Blair MacGregor's Blog, page 24

I Write Like…

Here’s a little piece of fun.

Here’s the site I Write Like. You can paste a chunk of your text into the box, and their program will analyze it to tell you what famous writer you supposedly write like.

I chose a chunk of Sword and Chant then, because I’m the curious sort, pulled a bunch of paragraphs from a current work-in-progress, The Drunkard. I chose Drunkard because its style is quite different from Chant. I wanted to see what the program did with the pieces.

Drunkard came back as being simi...

There Is No Such Thing As Typical

Today the 30-day blog challenge is to describe a typical day from my life.

I do not have typical days.

The best and the worst thing about being self-employed in three different fields–karate, wellness, writing–while also homeschooling a teenager is that no two consecutive days will be alike. Toss in a sister who works as a flight attendant while parenting my little nephews, parents who love to spend time with extended family, and two crazy-sweet dogs, and it is guaranteed days will be interesti...

What’s Up With Sand of Bone

You might be among the small handful of folks who are wondering what happened to the weekly chapters of Sand of Bone.

I stopped for two reasons.

First, as I wrote through the end, I decided to make important structural and worldbuilding changes that will carry back all the way to the novel’s opening chapters. Continuing to post chapters I know are now “wrong” seemed… well, wrong.

Second, I’m wrestling with time again. April through June were supposed to be easier on the schedule. Alas, the death...

Being Peevish

Why, yes, I did lose two days of my life to clients, karate training, and a dog show. I could stress out about falling behind, or I could simply go forward. I’m in a go-forward sort of mood.

So. A few of my pet peeves—those petty day-to-day things that I just can’t help but complain about even though I know my complaining is completely unproductive.



Great big lawns. I have one myself, mind, because my landlord requires I keep the half-acre nicely mowed. But where it a lawn I owned, I’d seed it...

Well, That Was Embarrassing

Another 30-Day Blogging Challenge entry…

I have never been more embarrassed than on the night my parents had to fetch their fifteen-year-old daughter from the county jail at three in the morning.

There were four of us–three girls, and the boy with the car. They met me at the bottom of my driveway. I’d crawled out my window after tucking blankets over a bunch of pillows in my bed.

I was the youngest and the newest in the group, having just moved to the small town a few months before, and had alre...

On Self-Publishing: An Informed Article

From Forbes, The Future of Self-Publishing:

“There is a steep learning curve to self-publishing, and it’s one that not every author wants to, or is able to climb. If you have a traditional publishing deal and you’re happy with it, why would you want to take on all that extra work? As Abercrombie says, publishers can do all that for you.

However, going the traditional route doesn’t come without its own overheads. As a fledgling author seeking a deal, ie is at the same point in their career as th...

Defined With A Little Help From…

The first ten minutes I spent thinking about this question had me putting on the Pouty Face of Thought. Then I realized just how simple the answer is.

I am defined by who calls me a friend.

That’s not the same as those who depend upon me or those whom I call friend. It’s the people who ask me to be around them on any occasion, the ones who want to share thoughts and experiences with me, the ones who trust me–and the ones with whom I want to do and share the same. These folks might have less or...

An Assassin’s Three Passions

More on the 30-Day Challenge…

Benkil from Sword and Chant is one of my most favorite characters. Without getting into spoilers for the novel, I can tell you he was once little more than an average warrior from an average tribe of Calligar–able to sit a horse with a grace, handle edged weapons to give more damage than he received, and loyal to his tribesmen, his chieftain, and his Iyah. But Benkil succumbed to the Chant–the exiled god of sacrifice and unfulfilled dreams–and believed the Chant’s...

The Dream Job

This should have gone up last night. Alas, I got carried away with gardening and yardwork yesterday and thus spent the evening trying to ignore the spasms in my back.

Vegetable gardening is not my dream job, even though I do enjoy it and its results.

I cannot choose a single “job.” I’ve never beenthe single-career track type. I enjoy and take satisfaction in many things. I don’t have a single favorite, but two.

Writing would, of course, be a significant part of the mix. I love storytelling. Were...

The Blessing of Fault

The next question up on the 30-Day List is, “What is the hardest thing you have ever experienced?” Like the enduring-pain question, I have an unsettling number of experiences vying for the Number One slot. I could even say, “I endured life from 2008 to 2011, and it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” So I’m going to look beyond an individual experience and instead name a process.

The hardest thing I’ve done is accept, without reservation or qualification, that my life is my fault.

Understand...