Marian Allen's Blog, page 417

#Caturday – Wodehouse On Cats

I’m a fan of P. G. Wodehouse’s writing, me. He is, perhaps, never funnier than when his characters come up against those masters of slipperiness and illogic, furry people of the feline persuasion.

At great personal expense, got up regardless, I bring to you, direct from appearances before the crowned heads of Europe, three cat stories by P. G. Wodehouse:

The Man Who Disliked Cats

The Tabby Terror

Goodbye To All Cats

You’re welcome.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Two characters. One loves cats, one does not.

MA

Obeying My Mother

Mom says, “This better not turn up on your blog,” so I’m not going to post about where she’s been or what she’s been doing.

Instead, I’m posting a random set of links that I thought might be interesting to writers or inquiring readers.

Floyd Memorial Hospital is a very nice facility in New Albany, Indiana. From the Emergency Room through bronchoscopy to surgery, if you have medical needs in the New Albany area, consider this hospital.

Dysphagia – Is that a cool word, or what? It means difficulty swallowing. There are many forms, manners of detection, and treatments.

Speaking of cool words, how about dropping the phrase percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy into a conversation? Everybody would be like, “Oh, yeah, I was at their first concert, when they opened for the Stones.” And they would be WRONG!

Another fine facility in New Albany is Southern Indiana Rehab Hospital. The therapy regimen is intense, by which I mean it starts as mild as it needs to, but as challenging as the patient can manage. The staff is strongly encouraging and motivating, and the patients I’ve known there have actively participated in their own recovery and have recovered in record time.

I wish I could tell you about what Mom’s been up to, but she forbade me to do it, and I always obey my mother.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character’s mother inhales a pill and things just get worse from there.

MA

Other Than Family

I have so much to be thankful for, I don’t know where to begin. Family first, of course. Being able to do something I love. No, not sleeping or eating, you smart-alek; I mean writing!

And also:

Jane.

Jane, Jane,
She keeps me sane.

Don’t say, “She could do a better job.” Just don’t.

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving, and at least one truly good friend who isn’t obliged to you by blood.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Who keeps your main character from going round the twist when things are scary or overwhelming?

MA

Best Grilled Cheese Sammich EVAH

When I make a grilled cheese sammich, I take two pieces of multi-grain bread, put a slice of artisanal cheese between them, and grill it in my contact grill. If I’m feeling decadent, I’ll spray it on both sides with butter-flavored spray.

I like this very much.

HOWEVER

The other day, I got a grilled cheese sammich in a cafeteria, and I remembered what a grilled cheese sammich is supposed to be:

Two pieces of nutrition-free white bread with a big ol’ slab of Velveeta cheese product between them, practically deep-fried in butter. The result is a combination of delicate crunch and gooshy squoosh that leaves your face and fingers coated with salty, greasy crumbs.

Oh. My. God. I couldn’t eat those regularly anymore, but it made me so happy!

Here’s to comfort food eaten so seldom that it really is a comfort.

I’m posting today at The Write Type on the subject of Dealing With Writer’s Block.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character eats a childhood version of something he or she now eats more responsibly or more “respectably”.

MA

Mah Cah

Dis mah cah:

Okay, yes, I’m lying. Are you happy, now? But, in my imagination, I totally own a Mini Cooper.

And my other car is a Volvo Amazon, like this one on Wikipedia:

Mah uddah cah.

So, if you see me driving down the street, imagine I’m imagining myself driving one of these two vehicles and steer well clear of me. Word to the wise.

This being Tuesday, I’m posting today at Fatal Foodies on the subject of Buckskin Bread (with recipe).

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What vehicle does your main character drive? What vehicle does he or she imagine driving?

MA

How To Write A Novel

NOVEL-WRITING — SUGGESTED PLAN

1. Read — Read the sort of novel you want to write. Read the classics of the genre, and read what’s being published now. Read other sorts of novels. Read poetry. Read non-fiction, on subjects that pertain to the sort of novel you want to write, and on subjects that seem to have nothing to do with it. If a novel really satisfies you or delights you, study it; pick it apart and see how the writer did that.

2. Write — Write letters, timed writings, journal entries, poetry, or pages and pages of prose, even if you throw most of those pages away later.

3. Begin — Choose a place to begin, like picking a thread to follow through a labyrinth.

4. Build — Research, beginning with your beginning and following where that leads. If you begin with a place, read about that place. If you begin with a character, read biographies of people he or she resembles, or read about his or her time period or vocation or pet hobby. Let the research lead you where you want to go, keeping your thread firmly in hand and noting down whatever you find that you may be able to use.

5a. Plan — With your research handy, make a bare-bones outline of the plot.

5b. Cast — Who do you need in this plot? What do they need to be like?

6a&b. Expand — Make more detailed outlines and character sketches, until you feel secure; you know the characters well enough to trust them to thicken up the plot where your outline is thin; you know your storyline well enough to know that a vague character will sharpen up as events progress.

7. Take the plunge — Start writing the book. Tell yourself that this is just the rough draft; it doesn’t have to be perfect; it can be awful, so long as it’s on paper. Write as much as you can without re-reading. Only re-read what you need, to keep you on track.

8. Revise — Keep a notebook of changes you want to make. Just write them in the margins or stick insert pages into the manuscript. Have several people you trust read the book and ask them to write down what they like, dislike, question. Pay close attention to anything more than one person says. Make any changes you think should be made with your readers’ comments in mind. Make a clean copy of the manuscript.

9. Go to market.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What, are you crazy? WRITE!

MA

#SampleSunday – For Sandy Relief

I’m pleased and proud to be part of two anthologies for Superstorm Sandy relief! One, as I told you, is TRIUMPH OVER TRAGEDY, and it isn’t out yet.

The other is LET IT SNOW! SEASON’S READINGS FOR A SUPER-COOL YULE. It’s part of Amazon’s Kindle Select program, so it’s free to borrow for Select customers. It will also have free days on 11/25 & 26, 12/14 & 15, and 12/25.

My story in this collection is “The Pratty Who Saved Crissmuss”, a Holly Jahangiri story. Here is the beginning:

“The Pratty Who Saved Crissmuss” – excerpt
by Marian Allen

Dickens O’Henry was mad to begin with.

Not eyes-rolling-around-in-his-head mad, but steam-coming-out-of-his-ears mad. As had many of his fellow citizens in the primary city of the planet Llannonn, he had bought Earth names from a plausible rogue, only to learn that Earth names were free.

So, when his assistant, Humbug Plugugly, told Dickens O’Henry that one of his debtors was behind on his bill, O’Henry greeted the news with savage delight.

“Let’s go pay our friend a little visit,” said O’Henry, with a vicious grin. “After all, the Anti-Hot Solemnities are here, and isn’t that the time for friendly visits?”

“I do believe you’re right,” Plugugly agreed.

O’Henry was, insofar as his surface identity was concerned, the keeper of a Bar and Grill in Central City. His big money, though, came from the distribution of prohibited intoxicants, most notably the intensely inebriating Blue Ruin, smuggled in from Telluria fortnightly on tramp spaceships, the bottles wrapped in Fair Trade hand-knitted mufflers.

The debtor was a slight male named Nittleigh Witterr. At this time of the year, when families and friends gathered to celebrate the strength of affection that enables groups of people to share warm spaces during cold weather and share resources during anti-hot scarcity, and to do so with very little bloodshed, considering, Witterr was certain to be with his only relative in the city.

* * * * *

Head Librarian Holly Jahangiri tipped the packer, checked her timepiece, and scowled up and down the street. Her cousin Nittleigh’s luggage was here, but where was he? She had just climbed behind the steering stick of her hovercar, smiling at the book in the passenger seat and engaging the safety harnesses, when a runner panted to a halt beside her and handed her a note.

“Typical,” she told the book. “Nittleigh says to go ahead, and he’ll come along later.”

“We’d best be off,” said the book — for he was a Living Book, from the very library Holly oversaw. “The sky is overcast, and I fear there may be snow, e’er we reach our destination.”

Snow in the country wasn’t the pretty ornament it was in the city. In the country, there was no Snow Retrieval Board to clean the stuff up and convert it to usable water. In the country, when the snow fell, it meant it.

Holly swept the street with one final glance and swooped away.

~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~   ~

Here’s hoping you buy the book for the mere $4.99 it ordinarily costs, when the funds will go to Sandy relief. Otherwise, I hope you’ll download it for free on one of its free days and enjoy it as a gift from the authors, editors, publisher, and cover artist to you.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write a scene with snow in it.

MA

#Caturday – There’s A Manual!

I got THE CAT MANUAL when it had a free day at Kindle, but it’s cheap enough at full price: $2.99. It’s short, but it’s packed with laughs, especially if you know cats. I mean, look at the cover!

It purports to be written by cats for cats, and it reads like that. Funny book. Two paws up.

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: What would the chapter titles be in a book written by a fish? By a spider? By a goat?

MA

 

Erin Danzer Is Revealed

Her new cover, I mean. Look at this! Isn’t this a wowzer?

Book Blurb:
Fifteen-year-old Veronica “Ronnie” Lambert wants to get out from under her older brother’s shadow. When Ronnie gets a tattoo and then is struck by lightning, she suddenly finds herself able to see and hear things in shadows that don’t appear to others. Then Ronnie meets Gavin Clearwater, the hot new guy in all of her classes and finds out he can see and hear the same things she can.

Gavin tells her about the Spiral Defenders, a group of warriors that travels through space and time to defend the planets of the Spiral. After meeting the Commander of the Spiral Defenders and realizing his intentions might not be pure, Ronnie struggles between following her destiny to become a Spiral Defender and trying to regain the life she had before being struck by lightning.

Author Bio:
Erin Danzer wrote her first book at 10-years-old for a Young Authors competition, where she was awarded an Honorable Mention and discovered a passion for the written word. She’s written several novels and short stories since that spark ignited. She writes a monthly short story serial, The Cassandra Serafin Chronicles, posting alternately on her blog and in Literary Lunes bi-monthly online magazine. Into the Spiral is Erin’s debut novel. Erin resides in Wisconsin with her husband, two children, and their cat.

Website: http://www.erindanzer.com

FB Fan Page: http://www.facebook.com/ErinDanzerYAAuthor

Twitter: @erindanzer

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: Write a scene that involves a spiral.

MA

 

Beauty Everywhere

Here is a picture I took one time we went to The Irish Rover for lunch, my pal Jane and I. This is why I carry a camera everywhere.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you I posted yesterday at Echelon Explorations on the topic of Why Are All Aliens Humanoid?

A WRITING PROMPT FOR YOU: A character finds beauty everywhere.

MA