Tag Archives: word-whores

Jan
18

Moving Right Along…

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The last few days have been a bit crazy at home – we’ve been checking out potential private schools for the kids, so that’s taken some time. Not sure if we’re going to send them or not, for a number of reasons, but both the DH and I agree that what the kids are currently learning in the public school is pretty awful. I get that teachers have very little control over the curriculum – they have to teach to the SOL tests so that the schools continue to retain funding, but it’s a shit system. Basic stuff like grammar and spelling have completely fallen by the wayside. For kids who pick writing/reading up naturally that may not be such a big deal, but I’m getting a first-hand look at how much of a disservice this is when I read some of essays that are coming home. To complicate matters,… Read more
Jan
10

Word Whore ~ Fox and Willow Thursday

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Things have been busy this week at home, hence the lack of blogging. Connor has one of those big reports on Colonial Jamestown due tomorrow – so the last several days have been a whirlwind of costumes, posterboard creation and report writing. (I think I dropped about $130 at Michaels yesterday on “craft stuff.” Bleah. I completely suck at this sort of creative endeavor. Scissors and glue are NOT my friends.) He’s the town blacksmith and I *still* have to come up with some sort of apron to go over his pants. >_< Would it be wrong of me to send him in with Mjolnir as his hammer prop? (Not the one I had signed by Chris Hemsworth, mind, but the other one??) Meh. Anyway. New post up over at Word Whores – talking about how I know a manuscript is ready to go out the door. (I’m not sure anyone… Read more
Jan
4

Elf Jerky & Underpants

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It’s been a while since I talked about writing resources, but while attempting to some some basic research for this latest project, I stumbled across a couple of rather marvelous books that I think could be very helpful  – particularly if you write historical or fantasy. The first is What Kings Ate and Wizards Drank – which I actually ran across at WFC this year and meant to pick up in the dealer’s room, but by the time I had my money with me, the room was closed and then I forgot. Which made it that much better when I found it again this week. And even though I’m not writing a historical, holy cow! The amount of fabulous information in here dealing with food and food prep “back in the day” is enough to make your head swim. I’m actually rather surprised mankind even made it this far. Though… Read more
Dec
13

Word Whore ~ Fox and Willow Thursday

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Been a while since I had one of these, but not a whole lot going on today. (Not counting the arrival of my back brace. Doctor was hoping it might help relieve some of the pressure on my spine. In truth I feel like I’m in a very ugly corset, at the moment. Not sure it’s helping, but I’ll give it a few weeks and see what happens. ) Actually, there is some funny stuff happening behind the scenes, but I’ll get to that later when I’ve got a few more details. (Not a new book or anything, just amusement for a good  cause.) Anyway – the topic over at Word Whores this week is about using holidays as a plot device. Good? Bad? Ugly? As with everything else, YMMV. Though most theme stories aren’t really my cup of tea, I can definitely understand why some people like them.  Also,… Read more
Nov
15

LokiPunk: We Write What We Want!

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So I was surfing around during one of my class breaks today and wandered over to Jeffe’s blog – she’s actually guest posting today over at FF&P and talking about what it’s like when you write books that are cross-genre. And how disheartening it is to hear again and again from editors that they love your writing style, they love the story, but… …they can’t sell it because they don’t know how to market it. Or they don’t know where it will fit. Or whatever. Frankly, I’m getting a tad tired of hearing it. With the advent of ebooks getting so popular, I’m not sure if “shelf space” should be a deciding factor anymore. But I guess this is why I’m not a publisher. And this goes back to the post I wrote about my time at WFC – so, so easy for the established old guard to spout off… Read more