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The corona virus is with us, all around the world. I often use news headlines or stories I find buried in the news in the plot or development of my stories. Whatever genre you write, have you used the corona virus in your story?
The corona virus has been with us for at least three months. The main ways to protect yourself and others is to wear a mask and practice social distancing, washing your hands, and staying at least six feet apart. Is there a way to use the situations that we see these situations in our city, country, or area as part of a plot in our novels? I write romantic suspense and I don’t see how I could use it in a romance. Romance is about relationships, developing a relationship, touching, holding hands, or kissing. How do you do this if you stay six feet apart and wear a mask? I find wearing a mask covers the face so you can’t even see a smile. I suppose you could use it in an online relationship. If you write romance, sweet romance, YA romance, contemporary romance or any other genre, are you writing a book that uses the corona virus in your story? If you are, how are you incorporating it into a romance in this New Normal? Or how could you incorporate it into a romance? As I’m writing this, I’m also thinking about how this might be affecting relationships in today's New Normal. Hmm.I could use the...
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Memorial Day is an American holiday, observed on the last Monday of May, having been observed on May 30 from 1868 to 1970. It honors the men and women who died while serving in the U.S. military.
Memorial Day 2020 occurs on Monday, May 25. Originally known as Decoration Day, it originated in the years following the Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971. Pre-Corona Virus many Americans observe
Memorial Day by visiting cemeteries or memorials, holding family gatherings and participating in parades, going to beaches and summer cottages. Unofficially, it marks the beginning of the summer season.In the middle of the corona virus the weekend now varies from state to state. Social distancing is required, group sizes vary from ten people up to maybe fifty. (I don’t know each state’s requirements). People are heading to the beaches but there are now rules to follow. Large groups and concerts are all canceled. Historically the Civil War, which ended in the spring of 1865, claimed more lives than any conflict in U.S. history and required the establishment of the country’s first national cemeteries.By the late 1860s, Americans in various towns and cities had begun holding springtime tributes to these countless fallen soldiers, decorating their graves with flowers and reciting prayers.Each year on
Memorial Day a national moment of remembrance takes place at 3:00 p.m. local time.It is unclear where exactly this tradition originated; numerous different communities may have independently initiated the memorial gatherings. And some records show that one...
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I know, I’m late celebrating our Canadian Victoria Day. Blame it on last brain from the Covid 19. Victoria Day is a federal Canadian public holiday. It’s celebrated on the last Monday before May 25th, in honour of Queen Victoria’s birthday. It’s always one week before the American Memorial Day. The holiday has been observed in Canada since at least 1845, originally falling on the sovereign’s actual birthday. It continuous to be celebrated in various fashions across the country on the fixed date. When Queen Victoria died in 1901, parliament made her birthday an annual holiday.The date is also, simultaneously, that on which the current reigning monarch celebrates their birthday. It is Queen Elizabeth II’s official birthday, although her actual birthday is April 21st. The weekend is sometimes informally considered as marking the beginning of summer season in Canada. The holiday has always been a distinctly Canadian observance and is celebrated as the first big camping weekend, opening up of summer cottages, summer festivals in parks and almost always big fire works displays. All this before the corona virus pandemic. This year, because of the corona virus, everything was cancelled. Camping at home was encouraged. It included putting up tents in the back yard and parking the RV’s in the driveway. All gatherings and celebrations were cancelled, including all the fireworks display. It was the New Normal. Hope all Canadians still had a Happy Holiday Weekend.And tomorrow I’ll cover the American Memorial Day.
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Welcome to our group blog. This May our Group Blog is on editing. All books go through multiple edits. What have you learned are your problems, and what irks you about editing?We do go through many edits. The first few are our own edits before we send anything off. After the first draft we edit for sentence structure, spelling, grammar, character development, interior and exterior conflict, plot, red herrings and probably a lot more. Then we edit again. Then off to our editors, revisions and back for more editing. I think all of us want the best polished novel possible for our readers.What are my problems? Ah, so many challenges. I tend to use passive voices – was – a lot. I need to use words that are more active and vivid. As well I use crutch words like smiled, glared, stared, and words like ‘just’ and ‘that’. I also have some punctuation issues, like where to put the comma.Editing takes time and it’s technical and not creative. working with your muse, but it’s a necessary evil for a well-written story. I think what irks me about editing is that no matter how many edits you do, or how many people edit it or look at it, when you read the final published copy – there’s always an error – which someone immediately points out. Sigh…I’m looking forward to seeing what our other authors have to say about editing and what irks them.Skye Taylor http://www.skye-writer.com/blogging_by_the_seaDiane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/Connie Vines http://mizging.blogspot.com/Anne Stenhouse http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/Margaret Fieland http://margareetfieland.wordpress.comVictoria Chatham http://www.victoriachatham.comDr. Bob...
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Kayelle Allen writes space opera with larger than life, unforgettable characters. Come walk in her worlds and meet her misbehaving robots, mythic heroes, immortal gamers, and warriors who purr.Interview with Luc Saint-CyrBeverley: What's your name?Luc: That depends. I'm immortal. I've had hundreds. For the sake of the story
Kayelle Allen is telling now, let's agree it's Luc Saint-Cyr. But in the story, my king refers to me as Cyken, and a couple other older names are mentioned, plus my original name at creation was Cyr... so you see why I say "It depends."Beverley: Where did you grow up?Luc: I was created fully grown rather than born; on Earth in the year 2501. My first twenty years were spent traveling in the Terran Crescent, a group of thirteen planets. I don't consider Earth my home, but technically, it is.Beverley: During what time period does your story take place?Luc: The current Earth year is 15,111, or 4648 Tradestandard in the Tarthian Empire, far in your future.Beverley: What's your story/back story?Luc: How long do you have? I'm twelve thousand something. Stopped giving exact dates a few millennia ago. I'm known among humans as the Harbinger, which is my Thieves' Guild name. I'm also known as Shadow, the right hand of the king, and in this story, I'm living my first life free from his influence. Which is like saying I'm staying dry while walking through a hurricane. Not happening. But I'm trying.Beverley: Why would someone come up with a story about you?Luc: Kayelle loves...
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Has so much emphasis been placed by readers and writers’ groups, publishers, reviewers, etc. on authors to have a spectacular opening page/chapters that the rest of the story gets left behind? What are your thoughts?Ever since I can remember writers have been told the opening needs to grab the reader. It might be the opening line or maybe the first few pages, but you need to get the reader interested and hold that interest for the first few pages, so they’ll keep reading. It should be where there is a life changing event for the hero or heroine and needs to hold the readers interest, long enough so they fall in love with your hero or heroine, or they need to see how the plot plays out or maybe they want to read and learn a little more about the setting. This could be a death, a murder, an arrest, some inheriting a B&B, or maybe forced to meet an old lover. Do you have a favorite inciting incident as either a writer or reader?Different writers use different techniques to grab their readers but if they can’t do it, chances are their book won’t be read, or maybe won’t even be bought. I’ve watched people in bookstores (before the corona virus hit). Different readers check out books in different ways. For some it’s the cover. For others it’s the back-cover blurb, but others open the book and start reading those first few pages. If it doesn’t grab them the book...
