Don’t Spoil The Broth . . . Trim The Fat May 21, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Blogs & Blogging, Word Play, Writing & Writers.Tags: Blogs, Word Play, Writing, Writing Exercises
22 comments
Whether you’re focused on fiction or fashion or food, details spice up your writing and make readers come back for seconds.
And thirds.
Nancy Curteman (Global Mysteries) offers up 10 sweet and savory examples designed to make scenes and stage-settings glow with energy and life:
10 Ways Details Can Spice Up Your Writing
BAM!
Just remember, whether you’re cooking in the kitchen or at the keyboard, moderation is key ~ too many seasonings competing for attention results in a mixed up muddled up puddle of a mess . . . a/k/a mud!
That’s boring.
And, as Eric points out with humor, charm, and chutzpah, boring is bad:
Writers have it easy compared to cooks. When something isn’t working, we can exercise our editing muscles to excise the excess . . . we can trim the fat.
In contrast, if too many cooks spoil the broth by adding too much salt to the stew, they find themselves in a real pickle.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Quote to Ponder: I have made this letter longer, because I have not had the time to make it shorter. ~ Blaise Pascal
Holiday at The Dew Drop Inn May 11, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Word Play, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Dew Drop Inn, Word Play, Writing
18 comments
When I received this book as a child, I giggled at its title . . . and dove right in to the Dew Drop Inn.
Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn (third in the series, The Family from One End Street) describes Kate Ruggles’ summer holiday at the Dew Drop Inn.
The Family from One End Street beat out Tolkien’s The Hobbit to receive the 2nd annual Carnegie Medal for outstanding children’s book by a British subject in 1937.
Seventy years later, a panel selected it for the Top Ten List of Medal winning works.
Eve Garnett wrote the series to address the social conditions of the working class in England at the time.
Have you met Kate?
Moment of Truth April 30, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Fiction, People, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Edgar Award, Fiction, Legal Thriller, Lisa Scottoline
14 comments
If you’re in the mood for a legal thriller full of unexpected twists and turns, pick up Moment of Truth by Lisa Scottoline.
Don’t be surprised if you can’t put it back down.
Despite pot holes in the plot (and a few sheer impossibilities to steer around), this story gives readers an insider’s view at how police officers and district attorneys put cases together ~ piece by piece.
We also see how legal theories fall apart and collapse like a house of cards when constructed on an unstable foundation.
Nothing is certain until that final moment of truth . . . when the last piece of puzzle snaps into place.
I never noticed the puppeteer pulling strings.
From the book jacket:
Attorney Jack Newlin comes home one evening to find his wife, Honor, dead on the floor of their elegant dining room. Convinced that he knows who killed her ~ and determined to hide the truth ~ Jack decides to make it look as though he did it. Staging the crime scene so that the evidence incriminates him, he then calls the police. And to hammer the final nail in his own coffin, he hires the most inexperienced lawyer he can find, a reluctant rookie by the name of Mary DiNunzio, employed at the hot Philadelphia firm of Rosato & Associates.
Though inexperienced, Mary doubts Jack’s confession and begins to investigate the crime. She find that instead of having a guilty client who is falsely proclaiming his innocence, she as an innocent client who is falsely proclaiming his guilt.
With help from the most unexpected sources, she sets out to prove what really happened ~ because, as any lawyer knows, a case is never as simple as it seems.
From the author’s bio on Amazon:
Lisa Scottoline is the New York Times bestselling author of seventeen novels including her most recent, THINK TWICE, and also writes a weekly column, called Chick Wit, for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Lisa has won many honors and awards, notably the Edgar Award, given for excellence in crime fiction, and the Fun Fearless Female Award from Cosmopolitan Magazine. She also teaches a course she created, called Justice and Fiction at the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and regularly does speaking engagements.
There are twenty-five million copies of her books in print, and she is published in over thirty other countries.Lisa graduated magna cum laude in three years from the University of Pennsylvania, with a B.A. degree in English, and her concentration was Contemporary American Fiction, taught by Philip Roth and others. She graduated cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School. She remains a lifelong resident of the Philadelphia area, where she lives with her array of disobedient pets.
I would love to meet Lisa for lunch in Philly some day, perhaps at Dickens Inn (now Cavanaugh’s in Headhouse Square) . . . just after sitting in on her Justice and Fiction class at the law school.
Aah . . . that’s better!
The Not-So-Great Gatsby April 24, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Word Play, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Characters, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Great Gatsby, High school
63 comments
High School English mandated that “all” students read The Great Gatsby.
I didn’t care for it.
Fitzgerald’s characters left me cold.
Each of them seemed devoid of redeeming virtue.
This week, I read The Great Gatsby a second time because I wondered if I’d “missed the point” in high school.
I still didn’t care for it.
Fitzgerald’s characters didn’t make me care for them or their story.
Maybe I’m still “missing the point.”
Aah . . . that’s better!
Did you read it? What did you think?
The Best of Christie’s Mysteries April 11, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Synchronicity & Mystery, Writing & Writers.Tags: AgathaChristie, And Then There Were None, Books, Ten Little Indians
42 comments
Yesterday, I set Austen aside for a time and raced through Dame Agatha’s And Then There Were None:
Considered by many as the best mystery novel ever written, And Then There Were None is the story of 10 strangers, each lured to Indian Island by a mysterious host.
Once his guests have arrived, the host [in absentia, via proxy] accuses each person of murder. Unable to leave the island, the guests begin to share their darkest secrets ~ until they begin to die.
As the unknown homicidal assailant, U. N. Owen, kills off the Ten Little Indians trapped on Indian Island, one by one, there’s a smattering and spattering of splattering blood, but no stuttering, sputtering, or misguided muttering.
Christie gets straight to the point in the telling of this tale, then twists it home.
Agatha Christie (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Neither Miss Marple nor Hercule Poirot are invited to Indian Island to ferret out the deranged killer hiding in plain view.
Instead, Christie calls on Scotland Yard to handle the postmortem: ten bodies and not a single suspect left to suspect.
Eric’s post, Choosing a Character’s Point of View, pointed readers toward this marvelous mysterious maze and perplexing plot puzzle.
What a grand tale to inhale.
One of the best of Agatha Christie’s Mysteries.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Bogged Down In Bath April 10, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Synchronicity & Mystery, Writing & Writers.Tags: Books, Elizabeth Bennet, Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice, Writing
44 comments
I’m re-visiting Jane Austen‘s novels and finding them, sad to say, tedious.
Or, at least, far more tedious than I remembered them to be.
I had a similar experience while re-reading The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins after an absence of many years.
Collins had become far too long-winded with the passage of time.
Or, maybe, it was me.
Tastes and reading preferences change.
In the past week, I’ve waded through Lady Susan (an epistolary novel), Northhanger Abbey, Persuasion, and am in the midst of the mire of Emma.
The characters in these four novels get rather bogged down, especially while wintering in Bath . . . where they parade the Royal Crescent with gold-digging dandies, social climbers, and dimwitted twits.
Nowhere have I seen the delightful repartee, spark of wit, and quickness of intelligence I recall from my many visits to Pride and Prejudice.
I am on the verge of concluding that it is NOT Jane’s writing as a whole which I admire, but her creation of one of literature’s most beloved characters ~ the lively, quick-witted, independent thinking Elizabeth Bennet.
No wonder she was her father’s favorite.
Aah . . . that’s better!
The Insatiable Ego March 19, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Mindfulness, Spirit & Ego, Writing & Writers.Tags: Ego, Film rights, Mattel, New York Times, Pulitzer Prize, Writing
51 comments
Life is so much easier when we recognize that Ego’s need for external validation will never be quenched.
No matter what.
At first, Ego wants an agent.
Then, Ego wants a publishing contract.
Then, Ego wants book sales to reach a certain “magic” number.
Then, Ego decides that that “magic” number is not high enough.
Ego proclaims that it NEEDS to land on the NY Times Bestseller list.
And Ego wants to receive a six figure advance.
And Ego wants to sell the movie rights
And see its name in lights.
And Ego wants Mattel to market action figures.
And Bobble Head Dolls.
Then Ego demands more favorable reviews.
And a Pulitzer Prize.
Then, Ego wants . . .
It’s rather like the greedy Fisherman’s Wife who moves from hovel to cottage to estate to castle to palace . . . never satisfied. Always striving for something just out of reach.
We want what we THINK will make us HAPPY. And find, once we have IT, that IT is never enough.
Because Ego always wants MORE.
And, in the midst of all that striving, Ego tells US that we are not good enough as we are . . .
That without applause, accolades, and acknowledgment from esteemed critics we are NOTHING.
Ego is a Broccoli Head.
One day, if we are lucky, we learn to tune Ego out . . . because Ego is NOTHING more than a figment of our imagination.
A bunch of hot air.
We see that “who we really are” is much more than what we do . . . or what others think of us and what we do, what we have, what we wear, and what we drive.
And, on that day, we are FREE.
Self-doubt is gone.
As is the desire for external validation.
And we return to the keyboard to write . . . for the sheer joy of writing.
Aah . . . that’s better!
Quote to Ponder: “When we have conquered the enemy within . . . there are no enemies left to conquer.”
Related post: Self-doubt, self-publishing, and other selfish writer-isms (Eric J. Baker)
To Market! To Market! March 18, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Books & Movies, Bulletin Board, Writing & Writers.Tags: Book signing, Books, Chocolate, Marketing, Wine
36 comments
As I’ve mentioned, Suzicate has written a book.
Two books, actually.
A few weeks back, Suzi (a/k/a the Water Witch’s Daughter) pressed PUBLISH on her book ~ Stepping Into The Wilderness.
It’s available from Amazon in Paperback or Kindle.
This weekend, she “stepped into the wilderness” of marketing her wares by Pounding the Pavement.
She quieted her fears, quelled her trepidation, loaded a few books into the car, and began making the rounds to scout out possible venues for book signings . . . with great success.
* Grape & Gourmet ~ book signing (and wine tasting!) on April 12th, with a follow up event the next day.
Say yes to life, even though you know it may devour you. ~ Stephen Larsen
Taking chances helps you grow. ~ Unknown
* The Royal Chocolate ~ book signing (with FREE hot cocoa to purchasers!) on a date to be arranged.
Everything is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. ~ Kobi Yamada
Do not delay; the golden moments fly! ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
* The Daily Grind ~ a TBA book signing.
Life, we learn too late, is in the living, the tissue of every day and hour. ~ Stephen B. Leacooke
Tomorrow’s life is too late. Live today. ~ Marcus Valerius Martialis
* The Local Library ~ a possible book signing AND a copy of her book donated for circulation.
We cannot put off living until we are ready. The most salient characteristic of life is its urgency, “here and now” without any possible postponement. Life is fired at us point-blank. ~ José Ortega y Gasset
Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed. ~ Corita Kent
You go, girl!
Aah . . . that’s better!
For more tips, links, and ideas: You’re Published. . . Now What?
A Troop of Monkeys . . . on iTunes! February 18, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Amazing Animals, Bulletin Board, Writing & Writers.Tags: Animals, ITunes, Monkeys, Picture book, Writers, Writing
20 comments
Some time ago, Julie Hedlund did a guest post on SLTW about the children’s picture book she hoped to publish:
More recently, I let you know about her upcoming Writer’s Retreat:
Writer’s Retreat . . . in Florence Italy!
And, now, I’m delighted to share her most recent news . . . released yesterday:
You can purchase the iTunes app, A Troop is a Group of Monkeys, HERE.
Aah . . . that’s better!
If you want to swing by Julie’s blog and see what she has to say about this exciting milestone . . . Julie Hedlund, Gratitude Sunday
The Writer’s Desk ~ And The Winner Is . . . February 14, 2013
Posted by nrhatch in Fun & Games, Word Play, Writing & Writers.Tags: Contests, Writer, Writer's Desk
41 comments
At long last, the votes are in and tallied, and the winner of my copy of The Writer’s Desk is . . .
7. The Mists of Writing (90 words)
For me – writing is a little like that long forgotten actress’s footsteps as she moves into droplets of perfume scented air. I hear her light step as I spray the mist of another world into the air before me and then I walk straight in, and I am gone there. The scents and stories settle around me and cling to my skin. The characters lurk about the desk, sitting on old books and sniffing at empty, long stemmed glasses. I sit at our desk for a while. Then I write.
For those of you who haven’t met Cecelia, you are in for a treat if you swing by her farm blog, The Kitchen’s Garden:
I am a New Zealander living in America. For ten years I was a High School Teacher of Drama in New Zealand. Then I travelled to work in Europe. Six years ago I relocated from my job in the film industry in London to the Midwest USA. Together my husband and I are developing our property into a small sustainable farm. We are passionate about good clean food and healthy animals and healthy land. Being frugal, and bucking the consumer trend sounds scary but is actually fun. It is simple. And we really love our simple life. It is a good life.
Celi shares the view from her window, the aromas of her kitchen, delicious recipes for onion jam and carrot cake, and the antics of the farm’s residents ~ cows, sheep, pigs, dogs, cats, chickens, roosters, peacocks, and peahens.
It’s a Full House . . . so they’re adding an addition ~ an outrageously wonderful granny flat/guest house/ writer’s retreat.
Congratulations, Celi! I’ll contact you for your Snail Mail address so I can put your prize in the post! In the meantime . . . here’s your crown!
Thanks to everyone who submitted, read, spread the word, commented, and voted! You rock.
Aah . . . that’s better!
