Molly Ringle's Blog, page 11

This past week on social media in America: a summary

What I've basically been seeing in online discussions this past week (a condensed parody, if you will):

The left/center: Holy crap, I’m scared and sad for women, the LGBTQ community, Muslims, immigrants, Jews…
The right: Ugh, we’re FINE with women and gays and whatever religion you want, srsly, stop whining
DeplorableJimBob17351: WOMEN AND JEWS SHUT YOUR MOUTHS!!! MUSLIMS AND ILLEGALS GET OUT, TRUMPS GONNA GET U LOL!!!! MARRIAGE SHOULD ONLY BE BETWEEN A MAN AND A WOMAN, GA...

Please be nice, everyone. To everyone else. I know, crazy talk.

I want to pull out my mom voice on the entire internet today:
“Don’t flame people you don’t even know! You were raised better than that!”

Seriously, please, everyone on both sides - on ALL sides - remember the complex human beings at the other end. Today I talked a flame-commenter around to a “You’re right, I’m sorry for saying that” because I responded reasonably and respectfully, and found common ground with them. There IS hope for the coun...

A record of election posts, Nov. 8-9

Preface: Some of you have been around long enough to remember when I used to call myself a conservative (or at least a libertarian), because like a lot of people in their 20s, I had a phase where I read Ayn Rand and listened to charismatic and persuasive conservative friends and didn’t like taxes. But that isn’t me anymore, in case you couldn’t tell. (Well, I still don’t LIKE taxes, but I’m more at peace with them.) In reverse of the “liberal at 20, conserv...

Three random "weird tricks" that worked for me

There's no way to write a subject line like that and not sound like a spam generator, is there? Nonetheless, here you go; three life-hack-ish tricks I have found useful lately:

1. Borax and sugar to annihilate odorous house ants (a.k.a. sugar ants or soil ants). You can find various methods for this all over the web, but basically you mix equally parts sugar and powdered borax (not Boraxo) with a little water in a small low container (I used bottle lids) and put it where the pesky ants kee...

In which I make the national news for something silly. Again.

It has come to my attention today that I've been included in an AP article being picked up all over the country. It's not about my writing, my books I've spent years creating, NO, OF COURSE NOT. It is, like last time, about a moment of online frivolity, and, once again, is not representing my original post quite accurately.

The article this time is about whether "ballot selfies" are legal (answer: depends on the state), and they include a few tweets from those of us who p...

Neil Gaiman on writing like an otter. Or a dolphin.

Writing inspiration I heard today, from Neil Gaiman, talking to Elizabeth Gilbert on her Magic Lessons podcast:

"Audiences, fans, only ever want one thing, which is more of what they liked last time. And it is your job as an artist not to give that to them. 'Cause what you have to give them is what they don't know they want yet."

I love this and I agree, because I like to write things that don't entirely conform to genre guidelines. But of course I instantly thought o...

Q&A with Jamie Deacon on 'Caught Inside'

I recently had the pleasure of reading a new YA male/male love story called Caught Inside in advance of its release--see my glowing review here.



The novel's summary:

Luke believes he has his life figured out…and then he meets Theo.

It should have been simple—a summer spent with his girlfriend Zara at her family’s holiday cottage in Cornwall. Seventeen-year-old Luke Savage jumps at the chance, envisioning endless hours of sunbathing on the private beach and riding the wav...

Special preview: Love and War by Kaitlin Bevis

Today I'm excited to welcome back author Kaitlin Bevis, who, like me, loves writing Greek-mythology-based stories. And she has a new book coming out soon! Love and War, the latest in her Daughters of Zeus series, will be released on Oct. 21, and you can preorder it now. Read all about it here, and check out an excerpt too, and dang is that a gorgeous cover or what?

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After narrowly escaping with her life, Aphrodite wakes up to find herself at the demigods’ base camp—a gorgeous...

Persephone's Orchard FREE right now

Hey all,

The ebook of Persephone's Orchard is free on all the sites all over the world right now! Or at least, all the ones I've checked so far. Great time to start the series, or get a friend into it. Run and get it!

A revelation about Halloween and the Southern Hemisphere

Here in Seattle, cool drizzle has moved in, and I was outside just now enjoying it, and listening to Dead Can Dance, and thereby having a delightfully Halloweenish feel to my lunch hour, and that led me to a revelation about Halloween and the Southern Hemisphere:

I have friends in Australia (e.g. writer Dean Mayes) who have expressed dissatisfaction about Halloween; it seems to them just a pointless imported American holiday. And I've always been all, "Noooo, but Halloween is our one...