A Short-Short: the Soup-Kitchen Witch

I wrote the following to Rick Mobbs‘ painting and find myself pretty well diverted and amused; I am pleased by the half-hour spent and I have to credit Mr Mobbs for offering his work to lax blahgers with wayward mornings.
Hers was a charitable smile that was shaped like the moon -  and she had eyes [...]

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A Bit Diverting, This One

I wanted to write briefly just to exercise the right. For a liberating week and a half, I went – (was forced to go) – without internet. While I fully intend to continue my pseudo-series on [predominately] Writing [fantasy], I thought I might declare proudly and without shame that I am throwing “As I Read [...]

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Writing Fiction – and not a Travelogue

Eliza Wyatt, in her blog Tales of a Fantasy Scribbler, brought-up an incredibly worthwhile concern to science-fiction or fantasy writers – or, well, of any sort honestly – inherent to the nature of questing and epics: traveling-in-writing. More than anything I have considered J.R.R. Tolkien an historian – or in the same vein: he is [...]

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A Problem with Tone & an Obstacle in Writing Fantasy

While I am relieved that I have finally drafted the first chapter-in-five-parts of Doranchorn, I worry about its place in the story. While this is the jurisdiction of the Second Draft, I can’t help but wonder how chapters two through however-many will develop if the first veered so far from the outline. What I am [...]

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The Drought-Drowner

We used to be afraid of the rain, it used to be unwelcome: it would put end to all plan and get-together and reception. Today, the plainslands split open the underbelly bloat of the sky and wetted in the spill-out, drank-up the gush. The stuff of the heavens just broke and splattered us and scattered [...]

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An Abrasive Hour-Write and Humility before Novelists

I try every morning regardless of my mood to write for just an hour; one hour, that’s all I ask; an hour’s point of inner-argument to smooth out any wrinkles of guilt I suffer about being unproductive: watching the Ghost Hunters marathon, the extra downloaded episode of Dr Who – at least I wrote for an [...]

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The Grim Sour Wind was Howling (The Gunslinger, Ch. 1)

The apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, and death.
I met the [...]

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Magnificent Dislocation (The Gunslinger, Introduction)

My reading habits aren’t really that conducive or practical: I mean, as I go, every few chapters [or so], I write – often babble and often briefly. Because I’ve come to the conclusion that my Daybookery ought be more regularized, I figured this stuff fodder-worthy. Categorized: “As I Read Them” – being books, chapter by [...]

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