The Girdle of Melian

ur Insecure Writers' Support Group meets again! Welcome, all writers. Today let's revisit the best cure for writer's block I know: The writers' houseparty ! Last year, I wrote a guest post on Kait Nolan's blog , describing what these houseparties are: Houseparties are a great way to thrust your characters out of their familiar worlds and learn things about them that you may not have known before. Writing for a houseparty is just like writing your first draft – fast paced and fluid, with no second guessing; anything goes at a houseparty, from magic to skipping between time periods, to anachronistic events and language, to romantic interludes... Links to all of the previous parties are here . I mention all this as we've just had another party! This time the setting was the Madcap Mansion. Anything goes at these parties, you know. Having raced, out of breath, to the finish line at NaNo, it felt great to reconnect with Ayten and Devran on a less structu...

fter a break of four years, from 2018 to 2021, I’m doing the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge again this year! In 2017, I collated all my blog posts up till then In 2016, I focused on JRR Tolkien and the Inklings In 2015, I featured books I’d read based on a reading challenge In 2014, I didn’t have a theme ! In 2013, I collated all my Twitter favourites up till then (it was a LOT easier to organize Twitter back then)  In 2012, I listed all my favourite books Then, in 2022, I focused on fellow authors and bloggers , covering all the guest posts, blog hops, cover reveals, interviews, and more, that I’ve featured over the years. This year I’m going to focus on writing by me and my family! Please share links to your own stories and crafts in the comments!   This year's A to Z Team is: Arlee Bird (founder) 👨 he/him @ Tossing it Out J Lenni Dorner (captain) 👨 he/him or 🧑🏽 they/them @ Blog of Author J Lenni Dorner Zalka Csenge Virág 👩 she/her @ The Multicolore...

appy anniversary to the Insecure Writer's Support Group ! The group was founded by Alex Cavanaugh , and the website now has a number of administrators. Each month there are different co-hosts; this month they are: Kristin Smith Elsie Suzanne Furness Fundy Blue To commemorate their anniversary, the IWSG is putting together an anthology of tips on writing and publishing. My favourite bit of advice, which I never tire of talking about, is as follows: It starts with a shiny new idea. The characters and situation grab you right away and you start drafting madly. Dialogue, action, intrigue all come together. Sooner or later, though, many of us get bogged down in the middle bits of a novel. Our drive and attention dwindle as fear and self-doubt creep in, especially if we compare our pace with that of others. Insecure writer's syndrome at its worst. Insecurity hit me hardest a few years ago, not just with one novel but with all of my in-progress stories at the time....

ack in 2011, I held a week-long contest to celebrate the fact that I'd reached my 500th post , after nearly four years of blogging. At the time, I sorted many of my previous posts into groups, which made for easy referencing, especially of story material. (Also because I've never tagged my posts!) When I celebrated reaching my 1000th post during last year's A to Z Challenge there wasn't time to sort all the posts between 2011 and 2016. What better time than now? I’m actually going to go over 1,000, and collate all posts to the end of 2016! And I’m going to link to every single post (except for the A to Z posts, which are mostly summarized), something I didn’t do in my original 500 compilation, or even in my 900th post compilation. I’ve got lots of fun themes coming up for each day -- and each day will also highlight a fellow blogger or two! Today is... ouseparties! The Mall At The End of Time and here and here and a snip ! And the wrap-up M...

oday is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! Ths month's question: “Although I have written a short story collection, the form found me and not the other way around. Don’t write short stories, novels or poems. Just write your truth and your stories will mold into the shapes they need to be.” Have you ever written a piece that became a form, or even a genre, you hadn’t planned on writing in? Or do you choose a form/genre in advance? I have! I never thought I'd be writing contemporary stories, and suddenly, during the past few NaNoWriMos, I've written four of them! Today is also a blog hop day for Chrys Fey ! Catch the sparks you need to conquer writer’s block, depression, and burnout! When Chrys Fey shared her story about depression and burnout, it struck a chord with other writers. That put into perspective for her how desperate writers are to hear they aren’t alone. Many creative types experience these challenges, battling to recover. Let Keep Writing ...

ound of Words in 80 Days update! We have 35 days to go in this round. These were my initial ROW80 goals (shared the same day as my cover reveal !): September: Learning: Keep up with graduate school work! Performance: catch up on the September X on the Forum and finish entering all edits for The Charm of Time October: Learning: Keep up with graduate school work! Performance: send The Charm of Time to betas, work on two short stories with a view to submitting them places, (re)learn how to crochet! November: Learning: Essays for school Performance: NaNo! Time to work on the sequel to The Charm of Time, which I've been calling A Handful of Time (which is the title of one of my favourite YA books, by Kit Pearson) December: Learning: Keep up with graduate school work! Performance: Take a break! Time for a reading holiday. Probably with some crocheting, too. I'll also be busy compiling my year-end books read posts and statistics. As is the nature of ROW80, th...

appy birthday month to me! I'm reposting two fun posts from birthday months of long ago on this blog. First up is a celebration, from November 2017 , of the final houseparty on the Compuserve Books and Writers Community, before we moved to thelitforum: ound of Words in 80 Days update! We have 35 days to go in this round. These were my initial ROW80 goals (shared the same day as my cover reveal !): September: Learning: Keep up with graduate school work! Performance: catch up on the September X on the Forum and finish entering all edits for The Charm of Time October: Learning: Keep up with graduate school work! Performance: send The Charm of Time to betas, work on two short stories with a view to submitting them places, (re)learn how to crochet! November: Learning: Essays for school Performance: NaNo! Time to work on the sequel to The Charm of Time, which I've been calling A Handful of Time (which is the title of one of my favourite YA books, by Kit Pea...

aveat! This is a longer post than usual - but it's all about books. Chime in with your own opinions - I'd love to hear what everyone else has been reading. Here's the list of Books Read in 2010 , and for reference, there's also the Books Read in 2009 list, the addendum to the 2009 list , the Books Read in 2008 list, and addendum A and addendum B to the 2008 list (I must have had more days off during the holidays that year, and kept reading). Note - Thank You Contest still running! Only five new followers needed - to enter, please leave your comments on the original contest post. Books read : 92 , compared to 131 in 2009 and 101 in 2008. Though if you count three writers' houseparties over at the Compuserve Books and Writers Forum - the best writers' hangout on the web! - that ran to hundreds of thousands of words (each story read through twice), plus the beta reads, other forum writings, and so on, the number rises a little. I won't gripe, since...

etting to know you! Lavender! I took part in this blogfest hosted by author J. L. Campbell over a decade ago! Here's the original post . Let's see how my answers have changed... 1. Name two historical romance authors who inspire you. Joanna Bourne , same as last time... ...and because registration is coming up soon for the Surrey International Writers' Conference , I'm going to say Susanna Kearsley ! I love attending her classes! 2. How did you start writing in your genre? My answers from last time are still valid: Short answer - I don't know. Long answer - One day in high school I stopped writing middle grade stories and started writing a romance between two real life musicians. I knew they were meant to be together, even if they couldn't see it. Some years later, after two finished novels and a few aborted story ideas, I went back to MG. But everything moved slowly. Ideas were halting, editing was plodding along at a snail's pace. A...

wo hundred years ago on 7 February, Charles Dickens was born. If I was in London, I might try to get tickets for the bicentenary dinner at the Dickens Museum . "In celebration of the birth of Charles Dickens 200 years ago, a dinner will be held at Mansion House. The evening will commence with a sherry reception at 6.45pm, followed by a three-course dinner at 7.30pm with wines and coffee. Carriages at 10.30pm. Featuring Dickensian entertainment led by Sir Patrick Stewart ." (emphasis mine) Wonder what carriages means? Do you get driven home in style? How come you don't get picked up, too? Sometime back, during NaNo, J. L. Campbell hosted a getting to know you blogfest for the romantic suspense group of Rach Harrie's Writers Platform-building Campaign . I came across this the other day on Tara's blog , and thought I'd answer the questions. Only, of course, I'm going to do them from a historical romance point of view... 1. Name two historical r...