Deborah Adams's Blog, page 9

b.read.crumbs : Lost in the Forest of Excess Verbiage

My prompt this month is the fairy tale “The Yellow Dwarf.” I’d never read it before Julie and I started working from The Blue Fairy Book, and apparently no editor ever read it, either. It’s filled with disparate characters and fizzling plotlines that spoil the fun of reading. Julie and I chose the name breadcrumbs for our newsletter because we hoped to provide a trail through the mistakes and misfortunes we’ve traversed so that others on the writer’s path can avoid same.

I could have used a trail...

Of All The Gin Joints – guest post by actor and author Rick Lenz

I was in school when James Dean died. It seemed like such a big deal. He only made three movies, but he got through to millions of young people on a gut level, far beyond what the usual Hollywood hype could have generated. A few years after acting with John Wayne, another star who had risen into something approaching mythological status, it occurred to me how cool it would be to bring them together into one story. Since they never worked together, I had to find a meeting ground. A lost film work...

b.read.crumbs: Finding Your Way to an Unknown Land

https://juliewherman.com/

How does one find one's way to an unknown land? Well, if you are the heroine (silly girl) in the Blue Fairy Tale Book's, East of the Sun and West of the Moon, then you make a mistake about listening to sage advice, and then must ride pillar to post looking for your lost love.

Plotting a book is much like this.

But since every writer's process is different, and there is something specific about this story that leads me to a very important topic, I'll leave the plot line the...

How to Flunk Typing 101

My Deplorable Writing Habits

As a writer, I now work almost exclusively on a laptop, which provides me that most miraculous of abilities: the appearance of being an excellent typist. While I do know the QWERTY keyboard, and type using both hands, I look at the keys. My son — born with keyboard attached by umbilical cord— types ten times faster, using two fingers. Sadly, however, he and his cohort can neither write nor decipher cursive, which is rapidly becoming a lost art. (Alas, dear Calligraphy...

Su Yun ~ 3 Questions & a Poem

Question 1What do you consider the three most important elements of a poem?

I believe the three most crucial elements of a poem are the choice of imagery, the shift of person, and a distinctive style. First of all, as a boy who grew up in rural China, I have more room and more subtle things to explore and observe. Thus, I place great importance on selecting diverse imagery for my creations. (These might not be what others consider important, but as long as there are unique perspectives, even the ...

10 places to submit your writing in February 2025

I’m usually swimming in great places to submit—more places than I can write for, anyway. For 2025, I’m going to share a few of them every month.

Suburban Witchcraft Magazine accepts submissions throughout the year

The Road Not Taken: The Journal of Formal Poetry ( obviously) publishes formal poetry

Succinct Literary Magazine publishes micro poems of one, two, or three lines

Science Fiction & Fantasy Poetry Association is a literary venue for speculative (including science-fiction, fantasy, and hor...

How A Mind Is Lost

The easiest way to control the minds and actions of any people is by taking away the capability to learn. Ignorance bends to fascism. It’s no coincidence that Farenheit 451 is on the list of banned books.

Read as many as you can, preserve them, share them. Join the resistance.

Banned Books Master List

The Complete List of Banned & Challenged Books by State

Image by John Hain from Pixabay

My World and Welcome To It

There are things I want and need to do, but sometimes—often!—nonsense gets in the way. I hope to give more energy and attention to those activities that really matter to me by sharing a monthly recap, which lets me imagine that all of you will hold me accountable. Thank you for allowing me to do that. I’ll include some links with each recap that I hope will be of help to you, as well. Please let me know if that’s really so.

A FEW THINGS I DID IN JANUARYNATURE-RELATED

Enjoyed First Day Hike at John...

b.read.crumbs : As Plain as the Nose on Your Face

Julie and I are using fairy tales as our prompts this year, and I get to kick it off with “Prince Hyacinth and the Dear Little Princess.” In case you’re not familiar with that one, here’s the summary:

A much-loved baby boy is born to the King and Queen. The boy, Prince Hyacinth, is healthy and nearly perfect, but his nose is gigantic. Like all parents, the King and Queen try to protect their son from ridicule and hurt, so they order everyone in the kingdom to wear fake noses in order to shield Hy...

Follow the b.read.crumbs to the source of everything you need...

When Deb and I were talking about what to call a shared blog, we decided upon breadcrumbs, for all who follow the writing life are forever looking for The Way. And surely breadcrumbs are scattered between the words we should choose to use...Right?

Alas.

Such a trail does not exist.

Even when writers try to set a trail. This is called plotting and many do this, but also many find (to their dismay) that plotting a story is a true waste of time and effort. I even buy books devoted to plotting (Latest ...