The Girdle of Melian

allace! Alfred Russel Wallace, that is. I've been volunteering with the Wallace Correspondence Project for over a year now. "This ongoing project, currently funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and based at the Natural History Museum, London, aims to locate, digitize, transcribe and interpret all surviving letters to and from the great 19th century naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913). Wallace has many claims to fame, not least that he is the 'father' of evolutionary biogeography and the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the process of evolution by natural selection . For more information about his life and work CLICK HERE . Our policy is to make scans of Wallace's letters available to users via the project's online database" - and this database,  Wallace Letters Online , was launched last month! Meanwhile, today is Insecure Writers Support Group Day! I'm going to be a little more insecure than usual this month. Especially...

OW80 has not been going so well this week. I slacked off on both editing days (I was trying to catch up on a knit gift) and then finally managed a couple of hours on my 'off' day, Thursday (love my schedule!). Except that, instead of typing up the missing scenes, or moving ahead with the on-screen editing, I printed the MS and tried to start reading it from the beginning. Oops. Ended up with a Slash 'n' Burn of the first two chapters. Just when you think a scene is done and dusted, your realise your major flaw has come out to shine again: how to make the reader care about the main characters? Anyone have any tips about how to achieve reader empathy from the start? Claire Legrand is having a cover reveal week ! I debated sharing a screenshot here, but that won't do it justice. You've got to go over and see the cover of The Year of Shadows for yourselves. Plus, there are prizes! [Public service announcement: I've gotten an update on the Perrott...

are we halfway through this round of ROW80 yet? I feel as though I've hit the middle point, mainly because I have some scenes to type up, which rather dissipated the editing-on-screen flow I had going. By which I mean, I missed editing night on Monday. I knit instead, so if I edit on Thursday, it'll all balance out. I love my schedule and want to stick to it; this was a case of letting my head cold (sick again ? since when does this happen to me?) act as a procrastination excuse, when I'd already had the entire weekend off to do nothing but read. There's never enough time for reading! I just donated to save Perrot's Folly , a Tolkien landmark in Birmingham. I've driven past this building, but I'm hoping that by the time of my next visit to the UK, it'll be open to the public: Lookit! Steampunk wallpaper ! I like this one because of the tentacle , reminiscent of the 'mistress' in my story Druid's Moon : Does anyone else ...

earning something new every day is so much fun! I've learned a few new words from reading lots of Josephine Tey this past week. Love her Englishness and mystery and the gentle wittiness of her characters. And thanks to India Drummond 's recent post on learning, I've discovered that a moment is actually a real unit of time; a medieval unit equal to 90 seconds! India also quoted Heinlein : "A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly." In keeping with my how many books from which countries have I read question, let's see what I've got from the above list: I can : write a sonnet (with help from Stephen Fry ), balance accounts, t...

ne of the first poems I memorised was Robert Burns' A Red, Red Rose : O my Luve's like a red, red rose That's newly sprung in June; O my Luve's like the melodie That's sweetly play'd in tune. As fair art thou, my bonnie lass, So deep in luve am I: And I will luve thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry: Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun: I will luve thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run. And fare thee well, my only Luve And fare thee well, a while! And I will come again, my Luve, Tho' it were ten thousand mile. I've memorised a few because I loved them so much; this one was initially memorised for school, though I do like it. I can't remember why this poem, though. Did I choose it? Did a teacher pick it for me? Later on I had to learn Blake's Tyger Tyger , as well. Which poems have you memorised and how did you select them? This Friday is Burns' D...

ink love! I missed out on so much blogging while I was sick that I've got a backlog of visits and commenting to do. I thought I'd take you with me... First up, the Word Wenches - authors Jo Beverley, Nicola Cornick, Cara Elliott/Andrea Penrose, Anne Gracie, Susan Fraser King/Sarah Gabriel, Mary Jo Putney, Patricia Rice, and Joanna Bourne - answer the question: " Do you get angsty and anxious at any part of the writing process? And, if you do, does it make you more productive?" I love Jo Bourne's line: " The only cure for the pain of writing is writing ." Lots of cover art reveals recently, including India Drummond and Melanie Macek ! Have you seen any others? Please share! The fifth issue of Vine Leaves Literary Journal is out! Has anyone ever applied to Clarion West ?: I thought I was going to, but now I'm not sure any of my current stories qualify. Unfortunately. I posted about our snowstorm the other day; now we're hav...

h, hello. *looks around blearily* I think I've forgotten how to blog. Between the nearly full week of illness, coming as it did following the holidays, during which I had a lot of wonderfully scheduled-in-advance posts, and the trying to keep to my editing schedule despite the illness, I've lost the knack of blabbing on the blog. Though I am pleased to report that the editing is progressing on Druid's Moon . Haltingly in some cases - I might have hit the dreaded middle - but soon the Beast shall be revealed to Beauty, and then there will be lots of dialogue and interaction and "what do we do now" conversations to play with. Then the finale, and then the denouement (which I don't think I've written yet!). Hoping to be ready to write the synopsis by end-February. About the only thing I could hold up while ill (didn't even read until the third day, I was that weak) was my iPod, so I was on Twitter quite a bit. Yes, there were cat photos . Than...