Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 10

NaNoWriMo Bundle Books Galore!

See the homey looking book with steaming red coffee cup? Doesn’t it just make you want to sit down, have cuppa and read up on the wonderful craft of writing? That book is Brewing Fine Fiction, from Book View Cafe, edited by Pati Nagle and moi and filled with advice from pro writers on the nuts, bolts and nuances of the writing craft and business.

In fact, every volume in the collection is a treasure trove of literary experience. And now, you can name your own price for the collection.

Seriou...

Brewing Fine Fiction Featured in New NaNoWriMo Bundle

And what is the significance of Brewing Fine Fiction being included in Kevin J. Anderson’s NaNoWriMo bookbundle? Well, only that it is a diverse collection of insightful articles on writing and related issues (business elements, conventions, etc.) published by Book View Cafe and edited by Pati Nagle and me.

It also contains several of my very own articles on writing, including one first published inWriter’s Digestmagazine. Here, for your inspection is the ad copy forthis legendary bundle.

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Tinkerbell on Walkabout Releases at Book View Cafe

She’s 5’2″, gamine, and weighs eighty-nine pounds in a soggy trench coat. The nickname “Tinkerbell” has followed her from high school. It’s hard to imagine her riding a Harley or packing a baby blue .357 Magnum. She does both. After a disastrous engagement and washing out of Police Academy, Gina Miyoko is on walkabout in Gold Rush country, looking for clues to her own future. What are the odds she’ll end up in the middle of a mystery deep in the heart of an obsessively neat junkyard?

Gina Suz...

Living in the Gam Saan: a Tale of Two Californias

I was not happy to move to California when I was 15. Having just buried my father and shut the door on an idyllic life in a small Nebraska town, I wrote a poem in which I likened California to a massive paper plate—an angsty teen’s commentary on throwaway culture. (And I find palm trees . . . annoying.)

Over the years, though, I’ve found increasingly significant reasons to love being a citizen of the Gam Saan (Golden Mountain). They are too numerous to go into here, but I caught this on Vox t...

Today’s the Day!

On shelves now!

It’s the “grand opening” of Lucinda’s Pawnshop. The antiquary isin!

Drop by and check out the magical items in the store . . . or simply purchaseDevil’s Daughter—Lucinda’s Pawnshop, Book One.At your favorite local bookstore, or online from a variety of sources including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell’s.

The book features some very interesting artifacts that play important roles in the story: a pen, a pocket watch, a Book of Shadows alleged to have belonged to Morgan le Fay...

Incoming … Reviews, that is.

Reviews are starting to come in forDevil’s Daughter. Here are a couple for your amusement. TheKirkusone could have been written by someone who’d only read the cover copy, but the Romantic Times one is pretty cool.

Coming in July 2015!

“Aworthwhilejauntforreadersinterestedinamixofmagic,mankind, andthesinisterploysoftheDevil.”–KirkusReviews

“Combining elements of Milton’s Paradise Lost with a clever modern setting, and full of unique imaginative details, the first book in the Lucinda’s Pawnshop...

Today’s Daily Reading: Abdu’l-Bahá Does it Again

Today, as it often does, my daily reading bore on a real conversation I’ve been having. In this case, with a group of people who are, shall we say, not kindly disposed to Islam, on Brietbart.

The quoted material is from a talk Abdu’l-Bahá gave during his visit to the United States in 1912.

I shall ask you a question: Did God create us for love or for enmity? Did He create us for peace or discord? Surely He has created us for love; therefore, we should live in accordance with His will. Do not...

Visit Lucinda’s Pawnshop Online

Coming in July 2015!

Lucinda’s Pawnshop is officially open.

You can visit the shop, find out about Lucinda and her wares, read about the authors, and watch a trailer.

Click the link toEnter Lucinda’s Pawnshop . . . if you dare.

Which item might you choose? The pen? The book? The pocket watch?

If you buysomething from Lucinda’s Pawnshop, you may come home with more than you bargained for.

Reason, Guns and Cognitive Dissonance

This morning during my daily news reading, twoseemingly opposing statementscollided in my head.

“An armed society is a polite society.” “I shot him/her because I thought he/she had a gun.”

The former is an aphorism used by gun rights advocates as an assurance that if more people were armed, there were would be less violence in our society. The latter is what I have read repeatedly in stories involving an armed person—on-duty or off-duty policeman or armed civilian—give as the reason that th...

On Every Page: Bill Maher and the Qur’an

Bill Maher

I read an article on Thinkprogress.com this morning that asks the question “Has Bill Maher Finally Gone Too Far?” with regard to his animosity toward Muslims and Islam. I personally think the answer is “yes”, if for no other reason than that he is taking significant heat from other self-identifying liberals, progressives and atheists.

In the article, Maher is quoted as saying, “The Qur’an absolutely has on every page stuff that’s horrible about how the infidels should be treated.”

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