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…
Back to my Roots with a Country Music Confession
This is a “pre-recorded” blog post because I’m currently in the midst of a quick visit back to my hometown in West-by-God-Virginia. (Not to mention, mostly without internet.) You may recall that my upcoming new series, the Dead Hollow Trilogy, is set in a fictional Appalachian town, so this visit isn’t just about potato candy and apple butter. (Mmm… potato candy. Apple butter.) As much as I’m looking forward to spending quality time with friends and family, I’m also looking forward to grilling them. Interrogating them. Picking their brains about all the random bits and bobs that have come up for Read more…
Writer’s Little Helpers (Not That Kind), and an Addendum to Last Week’s Post
This week… yeah. Wow. I generally don’t talk politics on the blog, and I won’t start today, but not acknowledging that this has been a momentous week would be dishonest. Whether you’re elated or devastated or somewhere in between, I suspect many if not all of us are feeling pretty wrung out by the past year, coupled with the release of a burden being lifted. Since I’m being honest, I’ll share that I figure every day this week I managed to put on pants (albeit yoga pants) and not put vodka on my cereal or eat grass (wait—the dogs do that) Read more…
Is There a Jet Ski Thief in the House?
You’re probably wondering when I’ll stop talking about writing Prodigal (the first book in my new series). That would be in about a week and a half, when I finish it. (The rough draft anyway.) That kind of boggles my mind, that I’ve been able to stick to my schedule (a minor miracle in itself) after losing a few weeks to a fritzing laptop. And I’m still feeling really good about it. My workspace is deteriorating a bit as I get closer to the end (past 70K words now, and the Post-Its are like confetti), but my mind is not Read more…
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