The Forgotten Child

18. February 2013 · Write a comment · Categories: books, writing · Tags: , , , , , ,

I have nearly forgotten I even have this site. Honestly I’m not sure what to do with it. I hesitate to move my blog permanently here, since it seems much easier to connect with other people on the WordPress.com site, Filling Spaces. And yet… and yet. I want to have my own author site, it seems to be important. Now that I have the domain registered I fear giving it up and losing it to some unscrupulous person who buys it and later when I do want it, tries to sell it back to me for some exorbitant price.

But of course, who would do that? (insert tongue firmly in cheek)

So if you happen by, please leave a comment and let me know how you found the site. I am a writer when I can be, and my current works-in-progress are about vampires, fallen angels, something akin to demons, witches, humans involved in that stew, and the foibles and follies of my dear flawed characters. I do love them so.

I’ll have to do better about posting here.

Which Classic Female Author Are You?

16. April 2012 · Write a comment · Categories: books, writing · Tags: , , ,

I found this on Mike Wells’ site, and since folks were having trouble getting it to work, thought I’d post it here and see what happens. Let me know if you have trouble getting the results to display.

How did that car get on the track?

10. November 2010 · 6 comments · Categories: books, writing · Tags: , , ,

I think the vampire novel is in need of a complete overhaul. Somehow I wandered WAY off track with it, and reading back over parts of it now as I continue with the revisions convinces me that huge chunks of it need to simply go away. I literally cringed at some sections. Those are gone. But the whole storyline seems to have been derailed from what I initially started with. Going off on a wrong track is one thing, this has deteriorated to the point that it’s run completely off the rails.

And this means going WAAAY back to the earliest chapters. One character needs extensive, immediate surgery if she’s going to survive at all. Ugh.

Now here’s the question: Am I just procrastinating about finishing this thing? Do I somewhere deep down inside not want to be done with it? Nah, no, this is really bad. It needs massive work. I may need to lean on my beta readers to have a look at the first couple of chapters and see if a different perspective can find the point where things started to veer. I’m starting to think this isn’t even about vampires, maybe that’s what’s wrong with the whole thing. It was fun, but is it really what I want to be talking about? I think so, it was just a fun thing I started, and it’s been a real learning experience for me so whatever happens I won’t consider the time wasted. I just need to have the strength and resolve to sit down and do the hard part, real rewriting.

A Day in the Life of a Writer

18. October 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: books, inspiration, writing · Tags: , ,

Harry Connolly takes the romance out of being a writer:

Stay Strong

03. August 2010 · Write a comment · Categories: books, inspiration, writing · Tags: , , , ,

I would just like to offer this thought, to those like myself struggling to be published:

‘There’s only one difference between published and unpublished writers and it is this – the first group see their work in print on the shelves of Waterstone’s or Tesco or online at Amazon; the second group are yet to have physical evidence of the hours, weeks, years spent fashioning words into their patterns. You are already a writer.’

Kate Mosse

Revising, redux

12. July 2010 · 8 comments · Categories: e-books, writing · Tags: , , , ,

I’m getting lazy, or something, about working on the revisions. I haven’t touched it for a couple of days now. I find the idea of plugging in the USB drive I keep it on, opening the menu, finding the file, clicking “open” and waiting for Word to open, then trying to scroll down to wherever I left off too annoying. What I want to do is work on a hard copy, paper and ink, but the idea of burning through all that paper and ink (upwards of 300 pages) seems wasteful. That’s how writers used to do, it was the only way to do it, but in this electronic age, supposedly paperless society it just seems wrong, but like e-books, I can’t seem to stand having it only electronically. I just can’t get used to reading so much on the computer. My green, eco-friendly side is at war with my neurotic, writer side.

Am I Making Sense?

06. July 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: books, writing · Tags: , , ,

‘Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense.’

Mark Twain

I spend a great deal of time dissecting and shredding what I write if I don’t think it could actually happen in real life. But the reality is, life often doesn’t make sense. People do stupid things, irrational things, react illogically all the time. So why do we demand so much logic from fiction?

How often have you watched a tv show, or a movie, and groaned at something one of the characters did, thinking (or saying) “Oh come ON! Nobody would do that!”

Well, maybe they would. Yet when we encounter these incidents in fiction we often lose interest. It’s one thing if the author is purposely writing a character who parks in front of fire hydrants, or swallows their dental floss, but to have a character who doesn’t do the ‘right’ thing in every situation in a story is inexcusable. Sometimes people have a bad day, and they’d rather stay home and read a book than go to a big party (ok, maybe that’s not so much of a stretch for us writers. We can be a reclusive bunch). The only time you’re likely to see this in a fictional character is if the character is also some kind of social outcast, or unstable, unbalanced. These often descend into caricatures and stereotypes. The truth is, most people have aspects of all kinds of personality ‘types’ in them. Personally, I don’t hold with the whole Meyers-Briggs typecasting, anymore than I do the daily horoscopes in the paper. We all run the gamut of emotions, we have moments of brilliance and moments of utter foolishness, moments of bravery and shyness. People don’t always rise to the occasion, remember to put out the trash, use their best judgment.

I need to let my characters not listen to what they’re told, to go out at night when they should be home with the doors locked, have one too many drinks and wake up in a strange place. It won’t always make sense, but that’s the way it is.

And that’s the truth.

Imaginary Lands

20. June 2010 · 6 comments · Categories: books, writing · Tags: , , ,

‘The books one reads in childhood, and perhaps most of all the bad and good bad books, create in one’s mind a sort of false map of the world, a series of fabulous countries into which one can retreat at odd moments throughout the rest of life, and which in some cases can even survive a visit to the real countries which they are supposed to represent.’

George Orwell

Chenrezig
In my admittedly limited travels around the world, I have found there is much truth in this, that the few countries I’ve visited have differed in some respects from the images I had built up in my mind of how they were, based on books I had read about them. But how could they not?

When we read about a place, we get only bits and pieces of what that place may be like: an exotic bazaar filled with the smells of pungent spices and cooking, merchants loudly hawking their wares, oppressive heat, streets filled with bike-taxis. But no matter how many details the writer gives us, it’s still only a small portion of what that place may be like in real life, for the people who actually live there, day in and day out. Vacations tell only part of the story, and how can they not? You can’t really know a place in a quick two-week visit. Most vacationers see only the best parts of any place they stay, but for people who live and work there, who deal with the politics, the job market, housing prices, lack of social mobility, isolation, walking past the same weed-choked lots every day on their way to work, they probably wonder why anyone would pay to come and vacation in their town. I know I’m always surprised to hear people actually plan vacations to my city. I think, of all the wonderful, unusual, exciting places in the world, why would anyone come here for a vacation? I’d probably think the same thing if I lived in Manhattan (ok, maybe not Manhattan).

To live and exist in a place makes it look very different from someone who only comes for a short stay and spends the time doing the things most natives never get around to doing. Maybe it is a different place. I’ve never set foot on any local golf course, but we have a couple of world-class courses here that people actually deliberately travel here to play. I find that strange, but I know that to anyone not familiar with this area it could very well seem exotic to them. What is mundane to me could be remarkable in someone else’s eyes. Some of the books I read as a child (and even as an adult) are more real to me than some of the places I’ve actually been to, especially the ones I’ve read multiple times.

One of the stories I’m working on, which began life as a NaNoWriMo novel, is set in a location that is only partially known to me. I know the present day area, but I’m setting it in the past, and so much research and imagination is coming into play. The past is as exotic to me as an Indian bazaar. In the end, I want people to think they could still travel there, walk those streets, and look at the houses, and say, “Oh that must be her house!” Can I pull it off? Time will tell.

Averse v. Adverse

22. May 2010 · 12 comments · Categories: grammar, Uncategorized, writing · Tags: , , ,

A couple more words I see people mixing up all the time:

Averse and Adverse

While similar in some ways, they are not interchangeable. First, let’s look at averse.

According to Merriam-Webster online:

Function: adjective
Etymology: Latin aversus, past participle of avertere
Date: 1597

: having an active feeling of repugnance or distaste —usually used with to; averse to strenuous exercise

Ok, so it’s an adjective most of the time, such as in the usage above. This is when you don’t want to do something, like you’re averse to going to work on Monday morning (welcome to my world).

Now, adverse, again from Merriam-Webster online:

Function: adjective
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French advers, from Latin adversus, past participle of advertere
Date: 14th century

1 : acting against or in a contrary direction : hostile
2 a : opposed to one’s interests (an adverse verdict) (heard testimony adverse to their position); especially : unfavorable (adverse criticism) b : causing harm : harmful (adverse drug effects)
3 archaic : opposite in position

Also an adjective, but more in the sense of something outside you being bad for you, working against what you want.

The first is more what you feel about something, the second shows how something affects you (adversely).
Like your girlfriend will probably have an adverse reaction when you tell her you want to break up with her and start seeing her best friend. Good luck with that. Most people are averse to being dumped.

Most-Challenged Books of 2009

15. April 2010 · 24 comments · Categories: books, writing · Tags: , , , ,

“Even though not every book will be right for every reader, the ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values,” said Barbara Jones, director of the ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom. “Protecting one of our most fundamental rights – the freedom to read – means respecting each other’s differences and the right of all people to choose for themselves what they and their families read.”

As much as I have slagged on the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer (and I have done my share), I will also stand up and defend these same books as suitable for anyone who wants to read them. I may not enjoy the stories or the writing, but that is my choice. This is the first year Twilight has made the list, and the objections apparently encompass “Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group.” Since I haven’t read them in their entirety (bits and pieces, enough to convince me I had better things to do with my time), I don’t know what the religious objection is (Meyer is Mormon, but I don’t think there is any Mormon doctrine explicitly mentioned). Unsuited to age? What exactly are tweens (the target age group, ostensibly) supposed to be reading? The eleven and twelve-year-olds reading these books are on the cusp of the angst-ridden teen years, reading about other teens (even silly ones, vampire and werewolf teens) is exactly what they need to be reading.

J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is the most-challenged of the decade from 2000-2009, for “occult/Satanism.” I must have missed the Satanism when I read them, I’ll make another pass through and try to find it. And “anti-family” themes. Anti-family? Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon are strange and unusual, but they’re not unlike members of my own family. C’mon, who doesn’t have a relative (or three) they’d like to keep hidden in the family closet? Raise your hand… anybody? I loved the Weasley’s, I wish they’d adopt me. You couldn’t ask for a more loving, concerned, involved, tight-knit family.

Anyway, the top ten list (taken from the ALA Web site) for 2009 is:

1. “TTYL; TTFN; L8R, G8R (series), by Lauren Myracle
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs
2. “And Tango Makes Three” by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson
Reasons: Homosexuality
3. “The Perks of Being A Wallflower,” by Stephen Chbosky
Reasons: Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Anti-Family, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide
4. “To Kill A Mockingbird,” by Harper Lee
Reasons: Racism, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
5. Twilight (series) by Stephenie Meyer
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group
6. “Catcher in the Rye,” by J.D. Salinger
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
7. “My Sister’s Keeper,” by Jodi Picoult
Reasons: Sexism, Homosexuality, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Religious Viewpoint, Unsuited to Age Group, Drugs, Suicide, Violence
8. “The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big, Round Things,” by Carolyn Mackler
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
9. “The Color Purple,” Alice Walker
Reasons: Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group
10. “The Chocolate War,” by Robert Cormier
Reasons: Nudity, Sexually Explicit, Offensive Language, Unsuited to Age Group

If that’s not enough, check out the list for the Top 100 Most Banned/Challenged books for 2000 – 2009.

« Older articles