The Girdle of Melian

IP to Tim Conway and Doris Day, who passed away this week.

Within the last year of blogging, we've lost William Goldman, Scott Walker, and Dolores O'Riordan. I haven't compiled my RIP posts in a while, maybe I'll set that as a project for another day. I can add it to my lists...

The other day I splurged on some fancy sticky note stationery by Knock Knock, including a To Do list notepad, and an Awesome notepad:


Drool...

I'm still hacking away at my scene for the May writing exercise on the Forum (fly-by ROW80 update!), but meanwhile, there are two new books out this month!

Dancing Away With My Heart by Kait Nolan, part of the Wishful series:


"Reunion Prom? Is this really a thing?

In Wishful it is. Lexi Morales never imagined her life would turn into the premise for an 1980s teen movie. But when her big high school trauma hit like a ton of bricks, she spent the next decade trying to hide the truth. After years of careful avoidance, she's back in town to care for…

hoto post today!


I thought I might cross post some of the photos I've been sharing on my instagram feed:



Flaubert, a postcard from Julian Barnes
The Inklings at the Eagle and Child, Oxford


Finding out which season you are, thanks to Carol Jackson...


A Georgian wine jug
Homemade pudding!


The oldest extant document in Founex, 1610
That upper one is a shot from the cover of Summer Fire!
I've been procrastinating on my ROW80 goals. My main excuse is that I'm finally reading the Song of Ice and Fire series. And I cannot put it down...

If you have any tips for getting work done when you're feeling lazy, please share!

es, it's Insecure Writer's Support Group Day again!

I'm not feeling too insecure about my writing at the moment, but I do feel weird for blogging into a void lately. I have simply not had time for real visits and comments, and at this point, I probably won't until I've graduated (maybe next summer!).

I love this month's IWSG Day Question: What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?

I've blogged about my first story before, and my use of the acronym TP, and Tolkien's great, green dragon. I'll repost it below. Actually, that old post (from 2008!) about how I started writing, is quite interesting. I've written so many novels and short stories since then and, as I noted in the post, have "gone all the way" on quite a few of them. Meaning I've edited them fully and sent them out on queries (and even had one published!).

On days when I feel slow, or lazy, or as if the current novel will never be whipped into s…

ive revisited!

I first did the Friday Five in 2010:

Here’re the rules: Answer 5 questions 5 times and then tag 5 people to play.

Question 1: Where were you 5 years ago?
(my answers span the summers of 2004-2006)
On vacation in England and Scotland and Wales and Turkey
Planning my wedding
Reading Diana Gabaldon’s books for the first time
Joining the Compuserve Books and Writers Community
Starting to write again after not having had any inspiration for a couple of years!

Question 2: Where would you like to be 5 years from now?
In a new house, possibly by the water, possibly in another country
Possibly with a puppy, which my cats will get along with
A gardener (I can’t say ‘a better gardener’ because I’m not any kind of gardener at the moment.)
With an agent! And with a book deal!
A regular attendee at the Surrey International Writers’ Conference – and meeting some of my forum and blog friends

Question 3: What 5 things are (were) on your to-do list today?
Comment on blogs posts and put up a…

his week in history...

The RMS Titanic sank, on 14 April 1912.



Our last writers' houseparty, back in January, was set on the Titanic.

I ended up with over 25,000 words at this party (not my highest houseparty word count ever!). This was the first time since maybe the first handful of houseparties that I didn't bring characters from a WiP, or a novel I was editing, or with specific story and character questions I needed answers to.

I brought Brother Arcturus, Austin, and Kedi.

Austin and Kedi have attended every houseparty ever held. Austin started off as a YA character, and as he grew, was the only one of my characters not involved in a romance.

That all changed at the writers' houseparty set in San Francisco in 1865, when he met Barb, a character of another author. They were 15 at the time. Austin kept her in his thoughts, but was unable to act on his feelings at the Grand Finale writers' houseparty, at 20, because she was married.

He arrived on the Titanic at the age…