The Girdle of Melian

t's the end of another round of A Round of Words in 80 Days ! If I sound excited, it's because I've actually been consistent this round; typed a few hundred words each day, and even did some formatting on the Alfred Russel Wallace letters I've been transcribing. I just need to double check all the words I wasn't able to decipher at first glance and then I can send off this batch. Caught up on a teensy bit of blog visiting too, especially voting on the WRiTE Club final. And here are two interesting (brand new!) blogs: The Nature of my Memories : lovely flowers and nostalgia Desserts and Drawings : one drawing and one yummy recipe per week Plus the Blog Blitz, hosted by DL Hammons, is still going strong! "...what would it be like if the support, encouraging nature, and community spirit of the blogosphere were ever focused on a single blogger? ... Sign up on the [ linky list ], making sure to record your email address, and you’ll instantly become a ...

uick post today as I'm hoping to start catching up on comments. Thanks to everyone who's come by lately! The current round of A Round of Words in 80 Days is nearly over. I've done steady work on my typing; over 5000 words of Larksong already typed up. I can see where a lot of editing will be required, though (sigh). Hoping to use a scene from that story during the second part of the September writer's exercise on the Forum. Here's what we did for part one: "We’re going to use some figurative language. First select the subject. 1. A celestial object: sun, moon, stars, comet, rocket, etc. 2. A geographical feature: mountains, meadows, canyons, dunes, desert, etc. 3. A body of water: ocean, lake, river, waterfall, puddle, etc. 4. Growing things: trees, forest, garden, weeds, cactus, etc. 5. An animal: Oh boy. Pick one 6. A gem: Again, pick one. Now comes the fun part. Begin by brainstorming. What does your chosen word remind you of? Let’s say y...

appy thanksgiving! No, it's not a joke. Yesterday was the Jeûne genevois holiday here in Geneva, the fasting day which is a holiday in all of Switzerland but falls on a different day in Geneva. The tradition began back in the 16th Century, apparently, as a way to show solidarity with the suffering of the Huguenots in France. Wikipedia doesn't say why, and I haven't delved further, but it appears to be a somewhat recent tradition to have plum pie on this day. Sounds yummy to me! It's interesting to think of all the titbits and trivia I've learned since we first moved here. I wrote a brief article on them all for the Turkish newspaper Bizim Anadolu . I'm posting early for the Big C Bloghop , hosted by the wonderful Michael di Gesu . The goal of this bloghop is to compile an anthology to help towards Melissa's treatment. " For this anthology post on Sept 15 a story about cancer. We are trying for comical, uplifting, inspirational... Let's ...

an't believe it's September already! Where does the time go? It's Insecure Writer's Support Group day today! We make all these schedules at the start of the year and then...well, real life does happen. But that's one reason the R ound of Words in Eighty Days goal setting is so flexible. As founder Kait Nolan says, it's the writing challenge that knows you have a life! Another aspect of real life is that sometimes your muse can fade. At that point the goals you've set can either hold you to task or make you feel doibly guilty that you can't achieve them without any inspiration. One thing I might try, since real life is keeping me from editing (and a few of my other goals), is to not feel so guilty if I start drafting another story! I've got two or three ideas I'd like to explore but I've been putting it off, thinking I shouldn't be drafting new stories while so many others need editing. But that's very self-limiting, isn...

unny thing about social media -- posting announcements across various platforms when a major event takes place. (Which makes me wonder, why do we say "change my status update" instead of "update my status"?) Harking back to my Belated Announcement ...A joyful development from last week!: Not quite the usual A Round of Words in 80 Days update I suppose... Hope everyone else has had an exciting week!

logfests! There are two really good ones coming up, one in September and one in October. September's is hosted by Ninja Captain Alex ! "Everyone has a favorite movie or band that no one else has ever heard about. For whatever reason, they remain undiscovered and underrated. Now is your chance to tell the world about this obscure treasure! On Monday, September 22, post about your favorite unknown –- MOVIE –- BAND/ARTIST –- TV SHOW –- BOOK Post about one or all four – dealer's choice!" I'm thinking I might not have time to do this blogfest on the day, so I'll quickly note four items today! Movie : Waking Ned Devine Band : Marion TV Show : If you haven't started watching Outlander -- based on Diana Gabaldon's wonderful series of books -- what are you waiting for? Book : I could pick so many! Anything by Somerset Maugham makes a fascinating read. Paul Gallico's The Snow Goose is absolutely lovely. And for 50s/60s...

ave you ever lost some of your writing? Asking because I missed posting for the Insecure Writer's Support Group last week, and I happened to see this tumblr post by Neil Gaiman just now: I haven't lost writing in a while, thankfully, except for last week's Wallace fiasco. I've heard horrible stories of authors changing the names of their Scrivener files and then being unable to locate them. Mine was two different things: text in PlainText on the iPad that didn't sync to Dropbox because the wifi was not on, but that also for some reason did not save in the PlainText app itself; and the next day myself highlighting all the text and trying to click on "copy" and then realising I'd pressed the letter n by accident, and then pressing two more buttons before I discovered where the "undo" button was (and undo on the iPad only goes back one step), thereby losing everything I'd typed in that session. That was nothing, however, a mere lo...