A very quick post today.
First and foremost – thank you to all the readers for reading this blog.
Thank you to those of you that used the Star Rating (just underneath the title of each post) to let me know they’ve been here.
Thank you to those that put a Like on my posts (at the bottom of each post – in full read mode), because feedback is precious. Continue reading
I know, I know – I’ve been boring you out of your brain with my stuff about Shanghai.
Sorry ’bout that.
Today something completely different.
This is Paris, in 1950.
Now write a story about this…
Who were Maurine Karns and Pat Patterson?
I don’t have much information on this strange duo, but the fact that in 1936 they published a guide to Shanghai that’s one of the most cherished (and fun) pieces in my collection.
The book (which was reprinted a few years ago by always reliable Earnshaw Books) is called Shanghai – High Lights, Low Lights, Tael Lights.
And it is absolutely outrageous.
In a good way, mind you! Continue reading
It sometimes happens that I fall in love with my support characters.
Now, every series should have a handful of characters the hero can call upon when he gets in trouble – as heroes will.
Not properly a sidekick, more like a recurring character.
Think Marcus Brody and Sallah in the Indiana Jones movies.
Such characters provide support, continuity, and quite often an element of comedy that the hero can’t bring himself (being heroic AND funny is hard work indeed, for both hero and author).
More generally, they can voice the feelings and the thoughts the hero, for a number of reasons, can’t.
They can act as conscience, provide wise suggestions, or quite simply hand the hero the tool he needs, when he needs it.
I mentioned it in the past – I love reading books about writing.
Handbooks, collections of essays, collections of interviews.
There’s always something useful – an insight, a suggestion, an idea.
Now, the StoryBundle guys have an offer up and running – six books about writing, freelancing and living the writing life, plus other six if you shell out enough cash.
The deal is pretty straight – you decide how much you pay, you decide how much goes to the authors, you decide if there’s a non-profit organization worthy of a 10% of your hard-earned money.
Considering that the full offer (six + six) included four titles that were already on my list, for me it was a no brainer.
Here’s the covers.
Think about it.
A very quick heads-up.
British magazine Timeless Travels is now free for the digital download.
The magazine is devoted to travels with an archaeological, artistic or historical theme.
Each issue is 130 pages, with quality images and contents.
From their website you can still buy hard-copy versions of the mag – but the digital download is available for free, for a number of platforms (PC, tablets, smartphones etc.)
Requires registering, but there seems to be no strings attached whatsoever.
It’s worth a look.
I mentioned last week I’d post some of my warm up exercises, like described in Nathalie Goldberg’s Wild Mind.
The idea is writing for ten minutes solid, without re-reading or editing, starting with “I remember…” (or some such phrase) and see were our writing carries us.
Ten minutes, keep the fingers dancing (or plodding) on the keyboard.
It’s a good exercise to clean up the systems after a long day of work – and I’ll try it as a start-up exercise, too.
Anyway, here’s my first attempt. Continue reading
Karavansara 