Five Links 7/25/2020

Traci Kenworth

Writing:

1. https://megdowell.com/2020/07/24/10-tips-for-eliminating-not-so-obvious-writing-distractions/

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Research & Fun Tidbits:

1. https://coldhandboyack.wordpress.com/2020/07/25/technological-nightmares-and-extra-work/ “I’ve been working on my storyboards in drips and drabs. Right now I have six in various stages of completion, and some are nearly complete.

There are two stand alone novels, the finale of the Lanternfish trilogy, and three future stories for Lizzie and the hat. I was feeling pretty good about the process. That’s when everything started failing.

The app I’ve been using is called Pinnic. It randomly erased one of my ledger cards. I tried opening and closing, even a reboot. That’s when I discovered another board had the same thing happen to it. Then it started throwing out a random index card that could not be edited or deleted. It also covered another card I would really like to read.

What happens is these developers stop updating their apps. It’s happened before. I used to use an app I really liked, but the developers stopped updating and eventually it became unusable. This one was so long ago that I don’t even remember its name. That’s when I switched to Corkulous Pro.

Corkulous Pro also went the way of the dinosaurs and I downloaded Pinnic. They haven’t had an update for a long time, but Apple has had many. You can see where this is going.”

2. https://writershelpingwriters.net/2020/07/conflict-thesaurus-entry-losing-a-job/ “Conflict is very often the magic sauce for generating tension and turning a ho-hum story into one that rivets readers. As such, every scene should contain a struggle of some kind. Maybe it’s an internal tug-of-war having to do with difficult decisions, morals, or temptations. Or it possibly could come from an external source—other characters, unfortunate circumstances, or the force of nature itself.

It’s our hope that this thesaurus will help you come up with meaningful and fitting conflict options for your stories. Think about what your character wants and how best to block them, then choose a source of conflict that will ramp up the tension in each scene.”

3. https://franceandvincent.com/2020/07/25/dreaming-stones-going-underground/ “The roads on the Isle of Skye are my kind of road… narrow, winding and green. I was loving driving around the island, but when presented with an even narrower road that climbs a steep hill and throws in a hairpin bend or two, the only thing to do is to take it.

The road led us up the headland above Uig, and we were already eyeing up possible parking spots. Any accommodation we had found for the night online was exorbitantly expensive… there was no way we would pay over a week’s wages for a night’s lodging, even if we could… and so far, we had seen no ‘vacancy’ signs either. Skye seemed to be closed on Mondays; for a holiday destination, this did seem rather odd.”

4. https://franceandvincent.com/2020/07/24/dear-wen-erratics/ “Yes, an eminently enjoyable weekend, it was good to rediscover an old friend. The sleepy energy of Beeley Warren Circle is a balm to the soul as the numerous Bees we encountered should attest. The silly thing is that there was more bracken and higher this time and we still managed to find it. I shall put that down to both faith and better research, the book actually mentions the circle being between two rafts of bracken which to mind is curious. The book is over thirty years old. One would have expected the bracken to have made inroads during that time. Either the circle is exerting some kind of effect on the surrounding vegetation which we have long suspected, or the moor is a lot older than initially supposed. Both eventualities are possible.”

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Some Things More Serious:

1. https://austinkleon.com/2020/07/23/i-forgot-how-to-write-again/ ““After I finish a book, I forget how to write,” says Patricia Lockwood. She followed up: “And then I always forget I’m going to forget how to write and plunge into the depths of despair … so beautiful.”

(LOL SAME)

Here is how my friend Maureen McHugh put it:

Every time I think I’ve figured out how to write, I discover that actually, I’ve just figured out how to write the thing I just wrote, and I have no clue how to write the next scene, the next story, or the next book.

I think all the time about this paragraph I clipped from comedy writer Tom Koch’s obituary:” It’s amazing! I never realized we all experience this!

2. https://robertawrites235681907.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/thursdaydoors-darwins-house-kent/ “Thursday Doors is a weekly feature allowing door lovers to come together to admire and share their favorite door photos from around the world. Feel free to join in on the fun by creating your own Thursday Doors post each week and then sharing your link in the comments below, anytime between Thursday morning and Saturday noon (North American eastern time). 

You can join in here: https://miscellaneousmusingsofamiddleagedmind.wordpress.com/2020/07/23/thursday-doors-july-23-2020/

We visited the UK during the boys August school holiday in 2018. We chose to make Kent our home base as I love the area and I can visit Canterbury Cathedral over and over again. I also really like the sweet shop in Canterbury.

One of the historical places of interest we visited during this particular visit was Charles Darwin’s house. Charles Darwin, in case you’ve forgotten, was an English naturalist,”

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Teaser Fiction & Poetry:

1. https://www.djranch.org/2020/07/24/flash-fiction-if-wed-known/

2. https://padresramblings.wordpress.com/2020/07/24/the-man-at-the-spring/

3. https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2020/07/24/call-it-whatever/

4. https://pilgrimage.studio/2020/07/24/todays-shot-173/

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Book Reviews, Cover Reveals, & Author Interviews:

1. https://mariacatalinaegan.com/2020/07/25/skyclyffeby-z-mossread-by-noah-kershisnikgenre-middle-grade-science-fiction/ “Rex Bright enjoys drawing in notebooks and dreaming. He’s thirteen, and his life is ordinary. Until he sees a face in a cloud which changes everything. Rex glimpses the girl from an airplane window while travelling to his aunt and uncle’s farm for the summer. Her features are so perfect, Rex can’t believe she’s only vapor. But Cloud Girl is real. A week later, Skyclyffe, a mysterious airship cloaked in a cumulus, abducts Rex and his family. The captors expect the Brights to live in their flying city forever. And, although he’s kidnapped, Rex loves the craft filled with robots, scientific discoveries, and silvery-white beings. Before long, Rex will be forced to decide whether to escape, or if Skyclyffe and its secret wonders are worth never stepping foot on Earth again.”

2. https://charmedchaos.com/2020/07/24/haiku-summer-wind-2/

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