷΐ- That's awesome, and I'm very interested in your project. I speak science and data analysis, lol. My degree was chemical engineering. Did you earn a degree in Neurobiology? What do you do professionally?
Amantadine is a fun medication. In theory, it's supposed to help prevent my toes from curling under and my ankle from twisting. In reality it causes the weirdest, most vivid dreams and hallucinations.
Last night, I dreamed I was part of a research team living and working on the moon. The procedures to keep the habitat livable were strictly enforced, but we had a new kid who kept messing up. Every time he did something to compromise the air seal (which was not very elaborate - like, duct t... [Read more]
#scopecreepersanonymous
I asked ChatGPT and Gemini to review a short story I wrote. The feedback I got from both on various revisions pretty much defines me as a writer:
Gemini said:
This is a fantastic opening.
This revision elevates the story from a good setup to a very compelling narrative fragment.
ChatGPT said:
This is a polished and highly effective opening to a series or novel.
You should feel very confident in this draft. Are you planning to continue this st... [Read more]
In case I've never mentioned it, October is my busiest month. It's PrepMo, of course, which is busy even when I'm not actively participating, like I am this year. Also, my music school's most popular performance event happens the weekend before or after Halloween: Our annual Halloween Party Recitals.
Friday night is for adults and teens only. Saturday and Sunday afternoons are filled with performances from all our kiddos, plus Halloween activities like trick-or-treating from r... [Read more]
I'm not sure why or how poop became such a taboo topic.
Whenever someone acted holier-than-thou, my ex used to say, "his shit doesn't smell like roses." There's a reason he's my ex, but actually, none of us shit roses, so he kind of had a point.
We all do it. Some of us are better at it than others. My husband, for example, poops at 9:00 am for roughly 20 minutes daily, but he can easily adjust that time around his meeting schedule as needed, as if it's a valv... [Read more]
*pokes at disabled "Reviewing" and "Blogging" badges near the top of nav menu*
I suppose the "Blogging" badge will be activated shortly, but the review is not going to happen. I can't seem to write a review in less than an hour, and I need that hour back for novel writing because my Prep project KICKS ASS.{ } By that I mean, I love it. You don't have to. But you will get the chance to decide because this one is getting written.
I will be sprinting this Nov... [Read more]
It's PrepMo, so I have plots on the brain. My songwriting student Millie, who just finished her musical, "Gwinny! The Musical" (starring her dog, Gwinny), has decided her next project will be an opera about manatees.
Her homework was to complete a story and plot elements analysis template for the opera. Instead, she wrote the main plot points in a list form without actually completing the template. Although she had the analysis in her head, she had trouble filling in all the blan... [Read more]
Poor Christopher Paolini has been the target of many a critic since the publication of the first book in The Inheritance Cycle series. We'll cut him some slack because he was a teenager when he published, but let's face it: the work deserved the critique. I don't remember the particulars, but I recall a lot of comparisons to gemstones. It's been awhile since I read the series, so rather than read it again for the purposes of this discussion, I found this handy {xlink:https://swan... [Read more]
Did you know...
...that if you have a premium account at WDC (if you don't, keep reading...), you can use the "Signature Manager" in your account settings (My Account -> Account Settings -> Additional Account Settings -> Manage Signature(s)) to create a book-specific template for your book entries? For example, in my book item, , my template looks like this: {dropnote:"See Template"}
Setting:
Description:
Relationships:
{ }INSERTRELATIONSHIP,{ }
... [Read more]
So, hubby got the news that he needs to immediately switch to a diet low in saturated and trans fats, a.k.a., a heart-healthy diet.
I thought of the children's nursery rhyme:
Jack Sprat could eat no fat
His wife could eat no lean
And so between the both of them
They licked the platter clean
Although in the case of this diabetic wife, it's carbs, not lean. (What rhymes with carbs? Anyone?)
He's rediscovered oatmeal (born and raised in central Ohio, hubby calls the... [Read more]
The Music Lab teachers at my music school publish a monthly theme. They generate modules for the music history, composition, and listening stations based on the theme. After the children complete the modules, the lab teachers interview them, asking the students to list three things they observed.
Kids Say the Darndest Things
This is what some of the kiddos had to say about last month's "yodeling" theme:
Aria W: "Many of the lyrics were not words at all, but rathe... [Read more]
I've been a member of WDC for 18 years, and if there's a test out there to qualify for a creative writing degree from a major university, I bet I could pass it without a single day in a classroom, all thanks to the education I've gained from peer writers here.
I gleaned much of that knowledge from creating and running the - especially in the early years through friends who helped me plan and tweak the assignment calendar, volunteer writing coaches and forum posters who knew more... [Read more]
You love to hate them.
An antagonist, by definition, is whatever causes conflict for your protagonist (main character.) Every story includes at least one protagonist, a conflict, and an antagonist that creates the conflict.
Every story.
For example, if I walk in the door and announce to my husband, "I got the mail!" - that's not a story.
However, if I walk in and say, "I tried to get the mail but a bee that's guarding the mailbox stung me, so now it'... [Read more]
Every good story incorporates some sort of growth or change on the part of its protagonist. But don't assume that "grow" always means "get better."
Consider Walter White, the high-school-chemistry-teacher-turned-illicit-drug-manufacturer in Breaking Bad. Over the course of five seasons, Walt (a.k.a. Heisenberg) transitions from mild-mannered teacher and family man to ruthless killer. Every choice he makes that leads him to villainy is rationalized because he is just savin... [Read more]
Whether you're a pantser or plotter, starting a story can be the hardest part of writing fiction.
Just kidding. It's totally editing, am I right??
Okay, so maybe both are stressful and intimidating. You wrack your brain for the perfect opening lines, but they just won't come, because you're a perfectionist ! And if and when you finally spit out some words that work, you never, ever want to edit them out because you worked so hard to find them in the first place.
You... [Read more]
It's Day 5 of , and I'm already scope creeping.
My initial idea was to develop the Druid Archives series further and actually complete one of books 2 through 10, all of which are in progress. (Book 1, , is still technically in progress, but at least I have a complete draft.)
But the Prep did what it's supposed to do: it gave me a new idea, and a trio of crime-fighting teen witches was born on Day 2.
By Day 3, the protagonist of that story, Maya, revealed to me that she w... [Read more]
Do you feel like all the plots have been written? That we're just recycling stories?
I asked two chatbots to offer lists of novels that were considered innovative or groundbreaking at the time of publication, to prove that brand new plots are still possible. The compiled* list is below, highlighting innovations in plot, genre, theme, and storytelling methods.
Note that if you asked again, you would probably get a different list. This list is not meant to be accurate. It's meant to... [Read more]
I'm actually Prepping this year.
I spent the first two days re-reading old notes and short stories from my Druid Archives world, thinking for sure I would write something there. The plan was to get back into the habit of writing, and specifically writing in that world, so I could move on to actually editing some of it and maybe publish one, if not all ten, of the novel-length works I started as early as 2007.
My Muse had other plans.
Meet Maya (Yaya) Kumar, teen witch extraordinai... [Read more]
, also known as Michelle Tuesday, is a musician, educator and writer hailing from Columbus, Ohio.
and gain official WDC "influencer" status, and I often find myself seduced by whimsy. Thus, my blogging strategy continues to evolve.
Music & music education
