Jan
22

Perception

Posted in craft, david garrett, writing | 1 Comment
Forgive me the utter fangirlishness of this post, if you will. This morning has been a rather wretched affair of unanswered emails as I discovered that my “real” website had been suspended, even though I just paid the host for another 6 months of service. I have yet to get a single reply except that they have forwarded my issue to billing. But that was 8 hours ago, and I refuse to fuck around with my hosting, so I’ve dumped them and found a new one. Let’s just hope DNS kicks in quick enough that I don’t lose too much email. *ahem* Anyway, so about this whole perception thing. Yes, in looking at the picture there, it seems pretty harmless. Just a hand holding a violin. And I’ll admit, I’m dreadfully ignorant about how one actually holds a violin. Maybe that actually is how you do it, and I’m just… Read more
Jan
16

Keep it Real

Posted in craft, research, writing | 7 Comments
There’s a reason I will probably never write a historical romance. I have little time for doing the large amount of research required to pull off something satisfactorily accurate – i.e. Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series. Say what you will about the last book, but the woman does her homework, and part of what makes her books satisfying is that particular care to the small details, and the way they’re woven into the everyday life of the characters. There aren’t information dumps – people just do what they do. However, I’m running through some contest entries at the moment – some of them have a  more historical bent and what’s really getting to me is just how little research is being done on them. I don’t know if that’s because the writer assumes the romance part of the story is going to just carry the reader through (and I suppose in some cases,… Read more
Jan
14

Can I Write Your Stories for You?

Posted in craft, writing | 2 Comments
Not that I think my husband is planning my demise or anything, but at dinner last night we were discussing what happened when an author passed away and left a series unfinished. And of course, I suppose in some cases, nothing happens at all and the story dies with the mind that thought it up. If it’s a particularly popular story and the publisher can find a trusted writer to continue it, then they do so – a la Robert Jordan. Jordan died before finishing his 20 plus year writing saga Wheel of Time, but his wife and Brandon Sanderson are working off his notes to finish it. (The first of the last 3 books has been published thus far). Now, I stopped reading Jordan’s works years ago. I like a good, thick series, I really do, but after a while I just got tired of it. Each book seemed… Read more
Jan
9

Corners and Scenes and WTF Do I Do Now?

Posted in craft, updates, writing | 5 Comments
Not that I’ve actually written myself one, that is. Just a bit of a speed bump on the writing front.  I’ve been clipping along at a fair enough rate on ShadowWeaver, but it’s quite obvious to me that I’m starting to flounder a bit with the direction, so I need to regroup the end bits of what I have. The current scene involves a road trip – essentially a Mystery Machine of a van rambling its way down the New Jersey Turnpike. And Phin appears to be belting out Rick Springfield’s Jessie’s Girl. (And no, I don’t know why – but there it is.) I think originally I wanted the trip to take two days of driving, but as I look it back over, I’m not sure it warrants that. Part of the problem is that I never really settled on just where the imaginary town of Portsmyth is located.… Read more
Dec
23

Originality

Posted in archetypes, craft, writing | 4 Comments
I got a rather frantic email yesterday from a friend who was a bit panicked over the the possibility that one the names of her characters was very similar to the name of a different character in someone else’s work. She asked me what she should do about it, and what I did to ensure my writing was original. Did I Google names? Plots? Characters? I decided to think about it for a bit and reply to her here. The truth of the matter is that it really *has* all been done before. Even not counting that Hollywood seems determined to do nothing but remake movies based off of previously existing movies, the same could probably be said of many of the books and stories out there. Part of this can be explained via the market. If you’re out to make money, than it makes sense that you would produce… Read more