One sign of how much Sir Terry Pratchett's work affected this reader/writer that a day after his passing, I still tear up when I read others' tributes. His death has affected me more than that of any other writer I have admired--there's a sense of tremendous loss ( Read more... )

This past Sunday I was under the weather slightly, so I did what people like me do in these situations--I curled up with a good book. In my case, it was Terry Pratchett's Snuff, the latest entry in the Nightwatch group of Discworld novels, featuring Sam Vimes.


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There's  a special corner of my reading heart reserved for books that make me smile, and occasionally laugh out loud. Authors like Terry Pratchett, Eric Luper, and K.L. Going (in King of the Screw-Ups mode) fall into this category. Greg Taylor just joined them.


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Monday afternoon I finally finished the latest round of revisions on StT.

This time the pants fit, thanks to a great critique partner at the March Novel Writing Retreat. Laurie Miller made a suggestion that allowed me to cut the extra-large pants down to size--StT is finally under 300 pages. What I have now looks a lot like Katherine Hepburn:


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There's so much to be thankful for this week:

A wonderful novel-writing retreat that left me with numerous thoughts for improving StT as well as some craft advice I will carry with me permanently. The details are here.

The first robin.

Steam rising from sugarhouses, which means there'll be fresh maple syrup, and that daytime temperatures are now more ( Read more... )

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Thursday evening I did something I need to do more often--curl up with a good book during prime time. The book: Terry Pratchett's I Shall Wear Midnight, which I won from HarperTeen about a month ago. I'd been saving it for the perfect moment, because I wanted to be able to savor the end of the Tiffany Aching series. Tiffany appeals to me in the ( Read more... )

 For years I said my lucky number was 13, using the most sarcastic voice possible. I didn't win things. Sometimes I achieved things through a helluva lot of hard work. But I didn't win.

I can't really say that any more, because:

1) On September 1, I won a Speak Up T-shirt and a signed ARC of Chains from Laurie Halse Anderson, who is one of my writer ( Read more... )

I caught this non-meme on kellyrfineman and couldn't resist contributing the tour of the five fictional places I most wish were real.

1. The Chalk Country of Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching series.

2. Tolkien's Shire, which I don't think is far from the Chalk Country.

3. Georgette Heyer's Bath (she wrote the best Regency romances going, because she did her ( Read more... )

I have already posted about how much I love Terry Pratchett's Nation. One of my favorite lines comes at the end of a trial. Daphne, one of the two pov characters, thinks "No one stuck up their hands and there was no voting [...]. I wonder if it was like this in ancient Athens? This is pure democracy. People don't just get a vote; they have a say."

I ( Read more... )