My Own Thoughts

Went to a different church to visit this weekend and a young girl came on stage and spoke. She told the Dielli story from the Bible perspective, with “young” being 13 or so. That’s a lot younger than I had envisioned. It was so well done. Then the preacher got up and spoke on the [...]

I wrote Dielli I and it was 140,000 words. I rewrote it significantly and shortened it to 114,000 words. Today I am reading Mike Nappa’s 77 Reasons Why Your Book Was Rejected and in “Reason No. 11″ it says: Typical adult nonfiction book: 45,000-55,000 words Typical adult novel: 80,000-100,000 words Typical young adult novel: 40,000-60,000 [...]

Using Robert’s Rules of Writing: Start the book with Dielli crawling out of the bedroom to find her aunt and uncle, not with the dream. (Really?) “Figure out what the action is … and then start writing just a fraction before that action begins.” Maybe reorder, so that it starts with Dielli killing the spider? [...]

Poetry, the First Milk has a mother who quoted poetry to her children all their lives. When at age 4 my daughter Anna became increasingly anxious at bedtime, I tried coaxing her to sleep with the most melodious poems I knew. “Come live with me and be my love,” I began as I sat on [...]

We officially have too many science fiction and fantasy books. I can’t fit them all into the three bookshelves in the dining room without double stacking and I don’t really like to do that. I know Chris does it, but I don’t like it. When I go in to find something to read, I have [...]

My list of RSS feeds I read on a regular basis is gone as my computer crashed. So what am I going to do? It will be hard to reconstruct that list. I have significant lists that I read to keep myself up on various streams of interest. Update: Hurray! It’s so wonderful to have [...]

Inuit Tradition: To truly love someone is to learn the song that is in their heart, And then sing it to them when they forget

I found the edition of my book with the mistakes all marked. That version did NOT make it to the printer. So I have errors in my book. Errors I had already found. But somehow I lost the copy that those were noted on. Maybe I won’t read my own book so I won’t see [...]

Discovery News has some information about medical practices of 2000 years ago. It turns out that ships carried vegetable pills with them. Advanced DNA analysis of 2,000-year-old tablets has revealed that vegetable pills may have been part of an ancient travel medical kit, according to a new study. The kit was recovered from a shipwreck [...]

Six scientists tell us about the most accurate science fiction in their fields might help with the conference I’m thinking of going to in June.

The Common Room has a post on The Goblin and the Empty Chair, which makes the book sound like something I would adore. So I am going to purchase it. Now I have purchased it. It will be home when I get there. Yeah!

I love this house. It seems to be very similar to the house that Dielli lives in. Discovery News has a slide show about the dig.

I found an interesting article about an interesting book. Being a fan of WWII spy strategies, both The New Yorker article and the book it is about, Operation Mincemeat, seem fascinating. The story of Major William Martin is the subject of the British journalist Ben Macintyre’s brilliant and almost absurdly entertaining “Operation Mincemeat” (Harmony; $25.99). [...]

I’m a big Suzanne Brockmann fan. I read the book where Izzy’s wife Eden (who was given a date rape drug) had a baby and the baby wasn’t black, so Izzy no longer believes her. He still loves her but he doesn’t believe her. I had heard that all babies come out about the same [...]

One of my chapters was supposed to be published this summer. But the press appears to be folding. So that’s not going to happen. I went to a conference and heard of a new press, know another press that is soliciting, and looked up university presses that publish in the topic area and that the [...]

Just saw a CFP for a topic that would help my publications and my chances of being accepted for that job I have an interview for… But it’s due next week. Could I get it written that fast? Probably not. But I might could… If I had my books with me. But I don’t, because [...]

Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir Read about the “Safe” School Czar’s suggestions by Gateway Pundit. It’s not suitable reading for children, even though that is where the list comes from. Graphic and explicit material quoted.

You know, I really loved the Sookie Stackhouse books when I was reading them. Sure there were some problems, including major continuity errors and absolutely worthless men, but they were fun. I even got my husband to read them… And my sisters and brother have read them and my mother has started them. After working [...]

An article on New Orleans and Sookie which is very fun. It shows a home which might be Hadley’s apartment.

Women in the Ancient World Where do you get your ideas? answer from writer Neil Gaiman. (Whom I have never heard of, but I like his questions in the middle.)