Daily Writing Tips

Daily Writing Tips

Daily Writing Tips is an outstanding blog for writers, providing concise posts about honing our skills.

This excellent reminder comes from the post “Critiquing” is not “Editing”:

Critiquing is not the same as editing. If the friend is “editing drastically,” the result is no longer a critique but a rewrite.

Sometimes we can forget this, eager as we are to accept help from others, and lose our voice in the process.

I encourage you to visit Daily Writing Tips every day for insightful advice like this.

winter is coming

George R. R. Martin‘s “A Song of Ice and Fire” is my favorite contemporary fantasy series, so I am both thrilled and concerned about the upcoming HBO adaptation.

A friend pointed out the “Winter is Coming” news and rumors blog and now I am well and truly excited.

Where I Write

Where I Write is a collection of photographs of fantasy and science fiction authors’ “creative spaces”. I wish my creative space were as marvelous as some of these!

Where do you write? What do you like about it? What do you wish you could change?

(Thanks to my writing group leader David for the link.)

nothing but the moon

On Monday, I came down with the (non-swine) flu.  Since then, I have done little else but trudge back and forth to the bathroom in between naps.

For now, for you, I have no words, nothing but the moon. (Thanks to borealnz.)

wedding planning mode enabled

[wedding] initial palette for gown

Originally uploaded by cygnoir

When my mom arrived on Monday, she asked me all sorts of questions about the wedding. I knew that I should have answers to at least some of these questions already, but I didn’t. I left her with a lot of blanks to be filled in shortly, so that when I took the day off work on Friday we could deal with some preliminary logistics.

Bridezilla I am not. Our wedding day, though magnificent I am sure, will be a day, not the judgment on the rest of our lives together. The world will not implode when (not if) we have to compromise on some of the details. As a result of all this realism, I found myself at a planning loss. I couldn’t visualize anything specific that would help to kick my planning mode in gear.

So there we were in Britex, looking for colors for my wedding gown — “just colors,” Mom said, not pressuring me one bit — and before I knew it a salesperson had yanked out two fabrics, put one on top of another, and my eyes filled with tears.

It finally hit me, the full force of it, right there in Britex. We’re getting married! And some switch just flipped, so look out: here comes Ultra-Planning-Mode ‘Sted.

Administrative note: I have created a “wedding” category for these posts so you can safely ignore them, or ignore everything else, depending on your preference.

that rabbit

I know this is very old news, but I just found the painting for a patron and I am unsettled by it, so much so that I cannot stop looking at it.

I had recurring nightmares as a child about a gigantic rabbit. Although he did not look exactly like this, the painting captures something of that old terror. Perhaps I am most disturbed by the girl’s expression. What is she feeling?

big orange bird

The big orange bird carries the mother to the last bastion of American liberals! Well, kind-of liberals. Anyway: marssie is en route!