Sherrie R. Cronin's Blog, page 40

Learning as you go

I like them and what they do and I like the idea that y1 is in some small way making a contribution. It’s not quite what I had in mind when I started this, but then none of this adventure in writing novels has turned out quite like I expected.

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Filed under: y1: favorite posts Tagged: #amwriting, be better, gratitude, resolutions, writing

Remember and move on

It is always odd to finally visit the real location that I’ve held in my imagination for a story. Today is a windy, overcast day in late autumn, and I stand for the first time on the grounds of the civil war battle of Cedar Creek in Northwest Virginia. Battle grounds bring a hush over us all. People died there, often in the most difficult and painful of ways, and we know that they did. Lots of people lost their lives at this site, and thanks to my determination to write a battle scene as accurately as I could, I know more about these people than I do about those in any other battle ever.

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Filed under: z2: favorite posts Tagged: #amwriting, letting go, memories, south, time passing, writing

Face Painting for World Peace

A few of my tales, however, happened almost the way I tell them. One such narrative is Lola’s realizing how running the face painting booth at her children’s grade school changed her life.

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Filed under: x0: peace Tagged: art, be better, Teaching Tolerance, tolerance, world, world peace, writing

with a breath of kindness blow the rest away

Each Dec. 31 since I wrote y1, I find myself thinking of adolescent Zane throwing up on coffee liqueur as he attempts to greet the new year like an adult. Creating this scene required a better sense of balance than most. I wanted my readers to cheer on Zane as he tried to be older, in spite of their hopeful disapproval of children drinking alcohol. I wanted them to empathize with how the process of releasing the past is seldom an easy one for any of us. Metaphorically, a lot of us end up with our heads over the toilet bowl when we try to move on.

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Filed under: y1: favorite posts Tagged: 2015, gratitude, lessons learned, letting go, new year, personal growth, resolutions, writing

World Peace Update

There is a third reason I can’t get this song out of my head and I know what it is. As I move d4, my fun novel about the future, on to beta readers and my editor, I am letting go emotionally of beautiful Ariel and her wild adventures and turning my heart and mind to the next book, the last one in the collection.

Read the rest of this post at World Peace Update.

 

Filed under: music, writing, x0: peace Tagged: peace, peace signs, peace songs, telepaths, telepathy, world, world peace, writing

Time Traveler looking for a Good Time

Well, it’s a year later and now I’ve got thirteen folks reading the almost final version of the soon-to-be-published novel d4. Nine are first time beta readers. Eight are people I’ve never met in real life and probably never will. How does one thank nine women and four men with ages that range from early twenties to late sixties and who call six different countries on three continents home?Easy. You send them a t-shirt.

Read the rest of this post at Traveler looking for a Good Time.

 

 

Filed under: z2: time Tagged: free, gratitude, time, time travel, writing

Do strangers make the perfect beta readers?

“A Streetcar Named Desire” made the phrase “I’ve always depended on the kindness of strangers” infamous. While it is hard not to wince when the naive yet tragic Blanche DuBois utters it, I think that part of our discomfort comes from knowing that we all do rely sometimes on the goodwill of those we don’t know. Having spent the whole play or movie learning of the cruel events in Blanche’s life, this truth makes us uncomfortable, whether we find Blanche a likeable character or not.

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Filed under: writing Tagged: beta readers, books, courage, internet, kindness, strangers, writing

Family and friends: the best or worst people to read your book?

Shortly after I published my first novel, x0, I was surprised by this question. “Did you let family members read your book before you published it?” Of course I did. What kind of question is that, I thought. I mean, maybe if I wrote certain kinds of books then no, but ….

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Filed under: writing Tagged: #amwriting, beta readers, better, books, dysfunctional friends, editing, family, friendship, personal growth, proofreading, writing

My iPod works as a fortune cookie

My tiny nano iPod works like a Chinese fortune cookie. It’s so small that I only use it with my alarm clock, and every morning it greets me with a random song that has an uncanny way of setting the stage for my day. You know, just like how you are thinking of maybe going to visit some old friend in another town and the little piece of paper in your dessert says “You are about to embark on a wonderful journey”. So you go. Well, from the Supremes singing to me to “Stop! In the Name of Love” on the day I almost had a car wreck to Arcade Fire’s “Sprawl II” on the day that I got hopelessly lost in a previously unexplored suburb of Houston, I’ve decided that it’s eerie how these little things know so much.

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orks as a fortune cookie.

Filed under: x0: peace Tagged: peace signs, peace songs, politics, psychic powers, world, world peace

Good luck charms and dancing Indians

Humans, of every continent, race, and religion, hope for good fortune. They want to live long and healthy lives, safe from danger. They will ask their gods and beg the fates to protect their children. They want love.

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Filed under: z2: time Tagged: change, charms, forgiveness, growth, hope, peace, time, time passing, travel