Monthly Archives: December 2006
Welcome Christina!
Christina, a veteran of Avon FanLit, has entered the blogosphere. She can be found at http://fairiegreen.wordpress.com/. She’s a little nervous about it right now, but if you remember her from Avon or know her from FanLit Forever, drop by. Alice
Family Time
All this togetherness with my family has been great. We did the shopping thing, the opening of gifts, the big dinner, and the visits with dear old friends. I still have a couple of days here before I go home. Boy am I ready! I miss my online friends. Sure I could use the library computer, and my mom’s computer, but it isn’t the same. For one thing, people are always looking over my shoulder while I write. Much better […]
Christmas Is About To Blindside Me
You heard me. I’m about to totally lose it. See, in my mind it was already Christmas. We have Christmas songs, Christmas cookies, Christmas shopping… which I haven’t done yet. I forgot that at some point I was going to have to put my blog on hold and actually DO Christmas. That time has come. I’m going to be on the road Friday. Yes, I mean tomorrow. I’ll start my shopping as soon as we reach my mother’s house and […]
Dialogue Tags and Stage Direction
Dialogue tags are indicators of who is talking. The most common dialogue tags are “he said,” and “she said.” Dialogue tags can get as purple as “he whispered desperately in her tender ear.” Actually, they can get even worse, but who wants to read it? Stage direction is when the author tells the reader what the characters are doing as they talk. “He placed a hand on her shoulder.” or “She winced.” Are stage direction. They can also be used […]
"Awww Mommm" Nag Reminder
Tomorrow is the last day to get something in to the FanLit Forever Holiday Story challenge. Now I’m off to write like the wind because mine isn’t done yet. Did someone say “windbag?” Humph. Alice .
Tagged for Four Favorites.
Bev tagged me a week ago, but I didn’t realize it. If she hadn’t left a comment here, it could have been even longer before I found her blog. It’ll be much easier for you. Just click on her name. . Four jobs I’ve had: Summer school drama teacher Telemarketer (I also hang up quickly. Better than letting them think they have a chance if they don’t.) Accountant Music store manager . Four favorite foods: Only four? But there are so […]
Ginger Bread Men
I generally like quick and easy, which makes this recipe an anomaly. It’s easy enough, but not all that quick. I have skipped the refrigerator stage, with the help of a lot of flour sprinkled on the counter and rolling pin, but letting it get good and cold is better. You can use whatever cookie cutter you want, of course. In other words you could make something besides men, but why bother? 😀 . 1 c. shortening 1 c. sugar 2 […]
Something for the Crapometer
I was going to post a gingerbread man recipe today, but think I’d rather make a salute to CM, who has submitted something to Ms Snarks’s Crapometer. All I can say Courney is good luck, and remember she is more interested in her spiky shoes than the dreams of us mortal writers. If she says it’s good then celebrate! If not, then get a second opinion.
Remodel
Can you tell I’m under construction again? That brown theme is way too elegant for me, no matter how much I love it. If I can get the bugs worked out of this one – like not having a stupid line through each of my friend’s names on the blog roll – I’ll keep it. Alice
Tis the Season for Cookies!
Seems like this time of year a lot of people turn their kitchens into bakeries. Patricia McLinn not only bakes cookies to give to friends, family, and neighbors. She used to send cookies overseas to our troops. She can’t now because all the people she knew over there have come home. BTW, you can send all kinds of other things to people in our troops, even if you don’t know them, through www.AnySoldier.com . Just not home-made food. Twinkie anyone? […]
Fiction Fright
I plan on posting an ongoing story here every Friday. I figure once a week you all can put up with me. So I opened up the file in which resides the story I’d planned on using, and got serious cold feet. It isn’t that the story is so bad, though it was written many years ago and does not reflect where I am in my writing now. It simply isn’t what I want to say here. The story came […]
The FanLit Journey
There are some who consider The Hero’s Journey to be a formula. At least, I have seen it referred to as such. Could they be the same people who think Romance is a formula? Poor, ignorant fools. Really, the hero’s journey is a way that Joseph Campbell worked out for drawing together the common threads in all the world’s greatest stories. Campbell was a professor in Mythology who picked and gleaned and analyzed until he came up with twelve basic […]
The Hero's Journey and FanLit Forever
Ok, I suspect some of you have been waiting to see if I would blog about it – maybe in the hopes I would make more sense here than on the board. I’m going to make one last run at it, then let it drop. Check in here tomorrow for my last explanation. Alice
Themes – Making a Point
One of the most common mistakes I’ve seen in amateur writing has been the failure to make a point. I can only guess how often editors must suffer through pointless fiction. Most of the time the authors who are doing it doesn’t even realize their story has to make a point. They seem to think simply placing two characters on the page is all that is needed to create moving scenes. Hah! If you do not have a central theme […]
Soup Du Jour
Lately I have been packing a thermos of soup with me for work. I had been living off of peanut butter sandwiches, but really, soup is much more my thing. Soup, or rather stew, gives me a full feeling with much fewer calories, gets more vitamins and minerals into my system, can be kept interesting through variety, and does a darn fine job of cleaning out my refrigerator. I love it. Lately my boss has taken to visiting my desk […]
