Sep 30
Apparently, pirates are sailing back over the pop-culture horizon this fall. Pirate Halloween costumes are very popular. Scholarly and popular books about pirates are reappearing.
So, should you whip out a book about pirates? Read more
Yesterday through this morning has been research on site for something, I have no idea what. The First Reader, sitting in the dark with me at the wee sma’ hours, suggested I make this post about cranky old men and bad hospital beds. So… yeah. He’s cranky, and recovering, but it’s a good thing, not a bad thing. This was a repair of damage and ought to make him better than ever. Once he’s allowed to get out of the godsdamned hospital bed and into his own.
I hadn’t necessarily approached this as research from the beginning, although I’d learned something yesterday – under stress, I can’t write. I knew that. Under sufficient stress, I can’t even draw, or focus enough to do much of anything other than sit in the waiting room – and I was perfectly healthy and fairly comfortable. It’s not the first time I’ve dealt with stressful situations, by any means. But there is a difference between being in a situation where you are doing something, or can do something, and one where you are sitting on your hands until news comes. I was contemplating this sensation in correlation to story situations while I was trying not to watch the board… this hospital has a nifty thing where they give you a number (for privacy reasons) and you can then keep an eye on progress similar to watching flights come and go at the airport. Read more
We’re late! We’re late! For a very important date! Or post on MGC, anyway. We are not late yet for taking off on a research trip, which is going to involve multiple museums, and a good chunk of the trail that Walt Ames is going to travel with some horses back in 1870-something (Peter could tell you the exact year. Just as he can tell you exactly who was in command of every little border post and fort, and when they left on the trip, so Walt Ames can do a deal that’s more amenable with their fill-in…) Read more
Sep 27
So I managed to space two weeks running. Lately what passes for my brain has apparently gone into hiding on a tropical island somewhere and is making nice with the fancy drinks with little umbrellas in them and enjoying the scenery. The bitch probably has pool boys included in said scenery, too.
So, my apologies. I did not intend to space out and completely forget to post. Nor did I intend to find myself so brain-dead after work that I’m basically rambling on screen. The assorted joys of my medical issues don’t help, but it’s not like I’m not familiar with them. Then I find out that a friend/acquaintance lost the fight with cancer last week – I’m not sure if she’d made her 40s or not, but she was about that much younger than me. Way the hell too young to be hit by something like that.
This writing thing is not precisely scary. I mean, you’re never going to break a leg. Or two. Or freeze working out in the snow, because you are just too tired to walk back home.
And yet… and yet sometimes you fall and you can’t get up. Read more
One I’d rather not repeat, though my wish is unlikely to be granted. For Wee-er Dave, the Dave of the she persuasion, has become two. Not in the chronological sense, which she passed some months back. No, my sunny, little delight, has run headlong — screaming, even — into the Twoness called Terrible. Last week, her dress was wrong. Same thing today (I’m writing this yesterday). Different dress, though. And breakfast was wrong. As was her hair (well, Child, should you cooperate, all of this can be resolved to both of our satisfaction). This resulted in forcible insertion into her car seat, sans shoes and socks, which was also wrong. So, so wrong.
Read more
(The next several weeks are going to be hit-or-miss for me on the blogging front. Today is a miss. So here’s a blast from the past from 2015. The post may be a rerun but the advice and opinions are still valid.–ASG)
One of the biggest challenges we face as writers is getting what we see in our heads onto the written page. We live with our characters and settings for so long as we plot and plan and then get down to the actual writing. Our characters are alive to us and we see the world through their eyes. That’s a good thing except when it’s not. Read more
There is a stage in everything, when it looks like you’re going nowhere. It is of course possibly a reflection of reality. Your career has stalled, your book has stalled, your relationship has stalled, the house you’re trying to build has stalled…
It’s quite easy to stick at this point, to give up. It may even be sensible. But hey, I’m a rock-climber: telling me something wasn’t sensible (or possible) hasn’t put me off so far. Read more
Point of View
How many of you here have started something in first person, only to go back and redraft it as third? Or third person redrafted to first?
Or figured out you were in the wrong person’s head, and had to restart in a different head?
I’m crossing my fingers while writing this that the internet will hold on long enough for me to post it. Since the Great Outage, I’ve bought a new router, jumped through more network hoops than I care to think about, worked ten hours a day at the day job with the exception of the day I drove the Junior Mad Scientist into the city for an appointment, and even that day I didn’t arrive home until late, and had dental work done. Still, the ‘net is iffy at best. Today, it is hoped, a technician shall arrive and figure it out, because I’m stymied.
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