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How to Use Reviews
I’ll confess I read more non-fiction than fiction, partly because it is so hard sometimes to find something I really enjoy on the fiction shelf. But from time to time, I’ll make a foray into the...
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On my Shelf
As I mentioned in About Me, I read more non-fiction than fiction but I read a bit of both, usually several books at once. Here’s what’s on the shelf for now and what I pull from these books for my...
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Putting the Fantastic into Fantasy Fiction
Some contemporary fantasy fiction leaves me a bit cold. Dragons, hidden cities, exotic races, are for me. Maybe another way to look at it is, I look for the fantasy elements to be significant to the...
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In the Fantasy Genre: What is Tolkien?
Tolkien’s monogram, and Tolkien Estate trademark (Photo credit: Wikipedia) What makes a story Tolkien-esque? I don’t think there is a single answer. His main published works go from The Hobbit to The...
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Amazon’s Reviews
Image via CrunchBase. Amazon & Reviews A while back, I posted my thoughts on how to use reviews (as a reader, not a writer ). Much of that post was devoted to how to tell if a review was honest....
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Niggling Characters
This isn’t really about niggling characters, it’s about the two main aspects of the writing craft I learned in the last year. One is “don’t ignore niggling doubts” and the other is the importance of...
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Genealogy and the Da Vinci Code
The Da Vinci Code (Photo credit: Wikipedia) I couldn’t resist posting on genealogy as it impacts one of the biggest blockbusters of the last decade (give or take, guess it’s coming up on 10 years old)....
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Reading Novels Aloud
English: Created by modifying this image Italiano: Creata modificando quest’immagine (Photo credit: Wikipedia) One of the pleasures of parenthood is reading to your children. Most children’s books read...
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Grifting Away: The Big Con
Fascinated by swindlers? I’ll have to confess I am, probably because it is such an alien concept to me. Not only does it require snappy thinking on your feet to steer a mark the way you want, it...
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