This week in words

Writing

Delirium >n. an acutely disturbed state of mind that occurs in fever, intoxication, and other disorders and is chartacterized by restlessness, illusions, and incoherence of thought and speech. 2-wild excitement or ecstasy. –Origin mid 16th cent.: from Latin, delirare ‘deviate, be deranged’ (literally ‘deviate from the furrow’), from de– ‘away’ + lira ‘ridge between furrows.’ Quoll >n. a

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The Myth of Fingerprints

Speculative Science, Writing

Anybody else old enough to remember the Paul Simon song by that name?  I never did understand all the words, but it was fun to sing. Now I’ve come across some info that says some people don’t have fingerprints, and the people at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have found out what causes it.   Apparently it’s

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Haunting the Mailbox

Writing

Of course I know that intelligent, repectable writers do not wear themselves out waiting for news of a submission.  ‘Send it out the door, then forget about it.’ ‘Make sure you’ve put your story in order than submit, and move on to the next piece.’ ‘When a submission has been postmarked, put it out of

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This week in words

Writing

As always (unless otherwise specified), I get my definitions from my sturdy Oxford American Dictionary.  Phrase of the week:  ” . . . as dizzy as a termite in a yo-yo.” Quote of the week: “Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein, (attributed) US (German-born) physicist (1879 – 1955) [Found on

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A long look in the Blogging mirror

Blogging, Writing

I’ve been blogging for one month.  Almost a month.  Okay, twenty-seven days, if we’re being exact.   With this illustrious track record to bolster my ego I paid a visit to my favorite blogging guru for some insights on how best to proceed from here.  I thoughtfully considered banning Harry Potter and going straight for world domination, but have

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Re-found treasure

Home in the Rookery, Writing

Our oldest computer has been threatening to die, so today we went searching on the hard drive to see what needed rescuing.  We found lots of old writing files, some which I’d been missing, but some I’d forgotten were ever written.  It was great to come across the titles of these old stories and fragments,

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Listening for the storm

Home in the Rookery, Writing

We have a tropical storm, wannabe hurricane, headed our way.  Outside it is dark and the wind soughs through the wet leaves in the trees.  The birds are quiet, but the cicadas sing. I’ve been thinking how important sound is.  We know, instantly, on entering a room how comfortable the people in it feel with

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Catch 22

Writing

I’ve been doing some edits for my first Keela story (a twist on the old mermaid legends) and I’m reminded of some editing advice I’ve recieved. . . Advice #1: Trim, cut, and trim some more.  If it doesn’t hurt to take it out, if you can stomach the thought of cutting it, out it

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O Reader, Reader! Wherefore art thou Reader?

Writing

I’ve been thinking about readers.  Who are they?  Where are they?  How do they make their book purchases?  What do they want from their books?  Why do they choose one book over another? If I knew all the answers, I wouldn’t need to write.  I’d just sell those answers to other wannabes and live on the fortune.  Of

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Carving up the writer’s block

Writing

Writer’s block – the term is enough to send some writers into shivering shakes and quakes of fear.  But what is it?  This definition, found on the SFWA page, has lots of helpful thoughts and links.  My feeling is that yes, writers can get a block, of sorts, which gets in the way of their

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