Sarah A. Hoyt's Blog, page 278

The White Lady of Christmas

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(Sorry this took so long to finish.  The flu keeps kicking me back to stage one where writing becomes impossible, even when the story is in my head.  For those wondering what this is all about, this is a prequel to Alien Curse, starring little Art Arcana all grown up which I SHOULD be able to bring out sometime next month – SAH.)

The White Lady of Christmas by Sarah A. Hoyt

© Sarah A. Hoyt 2017 – All rights reserved.

 

It was snowing – thick, white, fluffy flakes – when I came across the bea...

I Am Alive

More or less.  The story will be here later.  But the carpet cleaner died and we’ve been dealing with that.

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate

Merry Christmas to those who celebrate.  Story still not done because Christmas stuff overtook me.

It should be up by tonight.  Meanwhile go have fun!

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Working on a story for you guys

It will take a little while.  This is how it opens:

The White Lady of Christmas

It was snowing – thick, white, fluffy flakes – when I came across the beauty with empty eyes.

This was rare, because it didn’t normally snow in LA.  In fact the last large snow storm worthy of the name had been in 1949, almost a hundred years ago.

But then again, we were in the vicinity of the spaceport, and once the space magicians had started doing their thing in this neighborhood, the weather – and just about e...

Flu Flew Floop

I case you thought the post yesterday was somewhat scattered, that’s true.  I was starting to feel very weird, and I thought maybe I was tired.

Apparently my body decided this is a wonderful time to have the flu.  I’ve been up half an hour and had breakfast and I’m exhausted, so I’ll be going to bed again.

Hopefully I can get over it (relatively) quickly

Sorry.

The Horror of Cultural Stereotypes

So I’m reading a pretty good book about making covers.  His “how to pick an image for your cover” and “how to see what’s a good cover for your genre” are spot on.

A lot of his other advice on how to actually DO it seems to lead to the kind of bland, nothing-burger covers that sell pretty well for a certain type of thriller and contemporary mystery, but tend to not sell for beans in say science fiction or fantasy.  And, frankly, suck for romance.

On the whole, though, I think the book is valua...

HRC: Those Damn Emails by Amanda S. Green

[image error] HRC: Those Damn Emails by Amanda S. Green

Well, you knew it had to happen. Sooner or later in our conversation of HRC’s book,  What Happened, we would finally see what she really thought about the email controversy. By now, I doubt few expect an open and honest discussion of the email controversy. Trust me, if you were one of the cynics, you won’t be disappointed.

The entire chapter could be summed up this way: I didn’t do anything wrong. Others had used their personal devices before me. It’...

The Call of Destiny

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I’ve always wondered about characters who readily take the call to adventure.  Why?  Because frankly, if you think you’re getting a call to destiny, you should slam the phone down.

The problem is that I come from a culture that absolutely believes in “destiny” and “fate.”  You’re born to be great, or born to be of no account, and not everything you do, not everything you try can avail you.

I think those who are told they have a great destiny — by reason of family, brains, or some early quali...

What is Mine I Keep – A Blast from the Past from May 2, 2012

*I recently came across this, and it’s amazing how prescient it was, all those years ago.-SAH*

What is Mine I Keep – A Blast from the Past from May 2, 2012

In Terry Pratchett’s books, Lady Sybil Ramkin Vimes’ family motto is “What is ours, we keep.”

I’m sure it started out the way most things in Pratchett’s books started out.  The Ramkins are an old family, who intimidated their way everywhere and who conquered a lot of places and took a lot of wealth.  At least that has been the view of them...

Scar Fade

Someone once said that we could sweep away all the self help groups: Adult children of alcoholics; adult children of drug abusers; adult children of mentally ill parents, etc, and replace them with a single term “Adult children.”

He was wrong.  Growing up (or living) in an abusive environment does many things, but none of them is make you an adult.  At least not a “fully functional/operational adult.”

It can give you the marks of adulthood.  Most children who grew up in abusive situations, ra...