While scrolling through my blog cue today, I noticed two very good blogs that talk about why stories work and why they don’t. Both posts look at how to approach plotting, coming to similar, but slightly different conclusions. Each has me thinking about my current stories and how I approach them. Hopefully, you find them helpful as well.

Carrie ( Read more... )

Reality has been kicking my ass lately, but I’m managing to get a few swings in finally. Bits and pieces of life are starting to fall into place, resembling at least an amalgamation of order.

The sun dappled through the trees as I took my run this weekend, a little more warmly than I would normally like, but it was lovely out nonetheless. Since ( Read more... )

In October of this year, I traveled to Italy and along the way bought myself a $300 Italian leather jacket. It was a huge expense for me, more money than I probably should have spent. But the jacket was gorgeous and fit me perfectly and came with a wonderful little story, and I didn’t once feel any regret about the purchase.

I came home and showed ( Read more... )

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Goodness, it seems it’s been almost two whole months (!) since I’ve last posted a Monday Update. During that time I have completed next to no writing and, while I have been doing my weekly training at the gym, my running days have been sporadic at best. Since all my traveling is done for the year, I’m planning on hoping back on the wagon and ( Read more... )

Trigger Warning: mention of violence and rape.

Another Fair Warning: This post contains spoilers for a couple of movies, including the Riddick, which released this year.

I loved Pitch Black (2000). The story involves a ship full of passengers that crash lands on an unknown planet. As they are trying to find their way off this world, they discover ( Read more... )

First, I present to you some Link Soup.

• Poets might be interested to learn that submissions are open for a Mermaid Anthology from Sundress Publications that is “interested in poems that push the mermaid myth and figure into a new light. Submissions should not simply retell the mermaid and her classic story but establish new facets in which to read ( Read more... )

A Brief Aside, or, There's This Cool Thing on the Web (not the sticky, stringy thing in the corners, but the electronic aether upon which you are reading this): Liz Argall posted a delightful blog post, "Jealousing is the new writing exercise":

When I get professionally jealous it’s often an exciting thing. “Wow! I never thought of doing that, ( Read more... )

1. So, rose_lemberg and shweta_narayan have been posting lately about their work as co-editors of Stone Telling and how submitters and others often address their initial emails to only Rose Lemberg, thus erasing Shweta Narayan's role in the publication. Both have provided several great posts on the subject, but most importantly, this post on gaze: "Unlike intent, which ( Read more... )

I love movies ( Read more... )