Is There a Narrator in the House?
I love audio books. So do my coworkers. We have our own little audio book club where we advocate and cajole each other to listen to the audio books we have loved. Right now two-thirds of the audio book club is pushing me to read Robert Galbraith’s novels. They are also lobbying me to put a project on kickstarter.com to raise money for my novella’s audio book to be narrated by a real voice actor.
ACX, whom I will be doing this through, offers several options for turning your book into an audio book. Step one is to publish your book as a kindle book through Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing program. I’m working on that right now. Rest assured.
My Happy Place
My happy place is anywhere I can find beauty, even a crack in the asphalt will do: I’m just simple like that. Continue reading My Happy Place
Found Poem and Chiasmus
Lambency: A Sonnet for Your Sunday
Lambency A ray of light falling down on the shore reflects like obsidian in the sand. The shaft of light plays with the eyes to lure them deeper into its luminous hands. White fire that pierces the clouds, falling bright through azure-blue skies lighting its descent, spiraling slowly around, weaving tight bent circles both black and opalescent. But the cleft from whence the light appeared, closes, as the fluffy game pieces shift above. The ray dissipates, the waves quickly hose the shore dispersing sands like a dark dove, caught by the swells of the waves in the bay below the … Continue reading Lambency: A Sonnet for Your Sunday
Winter: A Sonnet for your Saturday
Winter advances and claims my warm heart. Blood freezes the veins of my chilly limbs. Dead leaves pour into my bowl and their tart taste slips past my frozen lips, deftly skims over my rebelling stomach to fill The snowy void left by fall’s bitter end. Naked branches bend in the shrill wind’s chill Torpor consumes me, to sleep I bend, In its’ icy, breathless embrace I drift only to waken when white blossoms kiss my lashes. Lifeless to lithesome I shift, reviving to greet spring’s advancing bliss. I rise; the cloak of life I quickly don lest winter’s waning … Continue reading Winter: A Sonnet for your Saturday
Candy for Your Ears: Urban Fantasy
Urban fantasy audio books are like candy. You can’t consume just one. The first one always leads to the next and the next. It’s the gateway drug of audio books.
They’re the first person shooters of the fantasy genre. What makes these stories so addictive? Let’s toss them onto the operating table and dissect them to see what makes ’em tick.
A Homeric Ode for Your Friday
Went with a Homeric ode for today’s assignment (rhyme scheme: Abab cdecde) and reworked a poem I wrote on a tour bus in Scotland in 2001 because it was so damned close to a Homeric ode. Figured I’d go the extra mile and push it over the edge into Homeric ode territory. I painted the accompanying picture in my very brief, artist stage. Enjoy! Riding through a painting where mountains sprawl and the heart of Scotland beats. Across fir-lined pelts, mists do crawl o’er humped back Scotland down to its streets. The sun kisses snowy peaks, whose tearful eyes lock forever … Continue reading A Homeric Ode for Your Friday
Red Queen versus White King: Alan Touring Through the Looking Glass
Unless you too just finished The Enigma: Alan Touring, you’re probably scratching your head right now at the title of today’s post. I did read it, and I’m still scratching my head over it. Before I attempt to make some sense out of this, because I will lose my mind if I don’t, I need to get one thing off my chest: If I die after having done something world-changing or just plain cool, do not compare me to a fairy tale character. Please, just don’t. I don’t care of I make some offhand remark ONE time in my life and you … Continue reading Red Queen versus White King: Alan Touring Through the Looking Glass
A Grave Insect: Two Limericks for Thursday
A dash on a gravestone,
expresses how you’ve grown
A sister rendered into dates,
because death wouldn’t wait.
It left only her bones.
Continue reading “A Grave Insect: Two Limericks for Thursday”
Treat yourself to Book Writing 101 with a humous twist
Ever wondered how to write a book? Wonder no more. Rands wrote a tongue in cheek blog post about the process: How to Write a Book. In his article, he advises:
Even better, stop thinking about writing a book. Your endless internal debate and self-conjured guilt about that book you haven’t written yet is a sensational waste of your time. My guess is if you took all the time that you’ve spent considering writing a book and translated that into actual writing time, you’d be a quarter of your way into writing that book you’re not writing.
Continue reading “Treat yourself to Book Writing 101 with a humous twist”
Deconstructing My Constructed Self
Deconstructing My Constructed Self He paints my face—olive—light, a gift from ancient ancestors. His strokes thick, quick, powder flies everywhere. He draws my lips–firm, first an outline, plumb, overlaid with a layer for shine, fine. Then my eyes–smoldering, brown–shadowed and still. Lined with deepest black, my lashes traced. Then the finishing touches—rouge–to unhide my cheekbones. I feel beautiful today. My face masked by paint to hide an empty pallet. The brush rises again—wavy locks cascade from its tip—then pull away, twisting upwards, to crown my painted face. Leaving only tendrils to fall, to touch, my soft powdered face. But the day is over now; the paint no longer needed. I … Continue reading Deconstructing My Constructed Self
Secrets Of The Sea Known Only By Her: An Acrostic
Secrets of the Sea Known Only by Her
She sits by the water,
Eyes staring at the calm surface,
Cringing in the cold. She watched
Rings form in the clear depths.
Every ring brushed against
The waves, beating against the
Shores of her mind
Continue reading “Secrets Of The Sea Known Only By Her: An Acrostic”
Some Haiku for You
Rain falling softly
Children with yellow rain coats
Splashing in puddles
—
Dry grass crackling
Orange tongues of fire
Marshmallows melting
—
Flunking another quiz
The books I never opened
A red pen- grade fixed
Laughs and an Outlet for your Writing
Do you do any of these things?
Camilla Marsh, writing for The Writing Cooperative, put together a list of quirks, anyone of which might apply to you. Here’s a sneak peak:
7. You’ve been known to taper off during a conversation, staring into oblivion, mouth slightly ajar, as your mind fills with an enthralling tale-to-be with characters yet-to-be named as your colleague’s fourth helping of stale office gossip falls unheard at your feet.
User Experience Matters
If you doubt this, come to my office where every little detail of a website is scrutinized. We’re not a big player in the web world. We don’t want to send our visitors screaming for the exit; we want them to come into our site and never leave. We are a black hole sucking you in. Spaghettification will begin soon…muahahahaha…..
Melinda Kucsera - USA Today Bestselling Author of Epic Fantasy Adventures 
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