Marlene Dotterer's Blog, page 2

Author Book Faire

California Writers Club Mt. Diablo Branch Holds a Book Faire We plan to do more events all over the East Bay!

My Ebooks on Sale at Smashwords, July 1

 All my books will be available as part of a promotion on Smashwords for the month of July as part of their Annual Summer/Winter Sale! This is a chance to get my books, along with books from many other great authors, at a discount so you can get right to reading. You will find the… Continue reading My Ebooks on Sale at Smashwords, July 1

From NYT: Why Must We Go About Lives With an Eye on the Nearest Exit?

Two caveats here: There are many take-aways to this deep and thoughtful article. Let mention just one: Why do the people who vote for expansive “gun rights” panic at the sight of a man, armored and vested to the hilt, wandering the aisles of their grocery store? Why did they call the police? Surely they …

Continue reading "From NYT: Why Must We Go About Lives With an Eye on the Nearest Exit?"

I Won a Contest!

After all this silence, and it’s New Year’s, it’s time to start with good news. I entered my WIP into a contest called “Scintillating Starts” over at Writer Advice. Just the first few pages to see if the beginning rocks or not.

Evidently it does, because I am one of three winners. Lots of thanks to B. Lynn Goodwin, the owner and editor of Writer Advice. This site is a useful tool for writers. Check it out for advice, classes, and contests.

“So what,” I hear you saying, “is this WIP?” (WIP...

Pandemic Conundrums

I will be careful…

But I’m coming out.

We’ve had our vaccines. We are past the “immunization build-up” period. I want to jump back into life.

I want to see my family. I want to HUG my family. Long hugs that will express the sadness of months of isolation and the unbelievable joy of being together again.

It’s silly in a way because it’s not unusual to go one or two years between visits, especially with the farther flung kids. But there were always one or two who were just an hour ...

Starting Again

I can’t believe my last post was THREE years ago. Guess I was really ready for a break, right?

It’s hard to drag yourself back…

3…

Three years ago, my world was bright. Oh sure, I was concerned about my country and its current path, about the planet and how humans would handle the coming changes, and other generally dark things like that. If you read back in the posts, you’ll see many of those ideas discussed and lamented. But personally, I was doing fine. Life was normal.

...

The Matriarch Perspective

Welcome one and all. I am a writer. I write science fiction and fantasy novels and sometimes dabble in short stories. So of course, this website is about my writing and about selling my books. That is true. But it’s not everything. I’m a lot of things besides just a writer. I’m a woman. A …

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Guns and America

In the issue of guns and mass killings in our country, everyone immediately lines up on their side of the argument. In this corner, we have gun control. In that corner we have violent media. In another corner we have mental illness. And over there is the bad parenting crowd. In the middle, we have gun owners and advocates who want their guns, no matter what. The arguing never changes and action never happens.

Let’s look at the big picture for a minute.

It’s all of these things.

ALL of them.

A...

The Foundation of Gender Inequality

This article is so perfect, you must go read it right now. It’s NYT, so if you don’t subscribe you might not have access, but I encourage you to try. The title is interesting: “The Men Who Want to Live Forever.” But those men (billionaires, of course) are just an excuse for author Dara Horn to zero in on the bottom line for gender inequality: throughout human existence, women have been almost exclusively responsible for the care, feeding, and comfort of other human beings.

Men have not.

More...

Ursula K. Le Guin. Go in Peace.

Ursula K. Le Guin

  “The speaking of her name and of her words goes on, and will go on, today and tomorrow and for a very long time now. As it should. She was the mother of so many of us, and you should take time to mourn your mother.”

-John Scalzi

 Like so many others, I felt a true loss upon learning of Ursula K. Le Guin’s death. And I feel a strong pull to “speak of her name and of her words.” I’m not a famous writer. I never met Ms. Le Guin, so I have no special stories to share. I only wa...