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Tag Archives: writing
Nov
16
Half Baked
If you know me, you know I love meringue cookies. (And if you know that, you know I’ve got my recipe for them here, so feel free to steal it.) Making these cookies is a lot like an act of love. They take forever to mix. Forever to make. And if you deviate from the recipe, chances are they’re going to flop. (They might still taste okay, but the presentation will not be so good.) Writing is a lot like baking, I think…not just about the words on the page, but also when it comes time to ask for critiques or beta reads. I’ve seen a few posts over the last few days from writers asking how they know things are done. (Jeffe Kennedy had a good one – go check it out.). And maybe you don’t always know, but there are stages to it, I think. 1) The raw,…
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Oct
4
Skin Deep
It’s an interesting thing, being the parent of a child of mixed race. Genetics are so peculiar in how they take form …and how those results influence how we’re perceived…and how we perceive ourselves. To be honest, it hasn’t really been anything I’ve thought about on any intrinsic level until the other night when Lucy wanted to know why she wasn’t white. I’m Irish – a pale, freckly mess with sorta brownish/reddish hair. Mr myn is half-Chinese, though he looks more than merely half to me. My children are split right down the middle. Connor looks just like me- pale skin, brown hair, hazel green eyes – you really wouldn’t know he was Asian at all. Lucy has almond eyes, straight hair, and lovely golden skin. (I’m rather jealous of it, frankly – the sun adores her. Connor and I step outside for 5 minutes and fry.) But it’s not…
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Aug
9
Grains of Truth
We walked in silence for several blocks, my feet knowing the way back without my having to think about it. Past the pawnshop and the Bagel Café, Fiddler’s Green Fine Irish Gifts and the Opera Alley where the buskers performed. A glass player sat there tonight, perched behind a table full of elegant crystal, his fingers nimbly plying his trade. It was late enough that most of the shops were closed, but we moved through the waning crowds without issue, the vibrato of the glass music echoing eerily between the buildings as we walked. The thing about writing fantasy, particularly urban fantasy, is that parts of it have to be rooted in reality – if only to give the reader something to anchor to. Something about having a mental base of operations makes it easier to accept the fantasy elements, I think. I will admit when I wrote BoD I didn’t…
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Aug
3
Collaborative Effort
One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about writing is writing with other people. I’ll admit I’ve never done it on a professional level, but gaming online in Play by Post games certainly lends itself well to the situation. You learn how to think on your feet and also how to “play well with others.” (Most of the time, anyway. Sometimes it can lead into a realm of frustration and occasionally it breaks up a friendship, but I’d like to think that’s more an exception than a rule.) It’s been a while since I’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with anyone and I sort of miss it. In the beginning of A Brush of Darkness, there’s a bit of a snarky commentary about a certain romance book involving a French vampire (complete with flowing silk shirts and all the rest of it.) I can admit I was poking fun at the trope…
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Jul
22
Wherever I Wander
I told myself I wasn’t going to look at anything writing-wise for at least a week or so. But I’m a big liar, apparently. (I write fiction, so I guess that goes with saying.) Still. I cracked open the 20k I’ve written for BoD3 this morning – partially just to see if I was completely off base with it, and partially to check out that first chapter since I’m going to need it as teaser material for the end of A Sliver of Shadow. (Guess I’m going to need a new title here too, soon. And I still have to title for the series as a whole. Bad, bad author.) I was actually pleasantly surprised. It’s always a good sign when you run out of pages and you’re like “Why did I stop here?? Where’s the rest?” Not that it doesn’t need tweaking, but if the first chapter stays where…
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