Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Reading”
There’s a lot of discussion these days about trigger warnings and how they should be handled. I don’t have any triggers, but I know some wonderful people who do. (Just like racism and homophobia, being a jerk can be cured by getting to know people.) I have a thought. A theory. A proposal, if you will. It’s about using technology to …
I know I said I wanted to look for unusual fairy tales, not the typical fare. But I learned a new factoid about this one over on Tor.com, which has some really great examinations of fairy tales, in their piece Charmed, I’m Sure: A Closer Look at Everyone’s Dream Prince. So let’s dive in. Source is pitt.edu. This is the Brothers …
I was waiting until I could find my copy of Old Peter’s Russian Tales–a collection of Russian fairy tales as retold by a British visitor (Arthur Ransome, of Swallows & Amazons fame) with British children in mind–only to discover that it’s available for free in multiple places online. D’oh. I did find my book. Unfortunately, because of the nature of …
Holy cow, I was not expecting to stumble across this. I came across the mere mention of a “hedgehog princess” and immediately had to look it up. I didn’t find a hedgehog princess, but I did find a half-human hedgehog boy who marries a princess! Yes, this requires some explanation. Let’s begin. Source: Pitt.edu Summary Like so many fairy tale …
There’s a princess and a tower and a wedding, and yet this isn’t one of the more popular stories. Go figure. Source: SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Annotated Maid Maleen Synopsis Maid Maleen is the daughter of a king. She falls in love with a prince, but her father is against the marriage. Being a reasonable parent, he has a tower built and …
My summary isn’t going to do this justice. Anderson writes evocatively of the setting and the people, and I’m just going to focus on the main plot. Here we go. Source: HCA.Gilead.org.il Summary In the countryside of France, a massive tree is felled. The villagers replace it with a young chestnut tree, which has a dryad living inside it. She is …
Doesn’t “donkey cabbages” sound like a kid’s insult? I’m not quite sure how to even summarize this one, it is that strange. Here we go anyway. Source: The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Knickerbocker Edition) Summary One day, a huntsman is walking around and comes upon an old woman. He’s kind to her, and so she blesses him with a magic cloak (travel …
Not Thumbelina, but the German answer to the English Tom Thumb. You may well know the gist of this one. Source: The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Knickerbocker Edition) Summary A lonely peasant couple wishes for a child. A boy is born to them, but he’s only as tall as a thumb, so they call him Thumbling. They are delighted to have him. …
New project. In order to better familiarize myself with the fairy tale cannon, once a month I’m going to read and examine a fairy story. Preferably not super popular stories, I’m looking for unusual stuff. I want to do this for my own edification, and also to give my blogging some structure. I like fairy tales as a genre, and …
I often get the question, “How is the writing going?” If I were to answer this strictly, meaning am I actually engaging in the act of writing down words, the answer would often be, “Ummmmm, I’ll get back to you on that.” I don’t write daily and when I do write it’s usually quickly. Because I do a lot of pre-work, untangling …
Author Laura Brown has a new blog post titled “My Diverse Reads of 2016” where she takes a look at how many books she read in the past year that count as diverse. This seems like a worthy experiment to me, so let’s dig into my data. In 2016 I read 67 books. I had challenged myself to read 55. This …
Major updates to the Monster Structure Worksheet! What is the MSW? It’s a combination of novel structure theories into one chart to help you visualize what-all is supposed to happen and when. I’ve been reading K.M. Weiland’s Structuring Your Novel [amazon asin=0985780401&template=add to cart] and I highly recommend it. It’s a great step-by-step walk-through of the parts of story structure. Weiland …
There’s been a bunch of talk in my spheres lately about what folks are reading to learn about their craft. I found a bunch of new things to explore, and I figure I should share. This week I’ll post about the blogs I follow, and later I’ll go into the books I love. RSS Feeds and Readers RSS stands for …
Or rather, an ode to Bridget. BRIDGET JONES helped keep my sanity intact on a very long flight. (Johannesburg to JFK is about 17+ hours.) I had bought it and THE EDGE OF REASON at the airport and I’m so glad I did. Every minute accounting of fat cells lost and gained reflected the tedious hours in the air. I fell in …
Last month I heard that Octavia Butler’s XENOGENESIS TRILOGY, aka LILITH’S BROOD, is in development as a TV series. At the time I had yet to read anything by her, and I figured this was a great opportunity to start. So I bought the first book and got stuck in. Ms. Butler’s books are quite different from what’s popular right …
This post is inspired by the #PitchWars mentors, who have said time and again that this contest is about community. Finding friends, CPs, commiserators, etc. And it occurred to me, “Why am I not talking DIRECTLY to the other wannabe mentees? We’re hopping to each other’s blogs, we want to get to know each other!” So, this is me talking …
When I made the transition from picture books to middle grade I devoured everything in my path. Amelia Bedelia. Mrs. Piggly-Wiggly. The Egypt Game. All of the American Girl series. Most of the Babysitters Club–we’re talking twenty books at a time. I was voracious, because I was still searching for something. When I was twelve, I found it. Tamora Pierce’s In …
V and I were having a discussion about what we call ‘obsessive love’. It often starts as instalove, but not always. It’s what happens when a character just can’t stop thinking about–and, more importantly, behaving in relation to–their love interest. Everything is about this person. They invade every thought, every scene. I do not like obsessive love. Worse, I don’t …