The Girdle of Melian

any new books coming out! J. C. Martin's hosting an Olympics for her new release, Oracle : Talli Roland's Christmas story Mistletoe in Manhattan is up on Goodreads ! And... drum roll... E. J. Wesley's having a cover reveal party this week! *** Blood Fugue , Moonsongs Book 1 by E.J. Wesley Cover Reveal Party Author E.J. Wesley is throwing a blog party to celebrate the release of his new book cover and wants you to join in the fun. Jump over to his blog to learn about how you can win some awesome prizes, including $50 toward a cover of your own and advance reader copies of Blood Fugue. The Rocking Cover! Cover work by Sketcher Girl, LLC What's the Story About? "Some folks treated the past like an old friend. The memories warmed them with fondness for what was, and hope for what was to come. Not me. When I thought of long ago, my insides curdled, and I was left feeling sour and wasted." Jenny Schmidt is a young ...

orgot to mention that my last post was my 700th blog post! I've got a pile of writing-related stuff to take care of, not least revising my query, but I'm thinking of adding something more to my plate: The Virtual Surrey International Writers' Conference ! Surrey screenshot! It wouldn't be an official event, not affiliated with SIWC in any way. Just an informal hang out at the Compuserve Books and Writers Community for all those unable to attend the actual SIWC. I'm hoping to feature some Master Classes, Blue Pencil sessions, Q and A... I've got to get cracking on the organization. What features would you like to see at such an event? *** Have you tried going from The Shire to Mordor on Google Maps ? *** I won a first-five-pages critique from Susan Kaye Quinn ! Hope she likes my story... Meanwhile, it's late 80s/early 90s revival time! I'm going to a concert on Wednesday and I'm very excited. Guess who? Here's a hint: ...

oing to be featured on Adam Heine's blog tomorrow! That's the exciting part. He'll be dissecting my query .. That's the worrisome part... I've been a bit slack since finishing the first draft of Fred and Lyne's story last week. I've written a book review and some vague plot notes, done a wee bit of editing, and read a few research books. Can you tell I feel guilty for not keeping up with my morning pages every day? That's not even the half of it... The main thing I'm supposed to be doing is revamping the query. I can't wait to see what Adam thinks of it, but I already know the main flaw: it's got no voice. I can't seem to transfer my story-writing voice to blurb and pitch writing. But I can't send out another query until I fix the letter... This is going to take a few mornings of bribing myself with lattes to put right! Every once in a while, when I'm looking up specific dates as part of my research (usually near the beg...

inky links! English Historical Fiction Authors ! Joanna Bourne on Regency era mayhem ! She's also got lots of book giveaways happening on her blog. Sad: the only remaining Pinta Island tortoise has died. All Neil all the time :  Neil Gaiman at the Penn Museum Mesopotamian storage rooms. Awesome old comics/cartoons featuring Neil Gaiman . And... What's that line everyone uses in funny posters? "Your argument is invalid." Well, now I've got one: Neil Gaiman references George Formby . Your argument is invalid. And here's the video:     Speaking of cartoons: looking forward to NaNo with Will Write for Chocolate . And speaking of fun, Pop Sensation is still going strong, with hilarious commentary on 1950s paperback covers. Then there's  Wil Wheaton on returning to books later in life, after school. Exclamation point news items: Jason Goodwin's The Gunpowder Gardens: Travels through India and China in Search of Tea ,...

ust look: the Whisky Trench Riders' Driftin' has passed the 1000 viewers mark! Wonder how soon they can crack 2000? There's a fun blogfest going on, all about fairy tales . Oddly enough, the Word Wenches recently featured a post on fairytales as well. The What If? Blogfest , hosted by Morgan , Leigh , Mark and Cassie Mae , asks you to: "Think of your favorite 'well known' fairytale and ask 'What If...!' Then, pick one of these four categories (be sure to mention which category you're joining, during your blog post!): Best Plot Twist Best Love Story Best Tragedy Best Comic Relief Finally, write a scene(s) illustrating a new detail of the fabled fairy tale that changes our perspective." I'm not actually entering the blogfest - if it runs again next year I might be ready then. Because... drum roll... I've just finished writing the first draft of my own Beauty and the Beast tale! Now I've got to type it all up...

iscovered an awesome video the other day: Ioan Gruffudd reading I Am Taliesin (from The Mabinogion ) in Welsh All in the name of research, right? I've reached the last few scenes in Fred and Lyne's story - epic battles with legendary creatures are here! - so I've been playing around with research more often. It's been exciting writing a contemporary story for the first time in a long time; I've got far fewer square brackets than I do in historicals. And the only research I need involves Celtic myths and legends, which is lots of fun to read about. Actually, I also need to know a fair bit about archaeology . If you're an archaeologists and don't mind answering a few questions, please let me know! Here're a few more Montreal-in-summer photos! Statue in Old Montreal Looking up from the statue - if it wasn't for the stop signs, you might think it was half a century ago... Milk crate art (?) View from a Pub St Paul windo...

ow that it's August, I'm wishing I hadn't taken all my vacations earlier in the year. I'm about 10,000 words away from completing the first draft of Fred and Lyne's story and I'd love to take a reading break somewhere. So, inspired by a recent post of Joshua 's, here are the top five places I want to vacation: The Highlands and the Scottish Isles (image from Wikimedia Commons) Hay-on-Wye, Wales: So many bookshops, so small a baggage allowance on the flight home... (screenshot from the Old Hay site) Anywhere in the middle of Italy (Valley by Fabrizio Conti from Public Domain Pictures ) Hobbiton. Er, I mean, New Zealand (screenshot from Cool Pictures ) On the Orient Express, from London to Istanbul (image from Wikimedia Commons) Of course, none of this is likely to happen any time soon. Not to mention, I'm supposed to be editing !  Meanwhile, Margo had a fun list the other day too: Top Ten Characters I...

amie from Mithril Wisdom is here! Hi Jamie! I've got a few questions for you... Where do you do most of your writing? What do you need to help you write? I don't really have a dedicated writing space, sadly. It's wherever I can sit with my laptop at the moment. I have to have a full mug of coffee though, that's a given. No coffee, no words on the page. Which is the most embarrassing song, book, movie or TV show that you love? Ooh, I've got plenty! Almost anything cheesy and made in the 80s hits my top list immediately. Right now though there's a kid's show in the UK called Horrible Histories that I think is amazing. [I loved the mini history they did during the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant ] Favourite literary character not your own? Sam Vimes from Terry Pratchett's Discworld. He's so grumpy but at the same time can't help but be the good guy. Which scenes are hardest for you to write? The beginning, middle and end ones...

nsecure Writer's Support Group day is here. Thanks to Alex Cavanaugh for starting this group; I look forward to it every month. On top of feeling insecure, there's also sad news - author Maeve Binchy and actor Geoffrey Hughes have passed away. On the other hand, there's actually no time in August to be insecure: There's my contest There's DL Hammons' WRiTE CLUB (vote in Round One now!) There's keeping up with ROW80 (I'm still writing every day!) And... there's the  Book Blog Olympics ! So far we've got the following categories: " funniest blog post , innovations in interviewing , speed reading or most books read in a 24 hour period , best flash fiction , and ' Twit-kwan-do ', in which contenders would go head to head in 5-minute Twitter one-up contests." If you have further suggestions for events, feel free! Funniest blog post ended last night, and I submitted a Nasreddin Hoca joke . Looking forwa...