The delightful Wendy Van Camp interviewed me on her blog, NO WASTED INK. What did we talk about? Inspiration, style, chocolate… All the important stuff. I hope you’ll hop over and visit — we love comments!
A Drift of Quills: Ruling the World!
A Drift of Quills delves into ruling the world: What things or words can our magic worlds not include?
Five Good Things
I’m a little late getting this post written and going — and I have a good excuse! It is not book-related, but I’ll write about it soon. Look for the update in two weeks, on September 11th. In the meantime, here are some recent good reads in the Blog World: Pacing Your Stories http://mythcreants.com/blog/55-pacing-your-stories/ How stories should be paced: the good, the bad, and the infuriatingly slow. Teacher Creates Harry Potter-Themed Classroom Of Our Dreams http://www.babble.com/parenting/teacher-creates-harry-potter-themed-classroom-of-our-dreams/ Middle-school teacher Stephanie Stephens has become an Internet sensation after her Harry Potter-themed classroom went viral. Read Tomorrow’s Best-Sellers Today http://www.inkitt.com Enjoy curated stories […]
Book Review: Transformation, by Carol Berg
I have been on a quest to find and read single point of view fantasy books. My own work in progress is written with a single POV, so yes, I have a vested interest — but I also wanted to take a step away from epic fantasy with a horde of characters. Transformation (Book One of the Rai Kirah), by Carol Berg, came highly recommended on many sites and forums. The blurb intrigued me. Seyonne is a man waiting to die. He has been a slave for sixteen years, almost half his life, and has lost everything of meaning to […]
Naming Names
Good news! The first draft of the first book of my new fantasy series is done! I finished a few days ago; you may have heard me whooping with glee. Nicholas Sparks says that “Writing the last page of the first draft is the most enjoyable moment in writing.” It is pretty marvelous. But then we have Ernest Hemingway proclaiming, “The first draft of anything is $#@%,” and I have to laugh, because in this case that’s true, too. My manuscript is peppered with comments and notations I must edit. Some of them are easy fixes (NameThisGuy), and some of […]
Books We Love (#4)
Welcome to the Friday Feature of our Fantasy writers group, A Drift of Quills! We are back again with some book love to share with you! When I was a little girl, about ten years old, one of my book-loving big sisters (Hi, Diana!) gave me the book Scarlet Sails, by Alexander Green/Grin (Aleksandr Stepanovich Grinevskii in his native Russia). I knew nothing at all of his popularity in his country and would probably not have been impressed at such a tender age. Nothing about the book cover lured me to explore between the covers. But… it was a book. […]
Challenges, Schedules, Accountability
I recently received a nice (as in beneficial) kick in the caboose. Challenges, schedules, accountability — These are all good things for you. And really good for writers! I’ve got to confess that my time management skills are terrible. In spite of the glorious sense of intoxication that came with publishing As the Crow Flies, I immediately fell out of the habit of writing regularly. Again. That’s not to say I haven’t been writing at all. You may remember that cleeeeaar back in February I noted that I was re-working the outline of my WiP (as opposed to the writing of […]
Pioneer Day and Finish Lines
In my neck of the woods, today is a Big Deal. Pioneer Day is an official holiday for the state of Utah, and some of the regions in surrounding states originally settled by Mormon pioneers have celebrations, too. The holiday commemorates the arrival of Brigham Young and the first Mormon pioneers into Utah’s Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Between Pioneer Day and Independence Day, we pretty much party all month. There are parades, concerts, barbecues, pancake breakfasts, reenactment treks, retail sales, and rodeos. And fireworks. Oooooh, yeah. Once upon a time folks would just set off their fireworks whenever they […]
Chocolate Fix: Black Bean Brownies
I’m a little excited. It’s time for another Chocolate Foray, and I looooove chocolate. (In case you hadn’t figured that out yet.) Black Bean Brownies. I know, I know, they sound weird and suspiciously healthy. I can’t really vouch for the “health” quality except that there is chocolate in them and chocolate is the other food group. Beans are good for you. There is also applesauce. The original recipe didn’t call for it, but the original also turned out very, very dry. Eww. Applesauce makes these kind of gooey and fudgey. And there’s chocolate, of course. ÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷÷ Black Bean Brownies […]