OK, so as my readers know I'm doing NaNoWriMo again this year. Unfortunately NaNo and University don't go too well together and it doesn't look like I'm going to make 50 000 words. Currently I'm at 27 715 words in my fantasy work and 57 357 in my murder mystery (which I started last year for NaNoWriMo (I didn't make 50 000 words last year's NaNo either)) I may post an excerpt of my fantasy work at some point, I'm not sure, if you haven't already, go check out the excerpt of my Murder Mystery and don't forget to comment and let me know what you think. As I mentioned in an earlier post I switched off Google+ comments so anyone should be able to comment (I think).
Review of Blood Relations by Pollock:
Blood Relations is a play about the, very famous woman, Lizzie Borden (Yes that Lizzie Borden). At the same time it's about her however, it's as much about the young actress who's playing her (also named Lizzie). The young actress and Lizzie meet up to discuss the role and how it should be portrayed. Miss Lizzie (Miss Lizzie is how Lizzie Borden is addressed in the play, in order to differentiate between them both) also waxes philosophical, expounding on ideas of the time, such as women being like horses. It's a very good play and I would suggest reading it if you get the chance.
A bit on Lizzie Borden:
She was accused, and subsequently acquitted, of the axe murders of her parents. She lived from 1860-1927. After she was acquitted, she remained in her Massachusetts home. No one was actually charged with the murders of her parents, Abby and Andrew Borden. Interestingly she was named after her father, her full name being Lizzie Andrew Borden. This may have stemmed from her father's desire to have a boy and not a girl. Interestingly enough, because Lizzie herself was acquitted and no one else was ever charged, the case of her parent's murders was never officially wrapped up and, in fact, people speculate about it still even now. She died of Pneumonia in 1927.
Thursday, 28 November 2013
Tuesday, 26 November 2013
Hello All and Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Hi again, I know I haven't been on in a while.
As the title says I wanted to wish all my American readers (I'm Canadian) a Happy Thanksgiving! I haven't been doing much reading lately so I'm not going to do a book review today. Instead I'm going to talk about my projects and various things that I've been working on. The first, it being the end of November, is NaNoWriMo. I'm no where close to the 50 000 word goal, I'm really behind, but I guess that's what happens when you try to balance NaNo with University. Word of Advice: It doesn't work...at all...though lately I have been working on some other projects, macrame friendship bracelets (and curtain ties for my parents bu those have been on the go for about a year and half, I just haven't had the time) I've also been working on various knitting and crocheting projects that have sat in my knitting basket for ages. I also checked on line (being a Whovian of course I saw the 50th and was inspired) for a pattern, any pattern, for the 4th Doctor's (Tom Baker's) famous scarf, let's be honest it is a pretty rockin' scarf. I found that there are actually multiple patterns and many scarves that were used for his time as the Doctor. I found the first one, the classic one here, I found it on DeviantArt and it's the official pattern from the BBC and his season 18 scarf (the red one with the burgundy) here courtesy of The Witty Little Knitter. I'm thinking, after finals, which are fast approaching considering it's the last week of classes, I'd start on one of them and maybe make both since they both look pretty awesome. However I'm also working on a scarf in white for me which I'm hoping to be done before Christmas, along with some of my other projects. I'll keep you updated and maybe post pictures. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers, keep reading, and suggest books for me to review. Black Friday's coming up so be sure to take advantage of the sales, if there are any in your area (I know some places here recently hopped the bandwagon) and maybe I'll do my yarn shopping on Black Friday...who knows...Happy Knitting, NaNo, reading and writing.
Until next time, DFTBA.
As the title says I wanted to wish all my American readers (I'm Canadian) a Happy Thanksgiving! I haven't been doing much reading lately so I'm not going to do a book review today. Instead I'm going to talk about my projects and various things that I've been working on. The first, it being the end of November, is NaNoWriMo. I'm no where close to the 50 000 word goal, I'm really behind, but I guess that's what happens when you try to balance NaNo with University. Word of Advice: It doesn't work...at all...though lately I have been working on some other projects, macrame friendship bracelets (and curtain ties for my parents bu those have been on the go for about a year and half, I just haven't had the time) I've also been working on various knitting and crocheting projects that have sat in my knitting basket for ages. I also checked on line (being a Whovian of course I saw the 50th and was inspired) for a pattern, any pattern, for the 4th Doctor's (Tom Baker's) famous scarf, let's be honest it is a pretty rockin' scarf. I found that there are actually multiple patterns and many scarves that were used for his time as the Doctor. I found the first one, the classic one here, I found it on DeviantArt and it's the official pattern from the BBC and his season 18 scarf (the red one with the burgundy) here courtesy of The Witty Little Knitter. I'm thinking, after finals, which are fast approaching considering it's the last week of classes, I'd start on one of them and maybe make both since they both look pretty awesome. However I'm also working on a scarf in white for me which I'm hoping to be done before Christmas, along with some of my other projects. I'll keep you updated and maybe post pictures. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to my American readers, keep reading, and suggest books for me to review. Black Friday's coming up so be sure to take advantage of the sales, if there are any in your area (I know some places here recently hopped the bandwagon) and maybe I'll do my yarn shopping on Black Friday...who knows...Happy Knitting, NaNo, reading and writing.
Until next time, DFTBA.
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Writing tips and things
Hello All
It's not exactly a book review but today I'm going to post some writing tips in honor of the halfway point in NaNoWriMo, some of these I came up with on my own, through experience but others I found on the net, usually on Tumblr, I'm not going to lie. These tips also work for Essays and school assignments.
Writing Tips:
1. Try your hardest to stay off the internet and Social Networking sites - Now, I myself am not the best follower of this rule, right now being a prime example, in truth staying off the net while you're supposed to be writing doesn't always work, especially when you have to look something up online, well I have a solution to this,
Step 1: Switch off your internet connection, if you're on wireless
Step 2: Open a new word document or notepad or Wordpad, Appleworks, what have you and title it "Things to look up" or something like that
Step 3: While you write if you come across something that you need to look up, don't immediately hit Google, you'll get distracted, pull up the blank document you just opened and write down what it is that you need to look up
Step 4: Once that's written down go back to your project or assignment and write whatever it was that you were going to write
Step 5: Highlight it so you can find it again later, after you've looked up the thing.
Step 6: Keep working and once you're finished or at least finished for the day, go back through the document of things to Google and Google them, write down your findings next to the item
Step 7: Go and insert the correct information into your novel/project, but keep the file of things to look up, you never know what you'll need
2. If you're like me you like writing or working to music, my advice to you is to find music that's not too upbeat, like dance music, or not too distracting for you and just listen to it while you write, if you find yourself getting distracted change the music obviously
3. Read - I'm going to be honest here, some of my best inspiration comes directly from other works, character names, ideas for monsters that sort of thing, all the best authors do this, I'll do a post later comparing 2 of the greats. Don't just read your genre though, make time to read everything classics, contemporary novels, fantasy, detective fiction, true crime, horror, science fiction, all of it, even if it's just an article in National Geographic inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere, you just have to know where to look.
4. Actually Write, whether it's a couple of pages every day or a half page, 100 words whatever, write something, if you're having an off day and the words are clunky and not all that great write it anyway, you can go back later and edit your work and change things
5. If you're having a really off day and none of your writing flows the way you want it to, set a low word count goal, once you've reached it, take a break! Surf the net, read, go for a walk, troll your favourite Social networks, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, what have you, when inspiration strikes you, go back to your work
6. Character names - I'm going to touch on characters now, if you need a name for a character, use Google, search for baby name websites, Shakespeare name websites what ever, I know, when I was writing my Mystery Novel, I still am but for NaNoWriMo I'm focusing on my Fantasy Novel, anyway, when I first got the idea to write my mystery novel I was watching Sherlock that amazing feat of Steven Moffat's starring the god among men and resident dragon with the magic eyes, Benedict Cumberbatch and our very own Bilbo Baggins, Martin Freeman, the episode was The Hounds of Baskerville and in the canon Conan Doyle the main character's name was Lord Henry Baskerville, tenant of Baskerville Hall so I thought, what's a better, more old fashioned, name than Henry, so I wanted to use that but I needed a girl's name, a woman's name, for my main character. So I thought, and thought and finally I settled on naming her after my mother, Evelyn (I explain why in either the dedication or the Acknowledgements) hence my 2 main characters were born. However, they still needed last names so I settled on Jones for Henry and Hart for Evelyn, unfortunately I was reminded that there was already a detective Hart in the TV series Heart to Hart, also, I realized late, some of you may have noticed that Henry Jones is Indiana's name in the Indiana Jones movies, so I swapped their last names and added a couple of letters to Evelyn's last name. If you're using Shakepeare names though, be careful.
7. Go on iTunes and look up podcasts on books and writing, personally I find that they're very useful, I've got the NPR Books podcast, The New York times book review, Books on the Nightstand and Books and Authors, one thing I will say though, listen to Welcome to NightVale but don't write with it playing in the background because it gets super distracting, because it can get really weird at parts. One podcast I will recommend that you listen/subscribe to is Wordplay: Helping Writers become Authors by K.M. Weiland, she gives writing tips and advice for getting agents and publishers to snap up your idea and the podcast is truly amazing, she also does a video supplement to it on her blog
http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/ and her website, where you can learn more about he books is http://www.kmweiland.com/
So that's my very long post with writing tips and what have you. My followers and readers who are doing NaNoWriMo, good luck and happy writing! I'll do a book review/author comparison next so stay tuned!
It's not exactly a book review but today I'm going to post some writing tips in honor of the halfway point in NaNoWriMo, some of these I came up with on my own, through experience but others I found on the net, usually on Tumblr, I'm not going to lie. These tips also work for Essays and school assignments.
Writing Tips:
1. Try your hardest to stay off the internet and Social Networking sites - Now, I myself am not the best follower of this rule, right now being a prime example, in truth staying off the net while you're supposed to be writing doesn't always work, especially when you have to look something up online, well I have a solution to this,
Step 1: Switch off your internet connection, if you're on wireless
Step 2: Open a new word document or notepad or Wordpad, Appleworks, what have you and title it "Things to look up" or something like that
Step 3: While you write if you come across something that you need to look up, don't immediately hit Google, you'll get distracted, pull up the blank document you just opened and write down what it is that you need to look up
Step 4: Once that's written down go back to your project or assignment and write whatever it was that you were going to write
Step 5: Highlight it so you can find it again later, after you've looked up the thing.
Step 6: Keep working and once you're finished or at least finished for the day, go back through the document of things to Google and Google them, write down your findings next to the item
Step 7: Go and insert the correct information into your novel/project, but keep the file of things to look up, you never know what you'll need
2. If you're like me you like writing or working to music, my advice to you is to find music that's not too upbeat, like dance music, or not too distracting for you and just listen to it while you write, if you find yourself getting distracted change the music obviously
3. Read - I'm going to be honest here, some of my best inspiration comes directly from other works, character names, ideas for monsters that sort of thing, all the best authors do this, I'll do a post later comparing 2 of the greats. Don't just read your genre though, make time to read everything classics, contemporary novels, fantasy, detective fiction, true crime, horror, science fiction, all of it, even if it's just an article in National Geographic inspiration can come from anywhere and everywhere, you just have to know where to look.
4. Actually Write, whether it's a couple of pages every day or a half page, 100 words whatever, write something, if you're having an off day and the words are clunky and not all that great write it anyway, you can go back later and edit your work and change things
5. If you're having a really off day and none of your writing flows the way you want it to, set a low word count goal, once you've reached it, take a break! Surf the net, read, go for a walk, troll your favourite Social networks, Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, Pinterest, what have you, when inspiration strikes you, go back to your work
6. Character names - I'm going to touch on characters now, if you need a name for a character, use Google, search for baby name websites, Shakespeare name websites what ever, I know, when I was writing my Mystery Novel, I still am but for NaNoWriMo I'm focusing on my Fantasy Novel, anyway, when I first got the idea to write my mystery novel I was watching Sherlock that amazing feat of Steven Moffat's starring the god among men and resident dragon with the magic eyes, Benedict Cumberbatch and our very own Bilbo Baggins, Martin Freeman, the episode was The Hounds of Baskerville and in the canon Conan Doyle the main character's name was Lord Henry Baskerville, tenant of Baskerville Hall so I thought, what's a better, more old fashioned, name than Henry, so I wanted to use that but I needed a girl's name, a woman's name, for my main character. So I thought, and thought and finally I settled on naming her after my mother, Evelyn (I explain why in either the dedication or the Acknowledgements) hence my 2 main characters were born. However, they still needed last names so I settled on Jones for Henry and Hart for Evelyn, unfortunately I was reminded that there was already a detective Hart in the TV series Heart to Hart, also, I realized late, some of you may have noticed that Henry Jones is Indiana's name in the Indiana Jones movies, so I swapped their last names and added a couple of letters to Evelyn's last name. If you're using Shakepeare names though, be careful.
7. Go on iTunes and look up podcasts on books and writing, personally I find that they're very useful, I've got the NPR Books podcast, The New York times book review, Books on the Nightstand and Books and Authors, one thing I will say though, listen to Welcome to NightVale but don't write with it playing in the background because it gets super distracting, because it can get really weird at parts. One podcast I will recommend that you listen/subscribe to is Wordplay: Helping Writers become Authors by K.M. Weiland, she gives writing tips and advice for getting agents and publishers to snap up your idea and the podcast is truly amazing, she also does a video supplement to it on her blog
http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/ and her website, where you can learn more about he books is http://www.kmweiland.com/
So that's my very long post with writing tips and what have you. My followers and readers who are doing NaNoWriMo, good luck and happy writing! I'll do a book review/author comparison next so stay tuned!
Friday, 1 November 2013
NaNoWriMo Starts Today!!!
Hello readers, sorry I haven't been on in a while I'll start with some updates, last time I posted may have been really worrying for some or you, it was for me as well but Licorice is fine and as you may be aware November first is the start of National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo so crack out those pens, typewriters, paper, computers, whatever you use to write and start writing!. If you want to enter NaNo go to www.nanowrimo.org and sign up for an account, there's awesome prizes you can win if you read the word count goal of 50,000 words by November 30th but winning officially starts November 25th. So, crack out any writing projects long forgotten, or even an ongoing one that's going nowhere and start writing!
Also, along the line of updates, I realized that people might not be commenting on my blog because I had Google+ comments enabled, I've switched off Google+ comments so feel free to comment on anything including books that you'd like me to review!!
Also, along the line of updates, I realized that people might not be commenting on my blog because I had Google+ comments enabled, I've switched off Google+ comments so feel free to comment on anything including books that you'd like me to review!!
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