Category: Author
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Melanie Marttila: The Writing Excuses Retreat, part 2
Occasionally, the beauty of travel is that it makes you appreciate what you have at home. Like when you travel 5,603 miles to Copenhagen Denmark to see the same statue – literally the same design – that sits about 33 miles away from your house. Here she is in Copenhagen: Our guide told us she is…
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Finnemore Friday: The New Edition Sketch
I traveled this summer, asking a lot of people I had just met if they were John Finnemore Fans. “Who?” Was the most frequent reply. CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! Everyone should be listening to John Finnemore. Unless you have listened and didn’t like him, in which case, I ask, “Are you sure? Really sure? Go on, have another go.”…
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This Is My Stop
My husband and I took the U Bahn out of Vienna to a friend’s home in the suburbs. Figuring out transportation abroad can be a tricky puzzle. Careful observation of locals’ behavior and familiar hints like a word that starts with “halt” helped us figure out that this button was a “Stop Request,” before having…
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Melanie Martilla: The Writing Excuses Baltic Cruise, part 1
Melanie and I began in different places, but after our different planes landed in Hamburg, we were pretty much waiting the same lines, riding the same busses, and for sure in the same boat. Her experiences will give you a clear idea of what I was up to in the same places and at the…
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P.S. Newman: The WXR Tribe – How Introverted Writers Turned Into Social Butterflies
It will be a little while before I can process my own bloggerish thoughts, feelings, and ah-ha moments from the Writing Excuses Retreat (WXR). Technically speaking, it was only 18 days of my life, but it encompassed Cruise, Castle Tour, and Cronies Take Worldcon adventures, any one of which might inspire dozens…hundreds? Of stories. In the meantime,…
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Arabella of Mars Book Review
When I can hear the swell of theme music from words on a page, and happy tears jump to my eyes because the heroine is triumphant in both her quest and her wholly requited romantic inclinations, that means I’ve read a damn fine Steampunk Adventure Regency Romance Novel. Of which I think only this one…
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Final Narration Techniques
The last bit of The Body in The Bathtub is happening this week and I’m also recording industrial training narration. The corporate narration is great because the clips are short and I get feedback immediately. I still get to practice all of the tips I’ve written about before here, and here (plus two new ones at…
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Competence Strikes Again!
One year ago I wrote the following content. Now that I have a bona-fide website and blog, I am revising and sharing it here. I am feeling a little competent about something and want to share: For each character I “voice” (meaning I change my voice slightly in some way to distinguish between characters) I lay…
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Practicing (ONLY) Six Techniques
Recording for The Body in The Bathtub is well underway. With each book I record, I sincerely try to get better at the process. Farther away from mediocre. More on that later. As I’ve written, before I started this latest book, I asked for some coaching from Kathy Garver. From her feedback, I picked six (of…