The Girdle of Melian

nother Insecure Writers' Support Group day is upon us! Thank you for hosting us, Ninja Alex ! I've got three quotes as my IWSG offering this month: Here's some advice I got the other day from Anne Wheaton : Also came across this tip from Donald Maass : "In 20 minutes write a parody of your genre. Next compare it to your WIP. What's dead on? Uh-oh. Work to do." And this plotting tip : "What's the cheesiest plot device in novels in your category? Outdo, twist or reverse it." Last year, I thought I'd pledge myself to the Canadian Book Challenge , to read a book from every province and territory in Canada. I didn't actively go looking for books, but looking back now, I seem to have covered nearly half the country: British Columbia - Willow and Twig by Jean Little Alberta  - none New Brunswick - honourable mention to Before Green Gables by Budge Wilson , which takes place mostly in Nova Scotia, but mentions places in ...

oming in late on two blog tours... Last month a few bloggers hosted a John Keats blog tour ! It's hard to choose just one Keats poem to share. I visited his house in Hampstead over ten years ago, but only managed to take a couple of photos, and those not with a digital camera. On the same day, I walked across Hampstead Heath, and then had a drink at the Spaniard's Inn : Here are two Keats sonnets: Rereading these poems on the screen, instead of in a book, reminds me of something I came across the other day. Joe Hill was comparing books and ebooks on Twitter and noted that for some chapters in his new book, NOS4A2 : I hadn't thought of this angle before. It sort of dovetails into my discomfort with reading ebooks, when I can't get a sense of where in the novel I am (it's not just the page numbers - it's having a constant visual sense of what part of the book I've reached, when I can see all the pages at once in my hands). Not to me...

nd of this round of ROW80 ! I'm proud to be an ROW80er (and thanks to everyone who helped with the fundraiser for Lauralynn!). I shuffled my goals around quite a bit, but the idea was always to edit something . And I didn't do much of that. Last week, though, I was writing again! All thanks to the party we held over on the Forum: Writers' Houseparty Night at the Museum . There's no way to describe the madness and emotions that result from that, our 12th Houseparty to date (here's a list of all houseparties that have come before). I'm looking forward to reading our party story all over again this weekend (all 198,000 words of it. No, I am not making up that number. The length of two long novels (or one Diana Gabaldon novel), all written by a handful of authors), and pulling out all the interesting revelations and scenes on my characters, for use while editing my actual novel, Druid's Moon . Here are some fun Houseparty statistics: # of particip...

ight at the Museum! Featuring... The Tower of London, a spaceship crashing through the roof, monks , warriors , a veteran of World War I , a veteran of the Viet Nam war, a man cursed into Beast form, King Charles II , a race on a Ducati , a koala , a cave that leads to Australia , a talking garden gnome ... All of that, and more! Yup, the Writers' Houseparty is in full swing, and if I'm falling behind on blog comments that's the reason. Non-stop writing, creating, exploring, and making friends. Five of my characters are attending this round, including Kedi the cat . Here's a very brief snip, featuring two of my characters meeting another: The hair rose on the back of his neck, and before he could prevent it, all the Beast's senses were rushing to the forefront. He growled, deep in the back of his throat, and made to fling Len off. He'd pin him down, and then... well, his Mistress was always hungry. "Fred, what are you doing? Stop!" ...

an Marie - all unknowingly - gave me a great idea for today's Insecure Writers' Support Group Day! We've got an ongoing goals thread over at the writers' forum (where the character houseparty will start in just a few days!); Zan Marie is our current host, and she set a great theme this month: "June is a month of settling in for me--settling into summer, settling into warm and *hot* weather. So, I thought we'd settle into the middle of the year, by being good to ourselves. That's your theme -- What do you plan to do to be good to yourself? Do it just for you." This is exactly what I need to hear. I've been feeling inwardly guilty (I say inwardly because I haven't been reduced to flagellating myself in public - well, except for on the forum and here) for a month now that I haven't been meeting my main ROW80 goals of editing my novel and current short story. I've got two weeks left of this round, and I'm going to try ...