Today I am a happy guest over at Jill Weatherholt’s blog. Jill is wonderful writer and also one of the nicest people I’ve met in the blogosphere. I consider her a good friend. Please enjoy my spot in the spotlight and take a tour of Jill’s blog while you are there :)
Tag: writing
-
If you like to swim (or not) and if you think there may be something in common between writing and swimming, check out Cinthia Ritchie’s post here.
It was dark, and there was no sound, no smell. When I opened my eyes all I could see were silver bubbles escaping from my mouth.
It was about 9 p.m. and I was swimming across DeLong Lake on a windy evening, the sky still light but overcast, the temperature, which had been close to 80 degrees earlier, cooling off so that the few people on shore wore jackets and baseball caps.
My goggles had fogged over and I could see nothing but the grey and choppy water, and my partner’s bright blue inflatable pack raft/boat. The waves were high enough that water splashed on my face and in my mouth. It was difficult to breathe and soon I lost all sense of where I was. I simply swam, my arms and legs moving through that cold water.
Yet when I opened my eyes on the underwater strokes, it was…
View original post 531 more words
-
Check out the latest Top Ten List, this week written by Charles Yallowitz, author of the Legends of Windemere series. You can also read the list on Charles’ blog at http://www.legendsofwindemere.com!
This is the 53rd edition of What Not to Do. This week Charles Yallowitz famed Fantasy author of the Legends of Windemere series of Fantasy novels and blogger extraordinaire has authored the list. If you would like to join the fun e-mail me at johnhowell.wave@gmail.com. This list will appear on Legends of Windemere post as well as on Fiction Favorites.
Top Ten Things Not to do When Writing with a Toddler Around10. If you are trying to write your book while supervising a hungry toddler, do not give them the entire box of their favorite cereal in lieu of cooking dinner. At best, they will scatter the contents of the box around the room and give you an hour of focused vacuuming to do during your break. At worst, their cereal will be high in sugar and you will spend the rest of the week gluing all of your…
View original post 716 more words
-
Another interesting post from Interesting Literature: writers’ quotes about life. My favorite is one by T.S. Eliot. It is the way I am trying to live my life now. What is your favorite, dear Reader? Do any of these quotes reflect the way you live your life, or wish you lived your life?
You ask ‘What is life?’ That is the same as asking ‘What is a carrot?’ A carrot is a carrot and we know nothing more. – Anton Chekhov
Live all you can – it’s a mistake not to. It doesn’t so much matter what you do in particular, so long as you have your life. – Henry James
Life is always a tightrope or a feather bed. Give me the tightrope. – Edith Wharton
Life is a progress from want to want, not from enjoyment to enjoyment. – Samuel Johnson
Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which. – George R. R. Martin
Life shrinks or expands according to one’s courage. – Anaïs Nin
To do the useful thing, to say the courageous thing…
View original post 78 more words
-
I’ve got two things to say to my blogging, reading friends: (1) If you haven’t already purchased Kevin Brennan’s Yesterday Road, then you better do it now while it’s available for a mere 99 cents; (2) If you’ve read YR, then leave a review on Amazon. Short and sweet as the man says, that’s all you need to do. So step up, people! (Pretty please!)
That’s right, I’m running a summer sale on Yesterday Road, and it’s now live on Amazon. (The other retailers will follow soon.)
The sale runs through 6/27, but it doesn’t begin officially till next Friday. You, my devoted readers here at What The Hell, get first crack, so if you’ve been waiting for that perfect price point and you have a spare dollar in your virtual coin pouch, it’s time to pull the trigger.
This is also the last promotion I’ll be doing for YR before the publication of Wish I Were Here in September. After 6/27, the price returns to $4.99.
If you do take the plunge, I’d also appreciate a brief review on Amazon. I’m stuck at 24, and I’ve encountered recently at least one promotional outfit that requires 25 reviews. Short and sweet is welcome.
Finally, a big thanks to Phillip McCollum, who stepped up…
View original post 26 more words
-
Mary picked up the soft cover book from her pillow where it had been resting since Lucy left it there. She opened the book so she could see the front and back cover, the red, black, and white colors making her eyes dance. Red was her favorite color. Black used to be the color of her hair. And it had been long and wavy, much as she imagined Helena’s hair to be. An index card floated down from the book and onto Mary’s lap. It was a note from Lucy: “Just call me Penny dammit!” Mary laughed at the inside joke. Both she and Lucy were regular readers of Helena’s blog and knew the story behind “Penny dammit.”
(more…) -
Interesting Literature is at it again with great quotations. Baldacci’s quote resonates the most with me. But I urge my published friends to consider Edna St. Vincent Millay’s quote ;)
The books that the world calls immoral are the books that show the world its own shame. – Oscar Wilde
Why can’t people just sit and read books and be nice to each other? – David Baldacci
Books are a uniquely portable magic. – Stephen King
Books are the mirrors of the soul. – Virginia Woolf
When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes. – Erasmus
A person who publishes a book wilfully appears before the populace with his pants down. – Edna St. Vincent Millay
A book must be an ice axe to break the frozen sea within us. – Franz Kafka
You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them. – Ray Bradbury
Books are the plane, and the train, and the road. They are the destination, and the…
View original post 49 more words
-
Here is the 46th installment of Ten Top Lists of What Not to Do by Marie Ann Bailey of 1WriteWay at http://1writeway.com and John W. Howell of Fiction Favorites at http://johnwhowell.com. These lists are simu-published on our blogs each Monday. We hope you enjoy.
Special apologies in advance to all those bosses out there who have employees who want to write.
10. When trying to sneak time to write at work, do not think that putting a black curtain across the entry to your cubicle will keep your boss and co-workers at bay. At best, your boss will just think you are being anti-social and enroll you in a workplace team building course. At worst, your boss will hear you typing for once, suspect you of engaging in a double-cross with a competitor, and have company security pay a visit to your cube after hours. (more…)
-
In a time long ago, I fancied myself an amateur Woolf scholar. I had volumes of her letters and journals; her novels and essays; any biography I could find; and kept all close to my bed, within arm’s reach. My interest in Woolf started while I was in high school and continued, fairly strong, through my grad degree in English. I still fancy Woolf although it’s been a long time since I’ve (re)read anything by her. I no longer claim to be a Woolf scholar, amateur or otherwise, but like a moth to a brilliant light, I fly to her whenever I see her name.
In this blog post, Interesting Literature not only provides an interesting tribute to Mrs. Dalloway (published on May 14, 1925), but also includes a clip of Virginia Woolf talking about writing. I had never heard her voice before. Her accent is much what you would expect from a well-educated, well-to-do British citizen of that time. Her obvious love of language, her philosophy that words should tell us the truth or create beauty, tugs at my heart given that she left this world too soon and too young.Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway was published on this day, 14 May, in 1925. In honour of this, we thought we’d offer a few little facts about this novel, and about Woolf herself.
The action of the book takes place over just one day – a ‘moment of June’ in 1923 – although there are flashbacks to events that occurred in the characters’ lives over the previous five years, in the immediate wake of WWI. The original title of the book was ‘The Hours’, a title that Michael Cunningham would go on to use for the title of his novel about Woolf, which weaves together events from Woolf’s own life and events from Mrs Dalloway. The book was filmed, in 2002, starring Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman (the latter of whom famously wore a prosthetic nose to portray Woolf).
Mrs Dalloway wasn’t the only novel Woolf wrote the action of…View original post 332 more words
-
First, a long overdue update per The Writer’s Rebel Creed 2014.
Very quickly:
1. Regular writing: well, I tend to be an irregular writer. Since my last update, I have a draft poem in one of my notebooks, a concept for a blog post, an as yet unpublished blog post, as well as my Monday jests with John W. Howell of Fiction Favorites. None of this occurred by writing every day, but whatever.
2. Belief in my abilities: I’ll be struggling with that until the day I die, so let’s move on.
3. Write something new: Gee, I actually have something to say here. I was invited to guest post on www.goodpeopledoinggreatthings.com and wrote an essay on Children and Compassion. I do like writing nonfiction and, actually, most of my blog is nonfiction :) But I’ve never really tried to publish nonfiction. Children and Compassion has made me feel a little more open to that.
4. Marketing skills: Huh?
5. Give back to my writing community: The most fun part of blogging is giving back. I love promoting the work of other writers. If you’re a regular reader of my blog, then you know that.
6. Support other writers: The best way to support other writers is by buying their work and reviewing. I’m pretty good about buying, but I’m a slow reader and so my reviews take a long time to emerge. And I take reviews very seriously. I could just say, “Hey, I loved this book. It’s funny, sad, blah blah blah.” As a reader, I need more than a review that is so general it could be applied to any book. I want to know why the reader loved (or didn’t love) the book. So I try to write the kind of reviews that I find the most useful.
OK, that’s it for now … back to procrastinating :)
Marie at 1 Write Way 