Save the Villagers! There’s a — Wait, Wrong Dragon
This is a brief blog post, for reasons you’ll soon understand. It’s been an experimental week here in the Myth Lab. (I borrowed that title from Chuck Wendig until I can think of something better; he’d decided not to use it anyway for obvious pronunciation/law enforcement reasons.) I got my Prodigal manuscript off to the copy editor successfully over the weekend – woo hoo! This week, I’ve been doing a lot of work on my writing business infrastructure. I’m tweaking my website, upgrading my email function, learning a new book formatting program (which I LOVE—Vellum rocks!), updating old book files and links, etc. Read more…
Continuity, In Fiction and In Life
Happy Writer News: the Prodigal manuscript goes to the copy editor this weekend. Woo hoo! I finished my own last pass yesterday, and I’m just wrapping up beta reader feedback. I’ll be interested to see if my editor finds any continuity issues. Continuity is always a bugaboo for me. For example. during Prodigal’s rough draft, I once started the day by writing a chapter in a different house. Let me be clear: I was still in the same house. My characters changed houses from the scene I’d drafted the day before. 😜 I’ve also joked about devoting a single massive Read more…
Subtleties of Setting: How Do I Avoid Triggering–or Creating–Stereotypes?
After high school, I went to a small, liberal arts college in Massachusetts (go Ephs!) that prided itself on diversity of every kind. This included geographic diversity, with students hailing from every state and a butt-load of countries. (A butt-load is a lot, by the way.) I always joked that I was the token West Virginian, but there was one other person from West Virginia in my class. We never actually met, so I don’t know if we were related. See, that’s the kind of joke you can make if you’re from West Virginia. (Or Kentucky; the token Kentuckian and I Read more…
Stories I Love, Onscreen and on the Page: Longmire
Another New Year, another binge-watching opportunity to discover. 😉 There is undoubtedly an abundance of crap on television, but “network” innovation in recent years (is Netflix a network? is Amazon?) has also given us some excellent shows. With limited viewing hours in a day, I often don’t find those shows until they’ve already come and gone. I’m glad to report this one [knocking on desk] is still around. Longmire is the story of a Wyoming sheriff who’s struggling with his grief over the loss of his wife. As the one-year anniversary of her death nears, Walt Longmire (who doesn’t love Read more…
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