Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff's Blog: #42 Pencil: A Writer's Life, the Universe, and Everything, page 95

WWW Wednesday 09-25-2013

WWW Wednesday. This meme is from shouldbereading.

To play along, just answer the following three (3) questions…

• What are you currently reading?

• What did you recently finish reading?

• What do you think you’ll read next?

• What are you currently reading?

Right now, reading Matchbox Girls by Chrysoula Tzavelas. Freaky little girls (but totally adorable) and dogs, oh how I love dogs. This is an urban fantasy that rocks. I’m really enjoying it. Oh, the fantasy part? Demons, angels, complex world-bu...

Banned Books Week 2013

Once again, the American Library Association is “celebrating” Banned Books Week. Each year the organization provides a list of books that are frequently banned, schedules events, and provides useful information for stopping those who would ban books.

This year’s list is topped by Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants series of books, which has been on the list several times. According to the list, these children’s books have “been challenged for ‘offensive language’ and ‘unsuited to age group.’” The...

Healing Stories From The Heart

I know this journey well, for it was one of the lifelines that carried me back from my personal abyss, which I’ve written about before and will do so again. I have heard a dozen variations of what brought writers to their knees and how they found the words to spin despair into hope. Although particular circumstances differ, as does the degree of incapacity, we have enough in common to recognize our kinship. We are those for whom the stories-of-the-heart have been a beacon, a sustenance, and a...

BVC Announces Writing Fight Scenes by Marie Brennan

Writing Fight Scenes

byMarie Brennan

Have you ever:

*Held a sword?

*Taken a karate class?

*Punched another person in the face?

Even if your answer is “no,” you can still write a good fight scene. In this guide, fantasy novelist Marie Brennan will show you how. Drawing on her experience with fencing, stage combat choreography, Okinawan martial arts, and above all writing, she lays out the components that turn the strikes into a compelling story.

From purpose to tactics to prose, Writing Fight Scenes...

BVC Announces Zydeco Queen and the Creole Fairy Courts by Leah Cutter

Zydeco Queen and the Creole Fairy Courts

by Leah Cutter

When Francine’s a little girl, she’ll do just about anything for her papa.

But as Francine grows older, she and Papa start fighting about everything–school, fiddling, and boys.

Then the others come calling, fairies from no tale Francine has ever read. They ask her to come fiddle at their court, promising magic and all the music she wants.

Francine gladly goes with them.

When war starts between the two Creole fairy courts, the Seelie and the Un...

Author Interview: Mindy Klasky

Author Interview: Mindy Klasky

Interviewed by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel

Writer Mindy Klasky had the best introduction to books ever–”…her parents shoved a book in her hands and told her she could travel anywhere in the world through stories.” Klasky has been following that advice ever since. Her love of words took her first to law, and then to libraries. Part of that journey has been traveling through adventure, passion and sheer fun, and part of it has been a quest to actually write stories.

Sh...

Consideration of Works Past: The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch

(Picture fromhere.)

I am now and have always been your friend– oops. Wait. Got my wires crossed.

I am now and have always been aPhillip K. Dickfan.

I’ve pretty much read most of what he’s written– there may be a couple of novels I haven’t managed to connect with and perhaps a few stories in the compleat works I haven’t gotten to. He had a pretty sizable body of work.

I think of PKD work the same way I think of zenkoansand parables. The parables I’ve read go something like this. The story: goes fa...

Story Inspiration Sunday

I watch reality TV shows.

No, not things like “The Bachelor” or “Big Brother.”

Most of the reality TV shows I watch are skills based–the contestants must excell in their chosen field to be allowed on the show.

This is certainly the case in “Face Off” — a show about finding the next big name in makeup and creature concepts, as well as “So You Think You Can Dance” — the dancetestants are totally amazing. (The debate I have with myself is “Project Runway.” Yes, the contestants must have talent. B...

The Darcy Chronicles 11: The Gifts of Dog for the People of Dog

Grieving now both for Oka’s death in April and Darcy’s recent re-homing, I am also more keenly recognizing the gifts my dogs have given me—all of them, not just the last two, although Oka and Darcy were the catalysts for changing what I’d learned from intuition to conscious awareness.

Among my favorite tropes growing up were talking-to-animals and telepathy. Now, as anyone who has worked vocationally with dogs and horses knows, those are not fantasies. I can say this from my own experience, bo...

My First Computer: [Compaq Luggable]

I somehow managed to get in on the bleeding edge of personal computing while working at a company that manufactured high-end television broadcast and production systems. Not, mind you, quite as bloody an edge as my friend Wayne, who informed me when I described my early, formative experiences with CPM and DOS, that he had programmed with punch cards, thank you very much. I never tried to sound sage around Wayne again.

Having said that, I jumped into the computer revolution with both feet aroun...