House of Harnoeth

Linkage Vol. 2

2011-03-04T10:38:00.001-08:00

More posts on editing, this time a list of the editing podcasts Writing Excuses have done. March is NaNoEdMo, so we will be focusing on editing our novels at the Writers Meet in MilkWood. At least, I will be. This post is to give me an easier link to add to my nifty SecondLife notecard. Hope they are a help to you.Killing Your DarlingsThis Sucks and I'm a Horrible WriterTalking Revision with

Linkage Vol. 1

2011-01-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

So I like to add 'age' on the end of words. I promise I don't do it in fiction unless dialogue calls for it. But I digress. This is the first of my blog posts of links. Most of what I'm offering today is reading material as I begin editing my NaNo novel. Chuck Wendig's blog is fun times, I like his style. So here are his posts on editing from December:Why You Need Help EditingEdit Your Shit 1:

DWS's Races

2010-12-28T14:45:00.001-08:00

This one doesn't really count for Dean Wesley Smith's Submission Race but check out SCR(Shit Creek Review). I sent in four poems for their "Random Issue". We shall see how it works out. Would be an appropriate place for my first publication credit. In terms of DWS's challenge, I'll call each set of poems submitted to a paying market as the same amount of points a short story sub gets, which is 1

Holding Light: A Holiday Tale

2010-12-18T07:18:00.000-08:00

Since I didn't write a seasonal story till super late, enjoy it for free. I like this one, but worry it's a bit too twisted. Holding Light Tara sat in the midst of a tangled pit of Christmas lights, face lit up with every color of the rainbow."Well, at least they still work," Roger said, stepping over the left side of the mess with care and unplugging it from the wall."No thanks to you

Happy Christmas Time

2010-12-16T06:33:00.000-08:00

"Flakes" Carry me away on white flakes the dandruff lazy Santa makes too busy eating cookies and ornament hanging, present wrapping stuffing his bags while the elves sing the reindeer assist as a band clanging their jingle bells, stomping their hooves, transport me to winter town, where commercialism is banned.

Mr. Sanderson's Dialogue Challenge

2010-12-14T22:25:00.000-08:00

In case I lose my nerve before Sunday, here are my three pages of dialogue. I may extend it, but right now, it feels right the way it is. The challenge was to write 5-10 pages of dialogue, two characters, no blocking, no tagging, no exposition beyond what their words imply. Instructions for sharing, if you dare to accept the challenge, are on Brandon Sanderson's Facebook page. Deadline is Sunday.

I don't need permission to be wrong or right.

2010-11-21T09:44:00.000-08:00

More PAD Chapbook Challenge this fine Sunday morning. "Distance" Is it wrong to crave the distance shutterby and feel resistance to the quote unquote normal reality that binds us all in corporate misery. I can't be shamed into submission never bought, always listening the shutter snaps closed image captured separation, soul renewed to what is right and new. "Can I Go" The leaves are blowing

Tell Me Why I'm Stacking the Lost and Found

2010-11-18T20:02:00.000-08:00

Inspired by the pad Chapbook Challenge. Robert Lee Brewer is a great poet, and the comments are fun to procrastinate with. I'm playing catchup again. My second rejection has made me feel better about continuing to write. At least I am trying now. "Tell Me Why Everything's Broken” Is it the cigarettesor the lack of exerciseor the color tv?Tell me why everything's broken. Is it the unwanted

PAD Challenge Catch Up

2010-11-13T12:34:00.000-08:00

I think I am killing my brain a bit trying to do this challenge and NaNo in the same month, but I will survive. Took a few days away from poems, either forgetting because I finished NaNo too late or in desperately needed rest. I realize now that I need to listen to Hulk Hogan and take my damn vitamins. One can not live on coffee and cigarettes alone. Here are the last four days of prompts,

Manic Monday

2010-11-08T07:27:00.000-08:00

I always loved this bit on the morning news here when I worked day shift at a gas station. Something needed to wake me up. Only 3,000 more words, I can so do it. I'll be over the halfway point to "winning" NaNoWriMo, and a quarter of the way towards my goal. The Milk Wood place I'm always talking about on Twitter has been a help, if you can run http://www.secondlife.com come and write sometime.

Grinding the Grid: Saturday Night's Alright for Inspiration

2010-05-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

Saturday evening is a great night for live music in Second Life®. Music is the purest form of escapism and inspiration for me, so much energy comes across from the performers. A great live show will always invigorate and enhance my writing.To start my Saturday of musical inspiration, I took a trip over to Cisum (now unfortunately mid-move) to check out the sweet yet rocking Geos Copperfield at

The Ways of the World: Under the Influence

2010-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

There are many conflicting opinions on what one should read as a writer. Some authors-like David Eddings-claim to never read in their genre. Though he contradicted himself when he wrote of his love for the forms of medieval romance in the Introduction to The Rivan Codex. He was heavily influenced by this classic genre, and it shows in the similar plot structure of his books. It is better to admit

Extreme Rules! For Maryland, at least.

2010-04-26T11:33:00.000-07:00

I didn't have high hopes for Extreme Rules, the April WWE PPV in Baltimore at the Arena, because the Maryland Athletic Commission is notorious for laying out hefty fines for hardcore wrestling.Vince surely took a hit to the pocket book for some of the matches last night, though they were nothing compared to the vision most wrestling fans would have when looking forward to an extreme event. Not a

The Ways of the World: Addled by Adverbs

2010-04-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Editing is hell on the self esteem.I took a poem that was quite nice to a workshop last week, and one of the comments was a request for a few less adverbs, if possible. For a long time, I wondered why so many have a prejudice over these little words that end in -ly.I now see why it is so prevalent. These buggers are everywhere in my writing, lengthening sentences, helping me cop out of any

The Ways of the World: Prolonging the Prologue

2010-04-05T13:29:00.000-07:00

"Szeth-son-son-Vallano, Truthless of Shinovar, wore white on the day he was to kill a king." So begins the prologue to Brandon Sanderson's yet to be released book, The Way of Kings. As soon as I read it, I knew I had no reason to be worried about what is coming in August. The Stormlight Archive will be as awesome as the

The Ways of the World: A Hero's Social Network

2010-03-28T21:28:00.000-07:00

Last time on WOTW, I discussed the first five points of David Eddings's list of fantasy novel elements. His list starts with the bigger picture and works its way into the finer details, so the first choice you need to make for your fantasy novel, or most genre fiction, is theology. In fantasy, this is attached to religion, but even in mainstream fiction there is an inherent belief system behind

No Eggs for You!

2010-03-16T06:33:00.000-07:00

Yesterday morning suffered from a severe lack of supplies. No coffee creamer and no eggs. I was, however, in full use of a stomach ache that wouldn't quit. This morning, it was the cold. Oh my god, the weather needs to decide whether it is winter or spring. The man and I both attempted to rehibernate this morning, and the boy still isn't up. Why do I let such petty things get in the way of my

Dear Mr. Corgan

2010-03-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

Billy, I hope it's okay to call you that. I have been a fan of yours for a long time. I read a recent interview with you in Rolling Stone. My man bought me the magazine to cheer me up because you were in it. And some would say this is an oxymoron. I'm a total fangirl of yours, and even I

The Ways of the World: Elements of Fantasy

2010-03-14T14:49:00.000-07:00

There are many ways to approach adding plot elements to a story, but the list that inspired me to try my own hand at writing the type of books I love was the one in David Eddings's The Rivan Codex. Eddings wrote the list to be exhaustive in an attempt to deter those not serious about writing from writing in the genre.Instead, it gave me the well defined road map to story elements that I was

Side Project: Oh Google, Please Help me!

2010-03-11T16:43:00.000-08:00

Me and time management have issues. I am very much an all or nothing sort of individual, and it makes scheduling anything difficult for me. My brain doesn't want to work along those lines, ignores my pleasant paper reminders. I tore down the "Get Out of Debt Plan" a month ago. It's not like the man or myself sticks to it at all. We both made sincere attempts to reduce spending, but a more

Full Steam Hunt

2010-03-07T17:25:00.000-08:00

Just got back to me office after checking out a few places on the 2nd Annual Steam Hunt, a grid-wide scavenger hunt that has shown me all the various awesomeness the steampunk culture has added to our virtual home. A few of these places were fixes by the owner, and two others were in hopes of being able to find some well hidden gears. I succeeded in finding one that had eluded me.I have been on a

Milkwood Poetry Festival

2010-03-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

Time for a little shameless plugging, folks. I have been accepted as a reader for Milkwood's 1st Annual Poetry Festival. This scares me, but in a good way.I have played the role of hermit writer for a long time. The draw of SecondLife for me lies in the opportunities to connect with other writers here. Part of connecting with other writers is reading your work out loud, and it has been a long

The Meaning of Art on Second Life®

2010-02-28T18:56:00.000-08:00

The SLCPro event this week certainly came with a lot of announcements about Linden Lab's current projects, including the release of the Viewer 2.0 Beta to the public and the unveiling of their new Third Party Viewer Policy. After losing myself reading about all these developments in the blogs, the one that stuck out as the most interesting to me was the establishment of a Linden Endowment for the

Beta is Crashtastic!

2010-02-25T08:08:00.000-08:00

I started writing this blog post while waiting for my inventory to reload on 1.23 viewer. My beta testing of the new 2.0 viewer for SecondLife was FAIL in a lot of ways, yet it succeeded in showing me where Linden Lab is very shortsighted.I also have a greater sympathy for those that have a lot of problems crashing on the current viewer because they have older systems. I am going to be in their