Fear in Writing: June 2011

Today in Literary History

Today in Literary History...December 14, 1907: Rudyard Kipling receives the Nobel prize for literature, the first English-language writer to do so.ud

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Watch it

If you haven't seen this show and you love mysteries, you are really missing something!  Netflix, Hulu, BBCAmerica, whatever--just get a hold of it and watch it!!!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Something new

Trying some new authors.  James Morrow (The Last Witchfinder) and Daniel Stashower (The Dime Museum Murders).  Actually, I've read Stashower before--The Beautiful Cigar Girl.  But this is a different genre.

Are you trying anything new?

Sunday, June 12, 2011

How many is too many?

How many different stories do you have working at once?

I seem to come up with all sorts of good scenes that would play into different plotlines...but I never finish one of them!  I know I need to just take something to completion (a problem of mine, really), but just can't for some reason.

Do you make yourself stick with something?  Do you work several manuscripts at once?

Monday, June 6, 2011

Strangers

We have new neighbors.  They are really nice people--a young couple with two kids very close in age to our's.  We've yet to get to know the parents very well as they both work during the week.  But we've had the children around nearly every day since they moved in.  Our children are IN HEAVEN!  They ask every morning and every night when they can have their new friends over.

And so they come.  And they play.

Four laughing, pretending, needing children.  In some ways it's easier--my children are entertained and that equals less work for me.  In others it's more--more mouths to feed, more responsibility, more restrictions on my activities.

But all in all, it's a blessing.  My children can run freely to another house for the first time.  They are learning to be hosts and how to treat guests.  They are making strong friendships.

Sometimes when I'm writing, a stranger wanders in.  That person could be a major character in the future.  They could be instrumental to the development of my MC.  They could be a killer.  But it's a process for me just like it's a process for my children.  I have to learn how to work with this new children, discover their likes, dislikes, and other traits.  I have to be a good host and treat them well.

Then they aren't strangers anymore.  They are just part of the writing family.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

I wish I had...

I wish I had someone to open the house each morning.

Do you know what I mean?  Open the blinds, pull back the curtains, make the coffee, a little light dusting...All the things parlormaids in previous centuries were known paid to do.

I wish I had someone like that.

Maybe I'll write historical mysteries so I can pretend.  That's what's grand about writing fiction, isn't it?  The things we get to imagine.  The romances.  The cities.  The wealth or the poverty.  The heroism.  The terror.  The life.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Your Shelf

Still on a Christie kick!