nindogs

Guys! Say bonjour to Arthur, or as I like to call him, Artie. You know, that bland fellow to the left. Artie is an art mannequin, and once term starts, I will be spending hours with Artie and his species in my school art class. Artie is today's metaphor for the base of every fictional character. Human. Nondescript. Before I dive into this, I'll just do a bit of housekeeping. First, if you are looking for my Show vs. Tell blogfest piece, it's the entry below this one. Second, if you are new, you will not know that I have revamped this blog - regulars, hot dang . So, third, I will be using this entry for the What's Your Process blogfest , hosted by the stunning Shallee McArthur over at Life, the Universe, and Writing . It's premature, not due until the 18th, but what the heck? I therefore conclude with fourth, I will be abandoning you all until late in the first week of February - I will be in Thailand the day after tomorrow (Hence the four books in the What I'm R...

I don't know how I came to stumble upon it, but over at Writer's Block ~ Oh wait! I mean blog... , Misty is hosting a blogfest by the name of Show vs Tell. I believe it was inspired by Charissa Weak's series of Show vs. Tell posts . All the same, I thought I'd check it out. So, as writers we ought to know all about show vs. tell. It's a given, right? It's like that strange saying: No woman wants a man who can't bring home the bacon. No one wants a writer that can't entertain you. The old classics use a lot of telling - Evelyn Waugh's BRIDESHEAD REVISITED is a perfect example. He tells you that someone was an agreeable person - I find that a lot of first-person novels use telling, but in a more prejudiced way. Giving the character's perspective before the reader can make their own decision. TWILIGHT does this, tells you that Eric (I think that's his name?) is the chess-club type in the first few lines that he appears - that forms the reader...

I have been presented with the award mentioned above. What in the world is stylish about me, I don't know. But the extraordinary, fantastic Tony Benson saw it in me. *wink* You've presented me with my first award and shall remain a substantial part of my life. ...Terry, was it? Nah, I'm joking. I'm joking and it's not funny and it's early in the day. Without further ado, I continue my acceptance post. So, in order to accept this award, I have to 1) Thank and link to my nominator, 2) Share seven things about myself, and 3) Present the award to ten recently discovered bloggers, and notify them. So, seven things about me. ONE : I'm thinking about querying overseas for an agent because the Australian market is not only tiny, but I'm also quite cross with its prices. TWO : I'm an accelerated art student and I sketch, ink and paint my novel's characters, settings and some scenes. Check out the gallery link on the sidebar. THREE : I have two jobs, one ...

Ooh, look! It's a post. Finally. I am aware that it's been a while, but I've been swept up in the NYE-slash-work-slash-revisions world that has now become my life. Anyways. A while ago, I signed up to a blogfest over at Falen Formulates Fiction , by the charming name of Show Me Yours . I know that to many northern hemisphere natives that it's only the 2nd of January, however, down here in Australia, it's the 3rd. Therefore, I am early. I couldn't find an excerpt from my NaNo, mostly because I haven't touched it since the 1st of December. This blogfest deadline really snuck up on me, and I don't really have time to comb through and then edit a scene, so I'll be lazy and give you an excerpt from my novel, RETURN, which is seizing my sanity and my sleep. It's meant to be 500 words, but I'm feeling rebellious and shall give you 650 or whatever it is. The Grog and Gruel was empty, or almost empty. Nightfall smothered the narrow pub, blackening th...

And the boys from the NYPD choir were singing Galway Bay, and the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day. So a merry Santa Day to the blogosphere - I hope you're feeling as fatty as I am after my Christmas dinner (and that was two days ago). FOUR. Just in case you took a spin around in the TARDIS and lost track of time, a couple days ago the world celebrated Christmas. It began at 6 AM for me - I took out my mouthguard, drank a cup of tea, and then went back to bed. I then reattempted Christmas morning at 8:45 AM precisely, for my brother's alarm clock woke me up. It was a fair haul - Fujifilm camera, Doctor Who 1-5 Seasons, DVDs ( Inception, Se7en, Iron Man 2, Supernatural , etc), a dozen or so books (DOCTOR ZHIVAGO, BEHEMOTH, LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA, etc), art supplies, money for Thailand...It goes on. Like I said: fair haul . Thereby, I give you a few shots from my Christmas with my brand spanking new camera. 1: my little cousin Jimmy in the Batman getup I bought him....

Adam Christopher over at io9.com has just posted about his thoughts on how the next Big Thing could be superhero prose. Now some of you might be opposed to this idea, and I for one should be whole-heartedly embracing this concept - given the topic of my novel. Soon I Will Become Invincible was released in 2007, and has always been something I've wanted to peruse. Apparently, it was pretty huge at the time when it came out - but recently the author, Arthur Grossman, updated his blog with the announcement that he had further books coming, sequels. Christopher's post makes the comment that that's pretty well four years after his first book was released; he then mentions Minister Faust's From the Notebooks of Dr. Brain , which has a cult following, but may have been released too early. Next year's overwhelming wave of superhero film adaptations ( Green Lantern, The Avengers, Captain America, Iron Man 3, The Dark Knight Rises, Thor ...etc), Christopher predicts, may w...

Like many, there are times where I get disgruntled over my genre - YA, or more specifically, YA Fantasy. Who wouldn't where septuplet-plots are popping up with crisp "'Ellos!", with shells for protagonists and with blurbs that include: "enmeshed in a forbidden romance", "they fear she will not be strong enough to save anyone - especially herself", "he looks like an angel and acts like a jerk" or "she has to find out what he's so desperate to keep secret...even if it kills her", or even "when it comes to choosing sides, the wrong choice will cost her life". Le sigh . Surely, I must be missing something . One of my friends, when she found out about my writing, asked: "So, it's like Twilight?" Every fibre of my body was screaming "NO" and restraining myself from pulling a Barney Stinson "Friendship over!" But looking back, I'm realising that of late, the pull in the market toward ...