I’m celebrating! I sent off a completed draft for editing of my mystery, Blessed by a Curse. Then, of course, I’ll be back at work on it in June when all the editing comments come back. Meanwhile, I think I’ll have to get focused on the sequel to Hand of Fire.
Here are some posts I enjoyed around the web this week.
My friend and critique partner, Margaret Spence, has published an essay thinking about her mother’s death, the cycles of nature, the transfer of self from one form to another—Cleopatra’s Molecules. Good thought-provoking writing in a journal called About Place. Click here for About Place Journal “Cleopatra’s Molecules”
Interesting museum idea: The Limassol Museum on Cyprus is having a “From the Storage Rooms” exhibit to put on display those forgotten pieces that no one gets to see. They say the exhibit includes humble pottery, valuable jewelry, terracotta figures and objects of daily life. What museum’s storage rooms would you most love to be allowed to look through? Click here for “The Limassol Museum Opens Its Storage Rooms” on Archaeological News Network
40,000 yr old stone bracelet made with masterful technique is the work of Denisovans—an extinct species of humans distinct from Neanderthals and modern humans. The skilled techniques of boring and polishing have been assumed before this to be developed by more modern humans. Made of chlorite, a beautiful green stone available 200km from where the bracelet was found. Click here for the Siberian Times “Stone Bracelet is Oldest Ever Found in the World”
Hilarious and enlightening. 30 Copy Editors Tell Us Their Pet Peeves. Actually it’s a series of quick photos. I’m relieved to see my copy editing standards match these pros. You don’t have to be a copy editor to enjoy these disputes about correct language use. Click here for Buzzfeed.com “30 Copy Editors Tell Us Their Pet Peeves”
David Waid’s latest post offers the choice of two writing styles. Ursula LeGuin who aims at “the smooth transition from sentence to sentence, paragraph to paragraph … She wants readers so thoroughly sucked into the story that they are unable to tear their eyes away. So much so that if she writes a sentence remarkable enough to stop admiring readers in their tracks, she deletes it.” Or Salman Rushdie’s with complicated, run on sentences that stop the reader in an admiring daze. As David Waid puts it so articulately about a Rushdie excerpt he includes: “A passage like Rushdie’s is akin to a painter whose brush-strokes are ostentatiously present: Van Gogh, Munch, or Cezanne.” What do you think? Don’t miss David’s post—short but thoughtful. Click here for David Waid “Writing Style, History and Forgotten Emperors”
PTSD historically speaking. This is a fascinating concept to examine in historical contexts and build into fiction. Post by Regina Jeffers. Click here for English Historical Fiction Authors “By Any Other Name PTSD is Real”