Rachel Dacus's Blog, page 7

Magical Realism & Time Travel – the What-If Game

History and magic are a powerful combination. Time travel can be a form of magical realism fiction, depending on the writer’s approach. In a magical realism treatment, you’re in one world and then another opens around you like a blossom. In my magical realism style of time travel, there are laws to the ability to move through time, but the focus isn’t on the mechanisms (science fiction style), nor on characters living in a different…

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Mending Our Broken World with Gold

Our Broken World People talk a lot these days about the divisions in our country and our world. With good reason, they lament the brokenness we see among a large swath of the population, and the despair many feel that the “normal” world will never be regained. I have a different view. I come at this chaos with the idea that we are making a hairpin turn in civilization, and won’t be returning to “normal”.…

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Children Aiding Ukraine’s Children

Children Standing Together as One Family I’m always moved to see adults joining together from many countries to aid Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders. And  when I see children moved by the plight of other children, it’s especially touching. They’re not only sympathizing, they’re taking action! This group of children got together to do something tangible to help Ukrainian kids. They raised funds with handmade goods and baked treats, sending tthe proceeds to…

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Speaking Plainly in Poetry

Sometimes speaking needs to be be done both plainly and in poetry. The essayist’s keyboard writes journalistically, but a poet’s pen tends to curve. It speaks truth aslant of literal meaning. It breaks into lines, cadges meaning from comparisons, and is known to divert utterance with entertaining rhythm or rhyme. I’m thinking about saying a thing with curves, speaking plainly in poetry. Uttering my truth in metaphor while making its essentials clear as glass. To…

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What I Know

Things sometimes need to be said plainly in poetry. But my pen tends toward curvature. It wants line breaks and metaphors, sometimes rhythm or even rhyme. I’m thinking about how you can say a thing with those curves while buffing its essentials to a clarity that can’t be mistaken. This poem burst into being recently, got some polishing, some additions, and probably will evolve. So I won’t send it out for publishing. I’ll post it…

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Hooked on Living a Creative Life

Living a Creative Life Can Be Addictive It seems that I’m hooked on living a creative life. I always return to writing after a catastrophe or crisis. I return to it when I’m happy and fulfilled. When I’m bored or confused. It’s like home plate. After  my younger brother died, I stayed in bed for two weeks and wrote. It was terrible and unexpected. He died of cancer after a year-long battled that gave him…

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Time Travel Novels I Wish I’d Written

In this post, I’m going to rate several time travel novels, using my own I-Wish-I’d-Written-It test of time travel novels. Time travel novels go in two basic directions. Either the plot is a thriller-style story involving a scientific approach to time’s paradoxes and possibilities. Or time travel immerses the reader in the romance of a past era, usually with a romantic love story. I’m very little interested in historical Scotland, where the majority of time…

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Starting a New Book — Why Did I Do It?

Why Did I Do It? Starting a new novel was a accident. Why did I begin to haul another book out of midair almost the minute I’d sent this one to be published? There was a whiteboard in my brain, erased and swoops like the water color clouds making upside down commas on the sky today. I was empty of story, the characters are gone to their own lives and readers minds. No longer my…

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The Practice of Writing Every Day

I belong to a writing group called Every Damn Day Writers.  We set it up to encourage ourselves to write  every day. The practice of writing every day builds the habit of creating and of course pushes your manuscript forward. A daily schedule stirs the creative brain into action. It’s a magical key that unlocks the door — not only to a new room, but eventually a whole new book. So how do you establish…

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Writing Tips — The Practice of Writing Every Day

I belong to a Facebook writing group called Every Damn Day Writers.  We set it up to encourage ourselves to write  every day. The practice of writing every day builds the habit of creating and of course pushes your manuscript forward. A daily schedule stirs the creative brain into action. It’s a magical key that unlocks the door — not only to a new room, but eventually a whole new book. So how do you…

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