The Girdle of Melian

inter lingers on! The prompt for the February excercise on the writers' forum was to reveal setting through character. Here're the longer guidelines: "1) reveal settings through your characters and 2) don’t stop the action. Here are some ways to do that: 1. Reveal setting through motion. Consider what your character would notice, either immediately, or in passing. What do they interact with? Show the attachment (or lack of it) they have to a place. Have your character physically in the space. For instance, don’t just describe a suitcase in the middle of the hall, but have your character weave around it. Diana Gabaldon once noted that readers follow movement, so create it. Have your character lifting, turning, acting in some way with the setting. 2. Reveal setting through a character’s level of experience. A character’s beliefs and experiences will influence what they notice. Age, position, education, training, superstitions, fears, sex, etc., will color the...

his Sunday is Tolkien Reading Day! Tolkien Reading Day "has been organised by the Tolkien Society since 2003 to encourage fans to celebrate and promote the life and works of J.R.R. Tolkien by reading favourite passages. We particularly encourage schools, museums and libraries to host their own Tolkien Reading Day events." "The theme of Tolkien Reading Day 2018 is Home and Hearth: the many ways of being a Hobbit. What will you be reading?" I think I'll go back to my copy of The History of The Hobbit , which I've still not finished reading! I also haven't even started my copy of Beren and Luthien , published last year. I've been reading less fiction on my commute, and many more articles and texts for school. Just for fun, here's a screenshot of one of my favourite images of Tolkien's: As for schoolwork, the first round of the year of A Round of Words in 80 Days has ended! Let's see how I did on my ROW80 goals ... enter h...

new book! Last Call by TL Watson is out now! Newly-single attorney Gwen Cooper’s list of things that make her happy is pretty simple: 1. her teenage sons 2. her stilettos 3. finally taking control of her own life While texting the first on the list to warn them she’s missed her flight home, she plows into a hot-shot movie star, has a lukewarm latte dumped down her blouse, and snaps a heel off item number two. When the actor shows up at the hotel bearing an apology of replacement Louboutins, she should be wondering how he got her room number. Instead, she’s simmering over his well-tailored suit and conjuring more sinful ways for him to make things up to her. And why not? The notorious bachelor is the perfect guy to kick off her post-divorce fantasies of no strings attached. Ever again. Blake Donovan claimed Hollywood’s top spot by playing the self-centered bad boy his manager and publicist created. Lonely as it is, he’s long since accepted the image he portrays to the ...

leepless nights, caused by staying up late reading... It's been a while since I a) stopped the world to devour a book (or two); and b) read a really good YA. Rose Phillips ' two books fit the bill. Plus they got me all teary, in a good way. And also let me forget for a while that I was reading on a Kindle app. No small feat, as I'm usually acutely aware of the medium, in a way that doesn't happen with paper books. Here they are: Cutting to the Chase " How do you fix something you didn't break? Lizzy certainly doesn't have the answer. All she knows is that she needs to survive senior year, then get as far away from her dysfunctional family as possible. In the meantime, when she can't take the pressure, she eases it with the sharp edge of a razor blade. But, she's been cutting deeper and her thoughts are growing darker. Until she meets Michael. With him she finds relief. Now, maybe—just maybe—she can make it." I d...