Molly Ringle's Blog, page 5

Madame d'Aulnoy and contes des fées

When it comes to historically significant fairy tale writers, you've heard of the brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and maybe even Charles Perrault, but have you heard of Marie-Catherine d'Aulnoy? Writing at the same time as Perrault, she composed and adapted traditional fairy tales, retelling them in literary style to publish and share at salon gatherings. She was in fact the one credited with popularizing the term "fairy tales": "contes des fées."

She was forced into an unhappy marri...

The Four Tendencies: which one fits your character?

In her books about happiness and habits, writer Gretchen Rubin describes the Four Tendencies, the personality framework she created. I realized in studying them that these tendencies are not only a fabulous way to learn about ourselves and our friends, but to flesh out our fictional characters too. 

Brief description of the Four Tendencies:

Upholders are people who respond readily to both outer and inner expectations; that is, expectations from others as well as expectations they set for...

Harry Potter and the Flux Capacitor

I finally read The Cursed Child. Thoughts:

1) Wow, people weren’t kidding about Albus/Scorpius being practically a canon couple. I’m going, “sweet! we finally get an on-page HP gay relationship?” …haha. No. Of course not. Truly Johnlock levels of Suspiciously Close Friendship. It’s like Rowling wanted people to write All the Fanfic but didn’t want to actually go so far as to include the gayness in canon.

2) I do not see Cedric Diggory turning Death Eater because of losing the tournament. Huff...

Best male/male romances read in 2018

(a.k.a. "If this doesn't get my LiveJournal deleted by the Russians, I don't know what will!")

Looking over my Goodreads list from 2018, I realize I have read a lot of male/male romance. So I figured I’d better make you a list of all the good stuff. 

I’ll only include the smaller-press or indie titles, because, like, yes, I did read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, and they were great, but everyon...

An old sonnet and a new title

I've had a busy November, but delightfully so: I've begun revisions on the guy/guy modern romance featuring a character named Sinter, whom some of you may remember from earlier versions and other posts of mine. 

This book was formerly titled different things over the years through its various revisions: Dramatically Inclined, Boy in Eyeliner, 32 and Raining... And in discussion with my wonderful editor Michelle at Central Avenue Publishing, we came up with yet a new title for it this tim...

I had a quasi-conservative phase a long time back. It was...

I had a quasi-conservative phase a long time back. It was as you’d expect: I watched Fox, read National Review, listened to friends who were avid conservatives, parroted their points of view online to other people, picked the most extreme liberal articles I could find and held them up as examples of how crazy liberals were and how they had no sense of perspective or humor.

As should be obvious if you’ve listened to me lately, I gradually got over this phase and am nowhere near it now. But it...

I finally went back to Britain!!

Hello all,

I have been not getting a lot of work done lately, since our household was on vacation for two weeks in England and Wales! I had not been there since 2004 and it was fabulous to be back, despite the heat wave. (Luckily a "heat wave" in Britain only means temperatures around 85 F/ 29 C. Still, I would have preferred a bit of iconic British rain or mist.) 

If you're the kind of person who enjoys trip photos, I spammed Instagram with mine:

https://www.instagram.com/writermollyrin...

Mean girl karma payback story

This morning on the wonderful KEXP, the equally wonderful John Richards was talking about the nasty effects of bullying and mean kids, and sharing stories listeners had sent in, which made me decide to write up this little anecdote. It’s not as dramatic or harrowing as many a mean-kid story, but it’s ultimately rather satisfying. And maybe it’ll make some other fellow nerd feel better.

So: in middle school, in the late 1980s, I was probably the shortest kid in my class, due to being also the...

Guest post: Aaron Schwabach on movies and TV getting the law right (or not)

Inspired by this episode of the Writing Excuses podcast, in which a legal expert discussed what writers get wrong about the law, I recently asked on my e-newsletter: "Those of you with legal know-how: what bugs you that fiction (books, TV, etc.) keeps getting wrong when it comes to law? Or do you let it all slide in the name of entertainment?"

My longtime online friend Aaron Schwabach, who is not only an exuberant fanboy of many of the same things I love, but also a law professor, gave such a...

Delay on the upcoming book

My upcoming book Dramatically Inclined will not be published this summer as I had originally planned. I have asked Riptide Publishing to return the rights to me, and today they have complied. They have been issuing rights reversions for many authors lately (at the authors' requests), after a lot of press has come out involving questionable behavior (sexual harassment, borderline racist comments, and more) on the part of some editors. It did not feel like a wise decision for me to stay with th...