Father's Day and Other Things

Wow, I just realized how pitiful my posts have been lately, and decided that, hey, why stop the trend now.



Father's Day was especially fun this year. My three-year-old son got me a pair of stereo headphones for my iPod Touch, which was very thoughtful of him. My eleven-year-old daughter got me a book, The Uninvited by Tim Wynne-Jones, which I 'd rather be reading right now. This was followed by an awesome day at Dorney Park.

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The Sowen Saga continues ... I've been sending out queries to agents and receiving the standard rejections. I can understand why writers do awkward things to interfere with the customary agent / writer relationship, if only to get a real response like, leave me alone you stupid freak, just to know there is a real person reading the queries.

I'm busy gathering information for the second novel, and this has been taking up most of my free time, hence the lack of posts here, on Twitter, and Facebook. Good thing for you, dear reader, because I had absolutely nothing interesting to say.

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For Writers:
I promised some more details about the BEA writers conference, and have been slacking. This one comes from Donald Maass. He says great fiction establishes the setting as a character. He further suggests this should be done early in the story, in the first page if possible, but absolutely within the first chapter.

To create the setting as a character, Maas recommends that the protagonist have strong emotional ties to the setting. For instance, what does the character like and dislike about the setting? And remember, show don't tell. Find that specific image to describes this love and hate.

Later Fiends,

Posted in: Father's Day