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    Readings and Rewritings

    So, here’s the thing.  I’m a writer.  I’m also a teacher/actor/singer/dance.  You would think that the last four would mean that I don’t get that heart pounding, stomach churning panic before I go up to read my work, right?  You’d be wrong. For some reason, I can get up in front of 45 kids, hundreds of audience members, even over 1, 000 people and all I get is a little speed up of heartbeat.  For some reason though, when I read my own words it’s totally panic inducing.  On the last day of January, Laurie asked me about reading.  The conversation went something like this:“So, Christina, you’ll read next week,…

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    The Trouble With Names…

    So, it’s been an interesting if crazy week and this is something that I’m sure many writers have faced before.  I have a character that has been named Damsine Rhea for 15 years.  When I had someone else read it they mispronounced the name so I changed the phonetics to what I heard in my head (essentially Damsin Rhee).  I mentioned it to a friend of mine who responded with, “Um, I hate to tell you this, but there’s a character who is named Damson Rhee in a classic fantasy series.  Don’t think you can use the changed version legally.”  They then promptly signed off to go to bed for…