Their relationship had already been on the rocks, but finding out about his affair had been the last straw. After she kicked him out, she tearfully began throwing out his things, determined to not let a single trace of him remain behind.
This post is part of the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt, “trace”:
https://stephaniecolpron.wordpress.com/2020/06/30/tuesdayuseitinasentencetrace/
Writer’s block is a somewhat contentious concept. Some believe it is a real hurdle in the writing journey, others might say it is simply procrastination. I guess, as with many elements of writing, there is not right or wrong answer. Each writer is different.
Personally, I think it’s a thing. A block in the mind, and giant stop sign that you can’t get past until the time is right. But as soon as your brain figures it out, you wonder why you even struggled in the first place. But how do you get that ah-ha! moment? Pushing through and writing anyway can work sometimes, but other times you need to breathe. Be kind to yourself.
Do the things that don’t require too much effort. The things you can do while daydreaming.
I’ve jumped many of my writing hurdles, by taking some down time to relax. Writer’s likely have a…
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When writing fantasy, we often have to describe fight scenes. Swordfights, in particular, make for great descriptions. But we often forget one crucial aspect of fighting: when it comes to life or death, everyone cheats. Even the good guys, as Martin Lloyd points out on Quora.
Source: Vagabond fandoom
Miyamoto Musashi is one of history’s most celebrated swordsmen. But he was not the quintessential samurai. He was the quintessential anti-samurai. Where samurai went right, he went left. Musashi was famous for a unique style of double-bladed swordsmanship (it wasn’t unique if other samurai were doing it) and winning his duels through trickery (which other samurai fell for).
Musashi’s philosophy was essentially a “strategist” beats a “sword fencer”, so he probably cheated on principle to prove it.
Before he entered his first duel, his father started apologizing to the guy Musashi was supposed to fight. Musashi surprise-attacked him…
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She was standing so close to him, he grew nervous. He lost his train of thought, what he was saying to her turning into a rambling, nonsensical sentence, and he started to die from embarrassment. So when she suddenly kissed him, cutting him off mid-sentence, he was pleasantly surprised.
This post is part of the Tuesday Use It In A Sentence prompt, “sentence”:
https://stephaniecolpron.wordpress.com/2020/06/23/tuesdayuseitinasentence-sentence/
I was reading an interesting answer on Quora about Mongol strategy when a battle description caught my eye:
Seeing this, the archbishop spurred his on his horse and gave them chase. Eventually, they reached a marshland and they crossed it swiftly. The archbishop did not notice this when he was quite close to them and hastily entered it. Being weighed down by their armor, he and his men could neither cross nor return. But the Tatars turned around quickly, surrounded the marsh, and killed them all with a shower of arrows. The archbishop escaped with three or four men and returned embossed to the city, quite irate because of the loss of his men and that the king did not send any help to them
by Rogerius of Apulia
Mongol horse archer. Could this guy’s arrows really penetrate plate armor?
My understanding was that the main Mongol invasion of Europe…
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Good morning to all the Story Empire readers, PH here today with a topic you may not have thought about but probably should. I’ve touched on this subject in posts about using your meta-content (story bible) for dual purposes, but I wanted to revisit the idea of reader guides and the variety of information that you can develop from your data content. If you’re interested, read Marcia Meara’s recent post about Author’s Notes which is closely related in concept with reader guides and focuses on using different forms of engaging readers in your books. Likewise, Staci Toilo recently shared about Churn and Transmedia which describes how to gain an avid audience. The ideas about transmedia directly relate to the usage of reader guides.
A reader guide (transmedia and author’s notes are essentially the same) is simply any additional information you can provide to readers in a variety of formats…
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“Julius!” called Lisa as she came into the living room. “Come here, Julius! I have something for you!”
Down the hall, Julius was napping. His ears perked up at the sound of her voice and he got up from his bed. He ran into the living room excitedly, eager to see what Lisa had brought him.
When he got there, he saw Lisa standing in the middle of the room with something small and black in her hands. “What is that fuzzy thing?” he thought. “Is is a toy? It must be a toy. Yay! A new toy!”
Having decided that, his tail began to wag and he panted expectantly.
Lisa approached the fluffy white dog. “I’m glad you’re happy, Julius,” she said, holding the fuzzy thing towards him. “Here you go.”
Julius sniffed the black thing in her hand, and reared back slightly in shock. “That doesn’t smell like a toy!” he said to himself. “That smells like a…”
The fuzzy thing stirred in Lisa’s hand and two small yellow eyes popped opened and a small mouth opened wide in a yawn.
“…cat!” Julius finished his thought.
“Say hello to your new brother, Marcus, Julius!” Lisa said, setting the black kitten down in front of him.
“What?!” thought Julius, staring at the kitten.
Lisa stepped back to watch the two interact, hoping there wouldn’t be any fighting but ready to intervene if needed.
The kitten faced Julius and gave him a stern look. “Look here, dog,” he warned. “I may be new here, but let’s get one thing straight. I’m a cat and you’re just a dog. That means I’m in charge here. Got it?”
Julius crouched down on the floor and stared at the kitten. He could tell that it had tried to tell him something, but he didn’t understand what it’d said. He did pick up that the kitten seemed to have a bossy air about it, though. He decided he’d humor it, for now anyway.
Taking the dog’s silence and peaceful attitude as acceptance, Marcus simply said, “Good”, and wandered off to begin exploring his new domain.
From my Pinterest
This post is part of the Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt, “zz”:
I recently published a post on how the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be affecting publishing. While that article focused on publishers, we now have some interesting data on how it has affected libraries, thanks to NPR (many thanks to my author friend, Elle Boca, for alerting me to this).
Across the country, libraries have seen demand skyrocket for their electronic offerings, but librarians say they continue to worry about the digital divide and equality in access — not to mention the complicated questions that must be answered before they can reopen for physical lending.
“Since the library closed on March 16, we’ve had about seven thousand people register for library cards,” says Richard Reyes-Gavilan of the District of Columbia Public Libraries. “We’ve had over 300,000 books borrowed since mid-March, which is astounding considering that our collections are limited.”
By…
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Hey, SE Readers. Happy Friday. Joan with you today with the second in a two-part series on changing literary styles.
In the first post, I used examples from James Fenimore Cooper’s Last of the Mohicans and Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Today we’ll look at two of my favorite authors.
I first read Agatha Christie in high school. Her Hercule Poirot stories are among my favorites, particularly Murder on The Orient Express. She was a master at writing intriguing plots, throwing in enough twists to keep readers guessing until the end.
I recently read, And Then There Were None for the first time. Initially published in 1939, it’s the world’s best-selling mystery, having sold over 100 million copies, and is one of the all time best-selling books among all genres.
As I started to read, I realized how much writing styles have changed.
The driver said, addressing his remarks…
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James Bowen and Bob, the street cat. Image found on Google search.
“Everybody needs a break, everybody deserves that second chance. Bob and I had taken ours.” – James Bowen
Sad news came yesterday that Bob, the famous street cat who befriended the busker James Bowen and helped him get back on his feet and basically saved his life, died on Monday at the age of 14. James Bowen wrote a book about Bob and how the cat changed his life, and that book, “A Street Cat Named Bob”, became an instant hit and spawned 3 more books as well as a movie. Bob will be greatly missed. https://variety.com/2020/film/global/bob-the-cat-dies-dead-james-bowen-1234637774/
This post is part of One-liner Wednesday
One-Liner Wednesday, June 17th Oh, how true …
KL CALEY
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