manuscript
November 18, 2009
- I had introduced a character and written about him for a week without giving him a first name. Or, more accurately - finding out his name. But the time came when the other character, who arrived with first name no problem at all, wanted to know the man's first name. A reasonable question for the woman and, golly gee, I bet the readers would be relieved, also.But.His name would not come. Last ...
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November 12, 2009
- Kafka partook of all three in Prague, though he felt the city was his prison. Kudos for mentioning that Kafka wrote in one of the houses on Alchemist's Lane (a book of short stories). However, a "tsk tsk" for saying Prague Castle was the setting of Kafka's THE CASTLE. It was not. Prague: Romance, revolutions - and beer Prague's culture, cafés and fairytale architecture make it an ...
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November 10, 2009
- Although I change my ways and means of writing to create a *thriller* for almost no reason other than the money (tough times abound), the old ways die hard (in fact, struggle with vigour).I approach 2,000 words with more trouble yet more pleasure than I anticipated.
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October 31, 2009
- My characters are in a sea battle (on a minor scale - longboats vs. fishing boats) and from one of the boats a shot is fired by a "huckbuk" (there are various spellings). This is (more or less) a prototype of a rifle, though it has no stock. The 'huck' is a hook which is used to support the weapon and reduce recoil. I have to describe this without becoming a teacher. Probably one ...
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October 7, 2009
- I've come to realize that one of the methods I use in writing a novel is to 'paint myself into a corner'. I get my characters into a devil of a mess and then they have to figure out how to resolve it. It may be lazy on my part, but I like to interpret it as genius.Over the next few days (weeks?) all my characters face a battle of vessels and boats on the surface of a broad harbour on the coast ...
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September 27, 2009
- How can a book this good go unpublished? Reading a friend’s manuscript. Our poetry group, seven of us, former and current UCSC writing profs, commenting on one another’s work… sometimes individual poems, sometimes a chapbook or book-length project. Under discussion at this time is Charles Atkinson’s new manuscript, a portion of which he plans to enter in a chapbook contest. Though our ...
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September 21, 2009
- SLAVES TO DO THESE THINGSbyAmy King~~~~I'm portable. My mind travels / the verse and valleys of whole people says the poet. Correct! Readers of this book will discover their own memories. They will melt in them, amazed, lullabied, dramatized, shocked that they exist. Amy King is a true bard.— Tomaž Šalamun Smoke n’ hott, these poems emerge as … audible diamonds that cut, where ...
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September 10, 2009
- I loved seeing this piece in the NY Times, especially the photo: It reminded me of my days in publishing (albeit in the mid-nineties rather than the mid-eighties). We had computers instead of typewriters, of course, and we didn’t have those gigantic phones — but we did have cigarettes in hand and manuscripts all over the place. (It’s amazing that we all didn’t go up in flames, now that I ...
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September 1, 2009
- Learning is about more than simply acquiring new knowledge and insights; it is also crucial to unlearn old knowledge that has outlived its relevance. Thus, forgetting is probably at least as important as learning. –Gary Ryan Blair ( Mind Munchies: A Delicious Assortment of Brain Snacks!) I spent the weekend at Context 22, a science fiction/horror/fantasy conference in Columbus, Ohio this ...
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June 25, 2009
- As I started my writing day on the Cannara onion farm, pondering the type of communications which might occur in 13th Century Europe, I went to Google.There, in a learned tome, I found that there were two types of post/mail communications in this era. In two hundred years or so they would be replaced by governmental services of various countries. And such enterprise would be restricted to the ...
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