The Girdle of Melian

read! Back in March, I promised an update on the fact that I've baked bread for the first time ever! ( Side note I : I was searching all bread-related posts on my blog, and came across the mention back in 2010 of one of my main characters, Austin, and how he got his surname of Cunnick. Rather apt, as the only writing I'm doing at the moment is a long, fun scene featuring Austin and his wife, which has no relation to any current WiPs.) ( Side note II : I was also reminded of this awesome beer bread recipe from Kait Nolan .) Without further ado, here's the baking: The recipe was based on Refrigerator Bread by Kelly Yandell . 450g flour 1 x 7g sachet of instant dried yeast 1 teaspoon salt 1.5 cups warm water Mix it all in a container. Let it sit for two hours. Put it in the fridge for two more, or until you're ready to use it (even overnight). Let it rise 40 minutes, then bake at 475 for 25 minutes, then another 10 without the lid.I used the same Le Cre...

wo snips! I have an ongoing scene I'm slowly drafting for a different challenge (instead of focusing on edits of The Handful of Tim e, like I'm supposed to be doing), but besides that, the only substantial writing work I've done lately is the scenes for the April and May exercises on The Lit Forum . April's exercise was as follows: "For this challenge, the goal is to compose a complete short story (500 words or less) over the course of 5 weeks (we’ll slop into May a little bit). Each week you’ll be given six, randomly-generated prompt words, five of which are to be incorporated into that week’s submission of your story. (There will be a separate thread which will only be for the prompt words.) For each week’s submission, you can only add a maximum of 100 words, which includes the prompt words. The story structure of what to generate each week is as follows: Week 1: Intro of setting/characters/inciting incident Week 2: Act I - Rising action, development o...

hree great reads! I've recently read -- devoured -- three really good mysteries, coincidentally by authors with an Mc in their names: The Ashes of Berlin by Luke McCallin Book 3 in the Gregor Reinhardt series "1947 and Gregor Reinhardt has been hired back onto Berlin's civilian police force. The city is divided among the victorious allied powers, tensions are growing, and the police are riven by internal rivalries as factions within it jockey for power and influence with Berlin's new masters. When a man is found slain in a broken-down tenement, Reinhardt embarks on a gruesome investigation. It seems a serial killer is on the loose, and matters only escalate when it's discovered that one of the victims was the brother of a Nazi scientist. Reinhardt's search for the truth takes him across the divided city and soon embroils him in a plot involving the Western Allies and the Soviets. And as he comes under the scrutiny of a group of Germans who wa...

ow can it be June already? The current round of ROW80 ends next week! I haven't been progressing much on my main goal , which is to edit The Handful of Time . I did keep up with both the April and May writing exercises on the lit forum , though! Looking forward to finding out what the June exercise will be. It's another Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! This month's IWSG Day Question: Of all the genres you read and write, which is your favorite to write in and why? My favourite to write in is not the same as my favourite to read. I read widely in lots of genres, but my favourite to write in is romance! Back when I was dragging myself out of a dry well, I was working on an MG, and what I thought was a YA... Here are a few ancient blogposts in which I explored the process of rediscovering my love of writing romance: The Face of A Lion , my MG Seeking a title for Austin's story Still seeking a title Found a title for Austin's story ! Explai...