Laura VanArendonk Baugh's Blog, page 53
August 20, 2013
How I Use Ebooks Differently
I found this quote while flipping through an older book on the publishing process, in a section on electronic publishing: “…Will [electronic publishing] ever be more than an intriguing fringe for a literary avant garde and those who just can’t make it in traditional publishing?” Well, ouch. Electronic publishing only for techie elitists and inferior […]
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August 12, 2013
Alpha Males & Fiction
I had an interesting Twitter conversation a while back whenWorld Weaver Press tweeted an article about hot alpha males (“dangerous,” “possessive,” “dominating,” etc.) in paranormal romance. Being a total behavior nerd, I replied that most of these “alpha males” were actually displaying lower-ranking behavior – real alphas don’t posture, act aggressive or defensive, etc. — […]
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July 30, 2013
How Do I Love Chocolate? Let Me Count the Ways….
(I wanted to be blogging this week about the Midwest Writers Workshop and the coolness thereof, but I’ve been considerably distracted. So please accept this pre-written post about chocolate in the meanwhile.) What does dark chocolate do for me? Well, it provides the caffeine which I don’t get from coffee. (Yeah, I’m one of the [...]
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July 23, 2013
Teaser Tuesday: A Short Walk Home
Today’s Teaser Tuesday comes from the short story, “A Short Walk Home.” I don’t know why I even reacted; it was just a rustle, probably an opossum or raccoon. But I became newly awareI was beside a corn field, not soybeans, and I couldn’t see a thing in there. Soybeans can hide rabbits; corn can [...]
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July 17, 2013
Write-Aid, or, A Submitted Story
This is the story of how I submitted a substandard short story to an editor this week and am sorta proud of it. It’s been a turbulent week, and it’s only Wednesday. You may know that my day job is animal (and human) behavior, and I have two dogs who are both family members and [...]
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July 10, 2013
I Feel Rather Flattered.
I hopped over to check something on an Amazon listing, and I found this: But you know, I’ll sell you one of my personal copies for half that price. I’ll even sign it and everything. (Not sure exactly how that happened, but it makes for a great screencap!)
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July 8, 2013
Kitsune-Mochi is coming…!
Yes, yes, it’s coming — the sequel to Kitsune-Tsuki!While Kitsune-Tsuki was a novelette, Kitsune-Mochi is a full novel. I’m having a tough time with this one, though, due to the fact that my cover designer Jess was a little too awesome. I’d thought to stay with the same cover theme as Kitsune-Tsuki, but she gave [...]
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July 5, 2013
At InConJunction for Japanese Folklore
We’ll be presenting tonight on Japanese Folklore & Mythology (and talking about Kitsune-Tsuki) at InConJunction in Indianapolis. And I’ve added a new video clip, my favorite scene from Ran, to the panel. /rubs palms together gleefully/ Say hello!
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July 3, 2013
I Dine with Ninja
I talk a lot about Japanese folklore here on the blog, for obvious reasons, but I haven’t talked much about ninja. And ninja have certainly entered national pop culture and folklore, so they’re as valid a topic as any other. Plus, I got to have dinner with some lately. I don’t mean I dined with [...]
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June 10, 2013
Writing emotions. No, not ABOUT emotions.
The problem with writing is that it’s wholly subjective. Qualitative. No hard data. Where we can do quantitative analysis, we can make reasonable judgments even when our emotions aren’t in alignment. “I felt great about this today, but we actually had only a 70% success rate.” Or, “Oh, man, today has been a total downer [...]
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