Archive for April, 2007
Saturday, April 28th, 2007
Correcting some legal misapprehensions
o I saw a comment someone made on a friend’s contest entry, and it made me roll my eyes. It made me roll my eyes because not only was it wrong, it represented a wrong-headed view of property and inheritance in Regency times that I’ve seen so often misrepresented that I want to beat […]
11 Comments » - Posted in History, Legalese by CM
Friday, April 27th, 2007
Writing Smart People
have a pet peeve.
I hate when novelists write about extraordinarily smart people when they don’t really know what it means to be smart. Most of these people write smart like it’s a list of accolades. Throw in a PhD, make it in a complicated field. Maybe add witticisms. Quotations from […]
4 Comments » - Posted in Writing by CM
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
For Sale
nyone wanna buy a cat? Someone’s selling.
2 Comments » - Posted in Random by CM
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007
Uncommon editing
ou’ve probably all seen lists of things you should watch out for when editing. There/their/they’re. Loose/lose. Your/you’re. And innumerable misspellings and typographical errors.
But there are three great editing sins that are very difficult to catch unless you look for them. I’ve detected them both in the last three books I read, I figured I should […]
12 Comments » - Posted in Writing by CM
Sunday, April 22nd, 2007
Beauty and writing
herry Thomas is a debut author whose book has me salivating. Ever since I read the excerpt posted on her website, I’ve been dying to know both what happens next and what came before. Her writing–or at least, what I’ve seen of it–is clear and evocative. It hits me right in the […]
10 Comments » - Posted in Writing by CM
Thursday, April 19th, 2007
Suggestion for Avon FanLit
kay. Some of you have heard my theories about how to game Avon FanLit before. Some of you even saw them being tested, when we first posited them. But here’s the truth:
As constituted in the game we played, the rankings in Avon FanLit were susceptible to gaming. I’m not talking about […]
11 Comments » - Posted in Random by CM
Tuesday, April 17th, 2007
D.H. Lawrence again
‘m reading D.H. Lawrence again. He comes from around the same part of England as my hero, and I’m trying to capture a feel for rhythm once again. The problem is that Lawrence is — how shall I say this — not very romantic.
Take this poem:
Intimates
Don’t you care for my love? she […]
10 Comments » - Posted in Legalese by CM
Monday, April 16th, 2007
Pages/Words
‘ve converted my progress meters to page-count bars on the right. I tend to write very loosely, for whatever reason, and so I’ve decided to go by page count instead of word count. Yay.
Plus it makes it looks like I’ve done more. In reality, I really only have a few scenes to […]
14 Comments » - Posted in Legalese, Ornithology, Writing by CM
Sunday, April 15th, 2007
Two New Beginnings (and some ends)
he lovely India Carolina, my CP and very good friend, now has a blog and a website. You probably remember her warmth, her charm, and her lovely writing from FanLit. Visit!
In other news, I just have to wrap up a few loose odds and ends now. Whew! I’ve had time to […]
8 Comments » - Posted in Friends, Ornithology, Writing by CM
Sunday, April 8th, 2007
Driving Directions
n case the heroine in your Regency-set historical ever needs to take a short trip, here are driving directions from New York, NY to London.
Yes, that’s what I said. New York to London. Driving. Admittedly, some of the map conditions might have changed in the two intervening centuries, but the crucial step […]
