For Those Moments…

... when you feel like the world is kicking your ass You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing – Richard P Feynman  

Pictures for the Soul

Sometimes the soul takes pictures of things it has wished for but never seen. -- Anne Sexton I think that's what writers do, try to write the pictures they've seen with their souls. And probably why nothing ever quite measures up to the vision in our mind's eye. I know I'm never satisfied with anything …

A Thought To Start the Day

Breathing

Too many...ellipses...in your manuscript...make characters sound...breathy and...asthmatic... — Rhonda Helms (@RHelmsBooks) October 16, 2013

Neil Gaiman on Reading

And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and …

A Little Sunshine

"There is no season when such pleasant and sunny spots may be lighted on, and produce so pleasant an effect on the feelings, as now in October." -  Nathaniel Hawthorne Only posting today because I've been home sick. Finally felt well enough to wander outside and get a few photos of these gorgeous leaves when the …

Ann C Crispin, Knight of the Writing Realm

Word sadly came today of the passing of author Ann C. Crispin, science fiction writer and defender of writers everywhere through her collaboration with her friend and fellow writer Victoria Strauss, via the Writer Beware blogs here  and here, and their website.  It was only two short days ago I learned of her battle with …

Future Sci-Fi

More random bizarro thinking on my part. I suddenly started wondering what science fiction of the future will be. Today most science fiction is focused on colonizing other planets, alien encounters, high-tech taking over, dystopias, the fall of civilization, robots, AI, time travel, extending human life. Ok, that's a whole lotta stuff. In say, a …

Weekly Card – Knight of Cups

This week we have the dreamy Knight of Cups from the Hudes Tarot. He's looking all wistful and serious, maybe he's had his heart broken. The water in his cup is showing the southern ecliptic. I don't know if Hudes follows the standard Cups/Water/West; Swords/Air/East; Wands/Fire/South; Pentacles/Earth/North attributions or not. While knights often indicate movement, …

I’m Not One of You (I Hope)

Who are you people, and how did you get control of this planet? I suppose I'm depressed. If you suffer from it, you know that no amount of jokes or friendly ribbing is going to tease you out of it. Oh sure, you can put up the smile the way you put up Christmas lights …