Posts

Showing posts from 2018

Anniversary of Summer Fire Publication Day!

Image
iatus! (thank you to Magali Studer for the drop cap!) Following my happy announcement from a few months ago, life has gotten extra busy! I'm going to be rerunning a few classic posts on the blog from now until January; I'll miss some Insecure Writer's Support Group posts and checking in for A Round of Words in 80 Days , though I may try to note some updates in comments. And my Books Read in 2018 post will likely be delayed! oday is publication day! The Dirty Bits from Carina Press "give you what you want, when you want it. Designed to be read in an hour or two," these "microromances are guaranteed to pack a punch and deliver a happily-ever-after." Summer Fire, on sale now ! " 'You know how it is with Canadians. We come alive in the summer.' Ayse had resigned herself to an interesting—but in the end unromantic—trip visiting family in Istanbul. Great-aunts, touristy sites and endless meals…until she meets fellow doct

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2014 (repost)

Image
iatus! (thank you to Magali Studer for the drop cap!) Following my happy announcement from a few months ago, life has gotten extra busy! I'm going to be rerunning a few classic posts on the blog from now until January; I'll miss some Insecure Writer's Support Group posts and checking in for A Round of Words in 80 Days , though I may try to note some updates in comments. And my Books Read in 2018 post will likely be delayed! is for zzzzzzz... We've reached the end of the A to Z Challenge ! Congratulations to all the participants; I think we all deserve a long nap, like the kitty in the drop cap. I shouldn't, though - I've got ROW80 goals to live up to! I'm still hoping to do a full day's writing marathon, and there are some great Ask Me Anything questions over at the Forum that I can use on my characters. Of course, it's not over till its over. I've got lots of blog visits to make and so many lovely comments to reply to! Thank

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2015 (repost)

Image
iatus! (thank you to Magali Studer for the drop cap!) Following my happy announcement from a few months ago, life has gotten extra busy! I'm going to be rerunning a few classic posts on the blog from now until January; I'll miss some Insecure Writer's Support Group posts and checking in for A Round of Words in 80 Days , though I may try to note some updates in comments. And my Books Read in 2018 post will likely be delayed! is for ze rest of ze list! For this year's A to Z Challenge I featured books I've read based on the Reading Challenge . Today's post details all the categories that didn't fit under A to Y! A book with more than 500 pages: The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas A classic romance: Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell A book that became a movie: The Human Comedy by William Saroyan A book written by someone under 30: Liza of Lambeth by Somerset Maugham A funny book: Flowers for Mrs Harris by Paul G

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2016 (repost)

Image
iatus! (thank you to Magali Studer for the drop cap!) Following my happy announcement from a few months ago, life has gotten extra busy! I'm going to be rerunning a few classic posts on the blog from now until January; I'll miss some Insecure Writer's Support Group posts and checking in for A Round of Words in 80 Days , though I may try to note some updates in comments. And my Books Read in 2018 post will likely be delayed! is for Z end of the list and the third and final part of the #TolkienCollection Photo Challenge ! Part one of the Tolkien photo challenge was under the letter K and answered the first seven questions. Part two of the Tolkien photo challenge was under the letter R and covered questions 8 through 14. Here's part three of the #TolkienCollection: 15. Item you consider to be a must-have for every collector -- authorised editions of the books, of course! I don't mind collecting other editions, but during my annual rereads I only eve

Blogging from A to Z Challenge 2017 (repost)

Image
iatus! (thank you to Magali Studer for the drop cap!) Following my happy announcement from a few months ago, the due date is fast approaching! I'm going to be rerunning a few classic posts on the blog from now until January; I'll miss some Insecure Writer's Support Group posts and checking in for A Round of Words in 80 Days , though I may try to note some updates in comments. And my Books Read in 2018 post will likely be delayed! ack in 2011, I held a week-long contest to celebrate the fact that I'd reached my 500th post , after nearly four years of blogging. At the time, I sorted many of my previous posts into groups, which made for easy referencing, especially of story material. (Also because I've never tagged my posts!) When I celebrated reaching my 1000th post during last year's A to Z Challenge there wasn't time to sort all the posts between 2011 and 2016. What better time than now? I’m actually going to go over 1,000, and collate all

Some of My Favourite Ending Lines From Novels (repost)

Image
iatus! (thank you to Magali Studer for the drop cap!) Following my happy announcement from a few months ago, the due date is fast approaching! I'm going to be rerunning a few classic posts on the blog from now until January; I'll miss some Insecure Writer's Support Group posts and checking in for A Round of Words in 80 Days , though I may try to note some updates in comments. And my Books Read in 2018 post will likely be delayed! avourite ending lines from novels! Here are some of mine, inspired by Malcolm Campbell's recent post, Some of my favorite ending lines from novels . I like especially his choice of Orwell, Milne, and Mitchell. Joyce's Ulysses was also one of the first to leap to my mind (impossible to quote the whole sentence, of course): "...and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wal

Kait Nolan's New Release! Also, New Mittens and Blog Plans Till January...

Image
iatus! (thank you to Magali Studer for the drop cap!) Following my happy announcement from a few months ago, the due date is fast approaching! I'm going to be rerunning a few classic posts on the blog from now until January; I'll miss some Insecure Writer's Support Group posts and checking in for A Round of Words in 80 Days , though I may try to note some updates in comments. And my Books Read in 2018 post will likely be delayed! Meanwhile, I've been reading some good books! One is a classic, Catalina by Somerset Maugham. The other is a new release by Kait Nolan ! "Just a fling," she said... Tess Peyton wanted to do something fun and reckless and wholly out of character. A steamy weekend with a Scotsman seems like a plan. When her Scotsman turns out to be a good Southern boy, that's a minor deviation. Then one night turns to two, two turns to more, and suddenly she knows she's in way over her head. This is why one should always

Goals for Fourth Round of ROW80, Wendy Mass, and the Novella is Complete!

Image
oals time already! (thanks to Magali Studer for the lovely drop cap!) We're entering the final round of A Round of Words in 80 Days (time flies when you look back!), so let's see how I did... Here are my goals for ROW80 Round Three , with the completed ones marked: Blog and craft-related goals mail completed craft projects -- done! complete current knitting project and send -- done! update list of books read catch up on blog comments! schedule advance posts for during vacation Open for guest posts! If anyone would like to write a guest post for this blog, please let me know! It's always fun having visitors, and exciting to see the comments coming in while I'm away. Current writing goals enter handwritten edits to first three chapters of Captive of the Sea and Out of the Water prepare synopsis and query letter for Captive of the Sea edit synopsis and query letter for Out of the Water enter handwritten edits to The Handful of Time (working t

ROW80, A Completed Project, and The Enchanted April

Image
ere's another knitting project I've completed! Besides the one or two projects that have sat on needles for too long now, and have no hope of ever being completed, this means I haven't any knitting in progress at the moment. I'd like to knit some mittens for winter, and start a great big ambitious Fairisle project, but we shall see. (Thank you to Magali for the drop cap!) Besides, that wasn't part of my original ROW80 goals! Here's sort of how I phrased my September goals on thelitforum : Things I think about: Knitting -- I have ideas for two new projects, and one project that's almost completed. No pressure on this goal [g] Editing -- two novels ( The Handful of Time , Captive of the Sea ) still need to be worked on. Plus there's that short story anthology idea... Not a priority right now! Writing -- I should still be plotting Amelie's story in preparation for NaNoWriMo, but all I'm really doing is writing the new novel

ROW80 and Insecure Writer's Support Group Day: Traditional Publishing

Image
super quick post today, as things have suddenly gotten extra busy... Thanks again to illustrator Magali Studer for the drop cap! Today is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! The optional question for this month is: What publishing path are you considering/did you take, and why? I've always considered traditional publishing, because I grew up in the era when self-publishing meant a fanzine photocopied at your parent's office or a book you'd had printed through an author-gouging vanity publisher. The landscape has changed enormously since then! I think self-publishing is an amazing option nowadays, for those who wish to control the entire process, and are able to employ the right editors, designers, copy editors, and so on that can help them get the book finalized. Self-published or traditionally published, there's nothing like the formal editing process for making a manuscript shine. I've been thinking all year of self-publishing a mini

ROW80, Handywoman by Kate Davies, A New Film, and Kill Your Darlings

Image
am experimenting with a new drop cap today, from a gorgeous alphabet by a Swiss designer! I've got three recommendations to share, of a book, a film, and a blog post on how to kill your darlings (a phrase from Stephen King). The book is Handywoman by Kate Davies "Paralysed by a stroke at the age of 36, Kate Davies' world turned upside-down. Forced to change direction, Kate took a radical new creative path. Handywoman tells this story. This is not a book about Kate's triumph over adversity. Rather, it is her account of the ordinary activities and everyday objects that stroke and disability made her see differently. From braiding hair for the first time to learning how to knit again; from the lessons of a working-class creative childhood to the support of the contemporary knitting community; from the transformative effects of good design to developing a new identity as a disabled walker; in this engaging series of essays, Kate describes how th

ROW80 Update and the Mediterranean Monk Seal

Image
uick post! And quick ROW80 update, too. Mainly because I've dropped most everything else and am forging ahead on the short story/novella I started a couple of weeks ago (original 900+ word version is in my previous post below). Here are a few of the inspirational images I've collated on Pinterest: And here's a brief snip, added to the story since my last post: A hand reached down to take the snorkel, leaving me free to swing onto the ladder and climb up. It was Justin. He stood off to the side as I clambered onto the deck. I wrapped a towel around myself, debating. But there was nothing for it; I wanted to show off my photos and he was the only one not dozing in the sun or splashing around in the water on the other side of the boat. I could smell sizzling grilled meat and peppers, and one of the crew was laying a table for lunch. “I saw a seal,” I said casually. “Are you sure?” His question caught me off guard, and I paused in the act of swinging the camera

WEP: My First Flash Fiction for WEP!

Image
ummertime! I haven't been quite working on my ROW80 goals, as it's very hot around here at the moment, but I have been writing, so not entirely prostrate and lazy with the heat. I've just written a short story that evolved from the August Writer's Exercise on the Forum , and it happens to fit the parameters of this month's Write...Edit...Publish challenge! Here are the details of both: Forum exercise: This month "we will write a travel-account, either based on a diary, an essay, a travel journal or a letter or a series of postcards. This is meant to be a fun exercise, so there are two options to choose from. A fictional type of travel-writing. Here I will give those who choose this option the name of a character. You'll take this character, imagine who he/she is and what they are like, and then you will send them on holiday. You can pick any style of travel writing you like: letters, essay, postcards, a literary account of the travel. It ca

On Vacation

Image
n vacation. I'm not, really. But work is very busy and it's very hot out. I'm not quite meeting my ROW80 goals, but I've just written a new short story! I'm busy editing it, and hope to share a form of it next week, as part of the August Write...Edit...Publish challenge! Here's a wee teaser: When Amelie asked if I wanted to join her and a bunch of her friends on holiday in Turkey, I was all for it. The starting year of uni was tough. I was proud to be the first in my family to go to university, and really proud that I'd got into Oxford. But the work was hard, my English wasn't always good enough, and the Portuguese-speaking community was small. And there was no one else from Brazil in my year. Then I met Amelie at a salsa class, and things got better. She was friends with everyone! And the Turkey trip was going to be excellent. Then I found out that her boyfriend was coming along. What do you think will happen next?