About stories of all kinds
The desert isn't as empty as we think. Sands crawl over sands, rippling with wind or the tracks of sidewinders. Ruins gape, abandoned by the men who made them and left for an inheritance of the relentless sun. But it's not only elements, lesser creatures, and the relics of human habitation that fill the desert.… Continue reading Gods and Saints: Setting in Story
A couple summers ago, I got the chance to share some books I love with my older brother and sister. When I asked each of them separately how they’d liked their individual selection, I got opposite (and therefore mirrored) responses: from my brother, “You can sure tell it’s written by a woman,” and from my… Continue reading “You Can Just Tell…”
In recent years there has been growing awareness of the troubling trends in fictional romances, especially, but not limited to, YA romances. It seems to have come to the surface along with the acknowledgment of rape and abuse in society, which is telling. The issues in fiction largely centre on male love interests, particularly the… Continue reading The Wrong Man
Batman Begins--The Land of Oz As deadlines loom and assignments pile up, I'm growing worried that, like L. Frank Baum's Scarecrow, I have no brains left, or that what brains I do have only consist of the Wonderful Wizard's placebo: bran, pins, and needles. Although, I've noticed that some professors have the pictured attitude towards… Continue reading Brains of Bats, Pins, and Needles
I've loved stories since I can remember and have been reading and writing them since I was able to. But when I was probably ten or eleven years old it expanded from general love of stories to a love of books: the physical containers of such awesome worlds. That was about when lots of things… Continue reading Recovering Book Collector
Thor movie-Mr. Standfast quote I watched The Avengers yesterday (sort of re-watching the MCU movies) so I was thinking about Thor the other day. It reminded me of this picture I put togther with a quote from Richard Hannay in a book by one of my favourite authors, John Buchan. It just seemed to fit.
It is a truth universally acknowledged that writers in possession of a good story must be in want of an equally good ending. In my own writing (and, I've been told, in many others' as well) the number of stories started is disproportionate to the number finished, regardless of polishing. Is it a sign of… Continue reading End It: Short Story, Long Story
Pirates of the Caribbean, Gibbs and Jack/Bleak House quote Reminder to self to keep reading Dickens this Christmas--A Christmas Carol down, three more Christmas books to go.
Two summers ago, I read two historical fiction books in pretty close succession, both mysteries, that, while gripping enough in the act of reading, I found less than satisfying afterwards. I was a bit puzzled as to why this was, because one of them, The Dante Club, was written by an author I had previously… Continue reading Emphasis on “Historical,” Weak on “Fiction”: The Dante Club and The Blackest Bird
Every now and then you hear somebody whining about how awful such-and-such a movie adaptation was and how much better its book was and "oh my goodness, if you liked the movie at all or watched it before you read the book you are such a traitor and don't deserve to be mentioned in the… Continue reading Book VS Film
