-
Cast in Ruin by Michelle Sagara *****
*Click on the book cover to go to it’s Amazon page* With Cast in Ruin, I have to give Michelle Sagara what is—in my mind—the highest compliment: Her books make me want to write. I always come away from a Chronicles of Elantra book wanting to pick up pen and paper or get to a keyboard and go all BIC HOK TAM. They feel like home to me and the characters leap off the page and live in my head like only true friends and enemies can. This book seriously delighted me. Kaylin is growing and changing now that she has finally started dealing with her past, but her past…
-
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…
-
"Miss, why do you write?"
The title is the simple and complex question from one of my students today when I told them that for my birthday I was doing a writing lock-in. She couldn’t understand why I would want to do that or be excited by it. When I told her writing is a compulsion I had to explain compulsion. (What would you expect? They’re my English Language Learners and while they may not speak English as their first language I will defend my point that they are brilliant for being able to work in two languages to anyone who is fool enough to think otherwise based on accents.) Explaining compulsion is what really…