Month: March 2024

Age Is Just A Number #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

April 1, 2024

How old is too old to be a writer? Too young?

A Google search provides the answer—or does it?

According to the site Infusionmedia, Lorna Page published her first novel at the tender age of 93, in 2008. But a quick Goodreads check shows books published under the same name as early as 1969, so that information is suspect. Still, lots of authors publish in their 70s and 80s.

Is there ever a too old? Like the saying goes, age is just a number. Several of us authors on this hop are retired and still writing. None of us seem to have any desire to quit, although from other blog posts it seems our output may have slowed as we take time to enjoy other aspects of life. (Ask Richard about his cooking adventures.)

How about being too young? Guinness named 4-year-old Saeed AIMheiri, who sold over 1000 copies of “The Elephant Saeed and the Bear” as the world’s youngest author. That’s more than some self-published authors sell of their books, and on the face of it, is pretty amazing.

What do I think?

I may no longer write at the same speed I once did, but I’m writing better, in my humble opinion. That counts for something. And I’m not ready to give up. Until I can’t see the computer screen, or hold a pen, I won’t be ready to stop. Even then, I expect I’ll still be scripting plots in my thoughts, and driving my husband nuts with my need for privacy to formulate those stories. Too old only happens when the writer can’t create a coherent sentence. And that isn’t age dependent.

Photo by furkanfdemir:

So, I don’t believe you can ever be too old to write. Or too young, with the right backing. But do the other authors on this hop agree with me? Find out by following the links as they show up, usually throughout Monday, but I bet most of them agree with me.

Anyway, until next time, please stay safe.

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April 1, 2024

How old is too old to be a writer? Too young?

Shrinking the TBR Pile (To Be Read) #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 25, 2024

Is there a book in your TBR pile that you’re more excited about than the others?

Really? You want me to pick one? Is it okay if I narrow it down to two? How about one that’s pure entertainment and one that’s on the serious side?

First, one from one of my favorite authors, Jenna Bennett. She’s got a new mystery series, set in the 1920s. I read the first one already, Secrets at Sutherland Hall. The second, Death at the Dower House, is loaded on my kindle app, ready for the trip I’m going on this week. (I may have read it by the time I release this post.) The first book was a fun read and set up all the components to make the series delightfully entertaining. I’m really looking forward to the next one.

The second book has been languishing in my TBR stack for three years.

I keep telling myself I’ll get it read. It’s The Time Is Now, A Call to Uncommon Courage, by Joan Chittister. The author is a socially active Roman Catholic nun, and I took classes from her in high school, back in the Dark Ages. I own the book in hardback, but I’ve got it my suitcase, even though I’m traveling light.

In the dedication, Sister Joan says “Everywhere there are people who, despite finding themselves mired in periods of national darkness or personal marginalization, refuse to give up the thought of a better future or give in to the allurements of a deteriorating present. . . These people, the best of ourselves, are legion and they are everywhere.”

According to one reviewer, “Today more than ever we are called to be prophets. To call attention to and fight for change: the poor, the sick, the lonely, the marginalized, the oppressed. This is a template on how to do it, with faith, love and charity. Sister does not mince words or add sugary sentiment to the needs of the people. Walls, incarceration, abandonment, living wage, freedom to move about, loneliness, access to medical…the list is long. We will all be judged on the stand we took.” You can find out more about Sister Joan by checking out her website. https://joanchittister.org/

Not a light read, by anyone’s definition. I hope I have time to get a good start in reading the essays.

To find books to add to your To Be Read list, follow the links below and visit the other authors on this hop.

As always, please stay safe until next time.

P.S. I finished the first book, Death at the Dower House, while on a plane between Atlanta and Florida. As expected, it was a light read with a satisfying ending, and great foreshadowing for the next book in the series. 

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March 25, 2024

Is there a book in your TBR pile that you’re more excited about than the others?

 

Writing By The Seasons #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 18, 2924

Is there a specific time of year when your ideas flow better and you find you’re writing more? What do you think contributes to that?

We are in our third? fourth? spring/winter. The daffodils are up but not blooming; the tulips are peaking through the compost, and I’ve spotted a few wildflowers in my yard. Yesterday it was 60°F. It’s snowed off and on all day today.

I don’t know if any of that contributes to my writing output. (Which has been terrible lately, because of a lot of other circumstances.) The truth is, I’ve never related my level of inspiration to the seasons. That may be because I have spent many years living in areas that don’t conform to a ‘standard’ cycle of seasons. Like Florida with no seasons. Or Wyoming, with a 9-month long winter. I’ve learned to adapt.

What I crave is light.

Lots of it. Sunshine is almost perfect, but even artificial lighting works. I’m not one of these folks who stares at a computer screen and dims all the surrounding lights. Why do I say almost perfect for the sun? This time of year, there’s about an hour in the morning when the sun streams in my office window and right into my eyes. I can’t write without closing the curtains, which I don’t want to do. Last spring, I attempted to sit on my deck to write, but I couldn’t see my laptop’s screen. I want to try again this year, but use paper and pen.

During the summer, one factor that plays into my productivity is the book-selling events I take part in. A two-day festival within a couple of hours from home takes three or four days out of my writing schedule when including preparation and time to decompress. As a result, my overall output goes way down. There aren’t many outdoor festivals in the late fall and winter, and haven’t found a schedule of indoor events to add to my repertoire.

Photo by Casey Britton: https://www.pexels.com/photo/overexposed-photograph-of-a-window-13742248/

Photo by Casey Britton: https://www.pexels.com/photo/overexposed-photograph-of-a-window-13742248/

I’m more dependent on the time of day.

Mornings and evenings are when I can settle into my writing, no matter what the season. I get the standard mid-afternoon slump, no matter what the task at hand. I avoid taking naps, even if my energy level isn’t at its peak. My best time is at night, with the day’s tasks complete, when I can ignore the outside world.

Here’s where I remind you to check out this week’s post by the other authors on this hop. You can do that by following the links below.  And, as always, please stay safe until the next time!

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March 18, 2924

Is there a specific time of year when your ideas flow better and you find you’re writing more? What do you think contributes to that?

 

Rebel With A Cause #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 11, 2024

What rules of writing do you break on purpose?

You can guess the easy ones.

Ending a sentence with a preposition is out!

Never start a sentence with an ‘ing’ word.

Never use too many exclamation points!!!

Never start three or more sentences in a row with the same word.

I am careful about several of these. The ‘too many exclamation points’ is a personal grievance. I limit myself to using them in dialogue, and even then I use as few as possible. I stop and consider each one I type. When I read others’ writing, their heavy use decreases my reading enjoyment.

But there are times when a writer breaks the rules to make a point and speak in their own ‘voice.’. For example, my use of “Never” at the beginning of this piece. The built-in WordPress tools kindly reminded me I shouldn’t start three sentences in a row with the same word. I don’t know how to tell the tool-“Yes, I know. Now go away.”

Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

The most frequent place I flaunt the rules is in dialogue. When writing my characters. I strive to make them sound like people in real life. The people I run into in the store or at an event. Or the ones I overheard in a restaurant. (Yes, using sentence fragments is breaking the rules.) Even then, I have to be careful. I don’t want my librarian with several college degrees to sound like she never made it past kindergarten. Real people don’t always talk the way the rules dictate, much to the dismay of teachers everywhere.

Which rules do I break on purpose?

Any of them. It depends if straying from the mandate suits the story, the character, and the plot. We also need to consider that the rules of grammar change as language changes. It’s no longer the rules to have two spaces between sentences, at least according to U.S. grammar. And think about all the words that have been introduced in languages based on new technology, let alone the rules that are being formulated to deal with texting and other forms of on-lime communication. I’m old enough to have witnessed the shift in language—social media didn’t exist when I was a young ‘un.

What rules do the other writers this hop break? Find out by following the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

March 11, 2024

What rules of writing do you break on purpose?

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Taking A Chance On AI #IWSG

  By IWSG
 
 
Let’s rock the neurotic writing world!
 
The awesome co-hosts for the March 6 posting of the IWSG are Kristina Kelly, Miffie Seideman, Jean Davis, and Liza @ Middle Passages!

March 6th question: Have you “played” with AI to write those nasty synopses, or do you refuse to go that route? How do you feel about AI’s impact on creative writing?

Sorry this is up late, but life happens.

Before I answer, don’t forget there different levels of AI. Technically, Grammarly, ProWritingAid, and other such editing programs can be considered to be AI. In fact, Grammarly is advertising itself as an AI tool. But now those programs are getting into the realm of rewriting sentences and suggesting different ways of stating the information presented to it.

I’ve used the grammar and spellcheck options of those programs for years. Recently, I’ve paid attention to the rewriting part of the programs. (I use ProWritingAid.) Frankly, I don’t think I’ve ever used a suggested sentence revision. They don’t have the same meaning as what I’m trying to say. So, I can’t imagine using it to write a synopsis.

Once, and only once, I played with a built-in Word Press plug-in to write a key phrase for a blog post. The results were so far off the mark that I didn’t give it a second thought and discarded it. I haven’t tried it again.

I’ve seen several blog posts from others that appear to be AI written. Lordy, they were bad. Real bad. Stiff and artificial with click-bait titles that had little to do with the content. I’d compare them to the pictures floating around the internet with free-floating hands with six fingers. But I could see them getting reads, presumably based mostly on the header.

I can’t see the future, but AI has me worried. If the market gets flooded by poor-quality writing, readers will be discouraged, and aspiring authors may get shut out of the market. And that’s not good.

Okay, I’ll get off my soapbox now. Don’t forget to check out some of the others on this hop by clicking on the links below.

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

Characters Going Rogue #OpenBook Blog Hop

  By Open Book

March 4, 2024

How do you handle it when one of your characters starts going in a direction you hadn’t planned?

It happens to me all the time, since I am a pantser. (I don’t outline my story before I start writing it.) Characters, both major and minor, start pushing me to take the plot somewhere I didn’t expect. How do I handle it?

As is normal for most of these questions, the answer is ‘it depends.’ There are a lot of variables. Is it a minor character or a major one? Are they trying to head down a path I think holds merit, or are they wasting my time? Do I even like the character?

For example, take Evan Bluffs from the book ‘The Samurai’s Inro,’ one of the Harmony Duprie Mysteries. My original intention was for him to be a ‘throwaway’ character, a short-lived red herring. I’d written him as unlikeable, at least from the local sheriff’s point of view, but he didn’t want to stay tucked away in the corner where I’d left him. He showed up again. I foresaw two potential story lines for him. One a redemption subplot, the other making him even more unlikeable. The second option was more fun, and that’s the way I went.

The situation in Wolves’ Knight was different. I had a nice little romance plotted out for Tasha Roeper, the main character. She’d been through some rough times in a previous book, and deserved something good to happen. I even mapped out a love scene for her. It never happened.

No, Tasha got into my head and revealed I was writing her incorrectly and hooking her up with the wrong man. Then she revealed the bombshell of who the right man was. It took the story down a different path, one that strengthened it. Best part, it took only a few revisions to fix what I’d already written.

But the character that threw me for the biggest loop was Jake Hennessey.

He was originally envisioned as a throwaway character in The Marquesa’s Necklace, then showed up in Her Ladyship’s Ring and took a major role. I tried to write him out of The Baron’s Cufflinks, but he insisted on being part of the plot. I gave up in the next three books of the series, and let him have his moments.

With the series completed, I was ready to move on to a new project. That’s when Jake revealed his true goal. He wanted his own book. I ended up writing two — the Fall of Jake Hennessey and The Rise of Jake Hennessey. They provide ‘bookends’ to the mystery series, although they are more crime/suspense.

I should give tribute to the picture that gave Jake his personality. I found it on Pixabay, and it was provided by Ambroo (Zafer) . The results of a Tin Eye search show it’s been used many times. I believe my graphic artist figured out who the model is, but I can’t locate the information.

Image by Zafer from Pixabay

Everyone who writes stories has to develop a method for keeping their characters in line. My method is listening to what they want to say and figuring out how to incorporate it into the story. How about the other authors in this hop? Check out the links below to find out. 

This question came up in the middle of the night, and I’m hoping someone cam answer it. For those of you who write non-fiction, does the narrative ever get away from you? Take you someplace that you didn’t expect?

As always, until next time, please stay safe.

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March 4, 2024

How do you handle it when one of your characters starts going in a direction you hadn’t planned?