I love the information and the humor of this blog entry. I’ve always been intrigued by the nuances of language, but don’t have the discipline (or time) to truly understand how English developed and how to approach it with historical accuracy. I know far too many inappropriate words sneak into my writing. I appreciate all you kind folks who put up with them.
Author: leedunning
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Folktales in Fantasy
As if the average writer doesn’t already have too many story ideas on their plate (or should that be writing pad?)! But I do love the idea of mixing up both real history with myth and folklore.
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Book stuffing, KU reads, and Amazon’s Doing Something
I am so pitifully naive. It never occurred to me that people would do this sort of thing. It seems like no matter how cool an item is, someone out there is ready and willing to corrupt it.
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MICE is Nice: Character Stories
I think my stuff is definitely character driven. I cannot claim to have had anyone speak to me from my backseat before,though. And I must also admit, that in general, I am too absorbed in whatever I’m doing to notice people around me enough to consider giving them stories. I’m more likely to get ideas/characters from stories. I once developed a character, and an entire book, around the Fleetwood Mac song, “Rhiannon”.
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A rejection is an opinion, not a death sentence (part one)
Doing a workshop like this would a be both a nightmare and a dream come true. Reading about the experience takes away some of the uncertainty. Still, scary, is a word I think aptly applies. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t do it in a heartbeat if the time, money and opportunity presented itself. What’s a challenge without a little scary to help with the motivation?
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The Soft Sciences
This article had me at the silly kitty picture. The guy the image is based on only wishes he looked so cute.
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Blurb Clinic
I need to reread and reread and reread this piece. And then I need to try to apply her lessons to my own horrible copy. I pretty much break every rule.
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The Grim and The Bright
I’m reposting this for a couple of reasons—one Jason touches on some points concerning YA that have annoyed me some myself. Two, I did the covers for the new series he’s plugging.
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Of Potatoes and Deer
Titles are difficult things. The one right above this article should make plain I am very poor with coming up with catchy titles. I simply thought to myself, what has been going on? Well, there’s been deer, and potatoes. Yeah, that will work. Whatever.
One of the reasons I wanted to move to Oregon was to get away from the world of concrete I’d been inhabiting for almost 30 years and turn into a pseudo-hermit in the middle of a forest surrounded with wildlife and plants. Also, I wanted to get away from the friggin’ heat. It’s supposed to get over 100°F next week. So much for that.
However, the wildlife part has happened. We have giant fluffy squirrels, ravens, stellar jays, the occasional raccoon, bobcat and of course, deer. Right now there is a doe with two fawns roaming about the area. She has finally deigned to allow another doe and a young male to join her. They were settled in a glade near my house yesterday having a little deer picnic. They also think my potato plants are tasty.
See how that works? Through great effort I managed to meld the two topics together. Okay, it didn’t really take that much work. But back to potatoes.
The growing season in the neck of the woods is limited at best. The chap down the street told me that potatoes and onions grow well, though. I immediately got some onion and potato starts and did a half-assed job of setting up a mini farm. In other words, I dug a shallow rut in the dirt and stuck my onions in and hoped for the best. The potatoes I planted in large seven gallon fabric bags. Once I added some decent soil they went gang busters. The onions…not so much. I finally got another bag and moved a few onions over to it. They’re looking a bit more impressive now, but my hopes of onions the size of my cat’s head seem unlikely to go fulfilled.
The giant plants that people keep mistaking for tomatoes are in truth the potato plants. One of them has some flowers. Shows how little I know—I didn’t realize they got flowers. The rest of the plants are in various stages of bushiness based on how many leaves the deer decided to nibble. I don’t mind sharing. The part I want is under the soil anyway. At least I hope it is. I might be growing giant tops and no actual root vegetables for all I know. I guess I’ll find out in another month or so. Should have bought the bags that have side flaps so I could peek at the goings one without disturbing the entire plant. I know, patience grasshopper.
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Fractured Mirrors and the Point of Pain
I’ve never really analyzed my writing on the level ‘accordingtohoyt’ attempts here. I think as a living breathing person it’s inevitable that a piece of yourself shows up in your writing. We all have codes and belief systems of one sort or another and they play out in bits and pieces amid our characters. If those items happen to resonate with a reader, it can raise that particular book to a higher level for that individual. If we as writers are lucky, more than one or two people see themselves in the work and the book as a whole becomes something more than a few hours of escapism.