Category: musings

Unusual Book Styles

book reviewing / details in writing / musings / reading / writing process

Unusual Book Styles

You may read a lot and have found many of these unusual ways authors share their stories. If not, be aware that all books are not straight forward. Here are a few tricks that may entice you or, if you are unaware of what is being done, these methods may cause you to close the books or even toss them across the room in mild anger. **  Books with no paragraph separation **  Entire books in poetic form (E Hopkins) **  Books with excessive punctuation (E.E.Cummings) **  Books without quotation marks to alert you to who is speaking (C. McCarthy)...

Update: Letters to Follow – A Dancer’s Adventure

Letters to Follow / musings / new works

Update: Letters to Follow – A Dancer’s Adventure

The only things better than finishing writing a book is having it arrive at my door as a real book! When that UPS truck backs up and opens the back of the truck and my name appears on several neatly stacked boxes, I realize that I’ve done it! I’ve taken  ideas, written and rewritten them, and edited those words until I feel I could recite the entire book with my eyes closed. Now I can hold it in my hands, turn the pages, checkout all the special touches the publisher/creative artist Karin Hoffman has added, and know my followers will...

Sonnet Treasures from the Past

musings / new works / Sonnets for Ambrosia

Sonnet Treasures from the Past

Cleaning can lead to unforseen treasures. Several years ago, tucked away in my hope chest, I found a small cloth-covered book inherited through my father. The battered book had loose pages, long broken away from their binding. Inside I found beautiful, script-written sonnets and love poems written by Herman Young,my grandfather. Herman died decades before my birth. I don’t remember seeing his photo or hearing anyone talk about his personality. I always assumed the Augustana Luthern minister to be a tight-lipped father of 5 who kept busy with parishioners. I pictured him in profile, quiet and serious; probably sporting a...

K.I.S.S.

musings

K.I.S.S.

Recently, as I read research, I heard the hummingbirds outside the open door. The whir of wings moved closer. A Rufuous flew in the door and flew straight to the photo of another rufous hovering beside a northwest wildflower. The frenzy of flapping wings was a blur of brown. The hummer turned and flew out the door. It felt surreal. That simple, that fast. Writing needs to be that direct. Embellishments must move the story forward rather than slow it down with details that stir up a dust storm of confusion. Hum away. Keep It Simple Sweety! Pat yourself on...

Impressions Notebook

details in writing / musings / new works / writer reminders / writing

Impressions Notebook

Summer time, winter time, all year ’round. It’s always a great to write down your impressions as you experience them. It’s almost too simple, so give it a try! 1. Keep a small  Impressions Notebook in your pocket and jot down what you see and feel at various moments in your day and across the year. 2. Record the weather: sky conditions and colors,the temp, the way you feel looking  around you or what you feel when you step out into the weather. 3. Outside, touch objects to record their impressive temperature. A chair in the sun feels different from...

Characters Must Grow and Change

details in writing / musings / quotes

Characters Must Grow and Change

Characters are the focus of most novels. Here are two examples from well known authors that demonstrate important pats-on-the-back to characters that engage readers. (1) Show what’s “on the line” in the character’s lives including risks, obstacles and needs for change. In Distant Shore, Kristin Hannah wrote: In those days he’d promised her the moon and the stars, vowed to love her forever. He’d meant it too. Believed in it. They hadn’t done anything wrong, either of them. They simply hadn’t understood how long forever was. (p.118) (2) Show growth across the story for secondary characters and their subplots In...

Writers VS Editors ? I Think Not!

editing / musings / writing / writing process

Writers VS Editors ? I Think Not!

Authors may feel the relationship between themselves and their editors are contentious times. I’ve had only great experiences so far. For me, the time I spend with my editors is invigorating. We share our concerns about my work: word choices, punctuation errors, pacing on the page as well as whether a sentence or paragraph progresses the story. We discuss my ‘why’ verses their ‘concern’. Often I concede that what I meant and what I wrote are not in harmony. Then we work through the section, make adjustments to help the reader understand my meaning, and move on. In the process...

Ballet-Behind the Scenes

ballet performances / Dancing / musings

Ballet-Behind the Scenes

I live near Seattle and support the PNB (Pacific Northwest Ballet). That support entitles me to free admission to two dress rehearsals. This season I saw Romeo and Juliet, then “American Stories.” What I enjoy about the dress rehearsals is the opportunity to watch them perform and then watch the stager and artistic director make adjustments. They meet with the dancers from various acts, rehearse changes, change lighting, adjust the tempo of the orchestra, and all with aa thoudans or more donors sitting quietly, watching and enjoying the opportunity. Some dancers wear warm-up clothes, others near-full costume. Conversations fly around,...

Computers and Internet

computers and internet / musings

Computers and Internet

It’s a love-hate relationship! I love all the (basic) ways I can use them, but when they run into problems (or when I run into problems) I turn to an expert. My web person, Julie, is a true gift. She’s set up and manages my website, helps me add new skills, and lately she’s been the person to rescue me when my website was hacked and rehacked this past month. I have a total awe at what she can do. She knows what an old-lady I am about the bells and whistles online, so she graciously assists me. THIS time,...

Letter to Follow – Unsent Letter Part Three

letters home / Letters to Follow / musings

Letter to Follow – Unsent Letter Part Three

Lynne story, in LTF, Letters to Follow-A Dancer’s Adventure, contains post cards and letters she sends to Marta and her new friend, Noel. Below is part of a too-long letter I didn’t use in the book. (Space is a luxury when I write such long books!) Markets are fun. The vegetables for sale in the summer are colorful and I may try a few new things, like eggplant or squash. Strange things like snails crawling up the stall posts and dead chickens and ducks hanging from cross-beams is taking a bit of getting used to, but I look down, watching...