Amy Laurens's Blog, page 103

Happily, Red

Wow, can you tell I’m on holidays or what? ANOTHER new story up for you at the Darkness and Good blog! Yay! *\o/*

You can blame this one on my sister’s tumblr, particularly this image here. I was reminiscing last night about how the internet is totally a microcosm (macrocosm?) of life, and how it can be both damningly bleak and gloriously uplifting, and seeing that image, I just opened up and word doc and started writing. If you read the story, you’ll see I was trying to capture some of that g...

It’s About That Time *sigh*

Yup. It’s about that time, two thirds of the way through the manuscript*, when I just want to murder the book and have it over with. “Why did I sign on to write this again?” I ask myself. “Who thought this was a good idea?” And, most importantly, “WILL THIS NEVER END???”

Which is not to say that a) things aren’t going smoothly** and b) I’m not enjoying the book. I’m dusting off knowledge I haven’t used since uni, learning a bunch of new things in the process, and coming up with cool world buil...

When War Came To Town

New short story up on Darkness and Good. Liana just posted one yesterday, too, so you get a double dose to make up for the fact that we hadn’t posted in two weeks O:)

When War Came To Town is a short story in my Powers cycle. If you’ve ever read my flash fic Forget, you’ll know the Powers cycle: a world where a set of superhero-like characters fight to maintain the balance of the world, with the mantle of the various Power roles passing on to new individuals when a previous one dies. There are...

The Pros and Cons of Being An English Teacher

An ex-student asked me about the pros and cons of being an English teacher, as they are considering it as a career path. Basically, this:

Pro: books and DVDs are tax deductible.
Con: You will never have enough time to read/watch them all.
Pro: HOLIDAYS.
Con: Term time.
Pro: HOLIDAYS.
Con: MARKING. Death. Destruction. DIE, MARKING, DIE.
Pro: Feeling like you make a difference.
Con: Feeling like you’re bashing your head against a brick wall.
(The last two occur together surprisingly often.)
Pro: Spending...

The Making of An Overlord

So, this is a story I’ve been mulling over for quite a long time, but it’s taken until now for the right shape and form to appear. Those of you who’ve had the privilege (*snort*) of reading anything in the Mercury story world will recognise the main character, Deviran – only in this story he’s several (SEVERAL) years younger than you’ve seen him before. For those of you to whom that means nothing, all you need to know is that Deviran is a main character I hope to be able to introduce you to o...

33 Dogs In Print!!

You guys! My non-fic book, The 33 Worst Mistakes Writers Make About Dogs, is coming to print!! YAY!!! Coming to all your favourite book-buying venues in May will be the pretty below. And my, in’t she pretty.

New Story-like Thing: At the Shrine of the Godless

So, this week’s story isn’t really a story, but hey, I take ‘em how they come. The first few verses literally plonked down in my head as I was driving home yesterday and saw a bunch of gerberas tied to a tree on the side of the road, where presumably someone beloved had died. The sunlight was streaming down through the canopy and happened to hit the flowers precisely, and bang: story-plotty-poemy-thing in my head.

Hurrah!

Deep in the woods
where the light filters down,
and the godless kneel
with t...

Cherry Blossom! AKA, I Suck At Promotion!

You guys! I seriously suck at this whole promotion thing, but wow. Cherry Blossom, my second anthology of short stories, is available for preorder on Smashwords! A short preorder, since it releases Monday o.O (Told you I suck at promotion!)

You can download all major formats at Smashwords, or if you’d prefer, the anthology will also be available on Amazon on Tuesday, and other major ebook retailers (Apple, Sony, B&N, etc) within the next month, depending on distribution.

But hurrah! Cherry Blos...

Recitals: Practising in Public

I took nine years of clarinet lessons from elementary school through high school. Of course I was in the band. The band gave concerts, despite the fact that there were times when we sounded pretty awful. We didn’t get paid. If we were lucky, our parents showed up to listen to us perform. There were wrong notes, missed cues, lots of mistakes. But nobody ever proposed that the school band stop giving concerts.

~ Elise Stone

Writers, go. Apply this to writing, RIGHT NOW. And then when you’re done...

I took nine years of clarinet lessons from elementary sch...

I took nine years of clarinet lessons from elementary school through high school. Of course I was in the band. The band gave concerts, despite the fact that there were times when we sounded pretty awful. We didn’t get paid. If we were lucky, our parents showed up to listen to us perform. There were wrong notes, missed cues, lots of mistakes. But nobody ever proposed that the school band stop giving concerts.

~ Elise Stone

Writers, go. Apply this to writing, RIGHT NOW. And then when you’re done...