Kurt R.A. Giambastiani's Blog, page 66

Editing Weekend

I spent the weekend doing two things: trying to relax, and editing the novelette. I succeeded in the latter. Editing went well, both on the story and on the cover art. Each editing pass revealed fewer errors–reaching zero by the fourth pass–and fewer lines that gave me pause. Eventually, in editing, I like to get […]

He said, She said

We all have our individual quirks of style. Little, verbal quirks. Weuse a phrase once, like it, use it again, and eventually it becomes habit. For most people (i.e,. non-authors), this isn’t a problem. A quirky turn of phrase, a tag-line, a preference for the spelling “grey” instead of “gray”–these are not problems for most […]

Supervising the Rewrite

As I’ve been working on this story, re-creating it from an older model, I’ve been watching over my work. Supervising, if you will. Overall, the new version is half-again as long–originally around 8,000 words, it now clocks in at about 12,000–and I wondered if that was just because I added a scene here and there. […]

Golden Cayenne Hot Sauce

A friend of mine runs OACAPepper Farm, and he shared a great recipe for a hot sauce that uses carrots, onions, and habanerochili peppers. The carrots give sweetness, the habaneros the heat, and it comes out orange, tangy, and very good. When my garden started providing me with golden cayenne chili peppers, I thought I […]

Recalibration

So far, the results from my poll on subscriber interest and visiting schedule have been small but consistent. Readers who expressed an opinion, said that they visit about 3 times per week, and want more writerly content–actual writing, or discussions on writing. What prompted me to ask these questions? I’ve kept up the 5-days-a-week pace […]

Happiness, Music, Joy

I once knew a girl. She was beautiful, with happyeyes and apple cheeksand long, black hair. She was quick to smile, her eyes turning into crescents, her laugh quiet and shy, like a secret. She was quiet, like me, and thoughtful, unafraid of deeper questions. She played the violin, not very well, but well enough […]

One for the Books

The simplicity and durability of the codex book is hard to match. A decidedly low-tech marvel by today’s standards, a book is still a nearly magical thing. I have books in my house that are hundreds of years old. I have one was made in the early 1700s. That’s three centuries, my friend. And all […]

Taking your Pulse

Over the Labor Day weekend, I talked with other bloggers about frequency of posts. I wondered what my subscribers might want by way of frequency and topics. Well, the best way to find out is to ask. So I’m asking. …and… Thanks for the input. k

You Are Surrounded

Echoes from another time. “You’re too sensitive.” “I was just teasing!” “You need to come out of your shell.” “Youspend too much time in your head.” When young, adults labeled me with words like “shy” and “bookish” which didn’t sound bad but I was pretty sure they weren’t compliments. I had no such confusion with […]

Masquerade

I wear many masks. I put them on to face the world. They are fitted to the roles I play, Fulfilling expectations, righton cue. I do not wear them to deceive. They are not my armor. They cannot protect me. Nothing is so strong. They merely hide my truth From untrusted eyes. I wear them […]