Research is a big part of "getting it right" on paper when we want our fiction to feel real, but no one warns us that research can be everything from a momentary time suck to a brand new obsession. I've found myself in the library neck-deep in Encyclopedias of Victoriana and etiquette books just to get the tone of a period piece right, let alone ( Read more... )

Last week I learned that the word "cupcake" makes the entire Twitterverse perk up their ears and start waxing melodic about the virtues of tiny round cakes with bright-colored frosting and sprinkles.


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Do you know about Simon's Cat by Simon Tofield? If not, you should. It's seven brilliant little snippets that are seven kinds of awesome. It's one talented artist's rendition of what a cat is truly like. This was his first film, an experiment with Flash (and my personal favorite), and the above link shows how this grew into an Internet sensation ( Read more... )

Many people are posting their fondest Christmas memories and I thought I might join in.

( Memories of Christmas )

Lines of geese fly across my window like skips in a record, the last black scratches until the coming Spring. There are faint echoes of gunshots - the last report of the season - from somewhere in the dense thicket in the woods beyond the yard. That is also where the deer hide, and the ducks, as well as yipping packs of lean-bodied coyote whose ( Read more... )

I love things that make me smile. Spontaneous, silly, reality-bending things that jump-start the day and stick with me a long time and remind me that, hey, this is a pretty cool thing called Life ( Read more... )

For some unknown reason, I got this on my mind:

Ginger Snaps,


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Twas a Halloween Event and all through the store,
Not a person suspected that there was much more
Than goblins and witches and ninjas about --
But, in fact, a game brewing
Where book characters got out!

It was somewhere in the midst of my crack-down (or crack-up) slamming out edits in order to make a deadline which then proved less dead, (which ( Read more... )

You know what I'm talking about if you've seen the movie Amélie. There are certain silly things she likes and certain silly things she doesn't. If you don't know what I'm talking about, click here (not embedded in this post for spoilers, smirks, and adult content ( Read more... )

I would write more, but I'm doing revisions and easily distracted. Here's my thought of the morning:

Even masochists say "ow" when they stub their toe.

Discuss. ;-)