They (“They”) say coloring is a form of meditation. I’m not really sure why, except that I suppose it’s a narrow focus, but anyway, it turns out that what I really want from a coloring book is pages and pages of my childhood obsessions, in this case ElfQuest. I’ve had the book three weeks and I’ve done four pictures, which doesn’t sound like all that much, but most of them are pretty detailed and also I keep having to stop because my writing callouses are so diminished that coloring for…
A friend of mine over on Facebook posted link to this article, Why Women Smile At Men Who Sexually Harass Us, which is a good article full of things that are tiresomely familiar to virtually all women and apparently continue to be surprising to many, perhaps most, men. I think it’s a good article for men to read, because what prompted her writing it was how the author’s boyfriend, who is, by her estimation, one of the good guys, responded not only to her being harassed, but to her *reaction*…
The only thing worse than having dozens of unread books on your shelf is when half of them are by people you’re friends with so you have the additional guilt of being TERRIBLY BEHIND on friends’ books. The only thing better than reading books that have been on the TBR shelf for years is reading one by a friend and it turns out to be WONDERFUL. DESDAEMONA is one such book, written by– –ah, see, now, this is where it gets meta. :) Ben Macallan is the main character of…
Picoreview: A Royal Night Out: charming. A Royal Night Out is ever so loosely based on V.E. Day in England, 1945, when a young Elizabeth and Margaret were granted permission to go out into the crowds to celebrate like everybody else. In real life, this apparently happened after Elizabeth, standing up on the balcony with her parents, realized she couldn’t *see* any of the people, not at all, because of the spotlights on the royal family, and she wanted to be able to see and participate. The movie is an…
I’ve finished the first revision pass on IMMORTAL BELOVED, which has been a very interesting project to revisit. The final third is visibly stronger than the middle third; the middle third is visibly better than the first third. I knew I’d learned a lot writing it, but it’s interesting to see it so clearly. There are still a *lot* of things to fix. Worldbuilding, character relationship development, the poorly handled head-hopping (I don’t mind head-hopping, especially after writing MAGIC & MANNERS, but there are chapters where even *I* don’t know…