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Category: research
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Cargoships, in Space
While I was at FantaSci I had a unique and very educational experience, and I wanted to take time to not only talk about all the writing sparks it threw off, but to thank Peter Gold. He had prepared a detailed presentation on the use of cargoships in the Honorverse (with references to the excellent…
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Neutral Good Elf Ranger
Last night, because couldn’t sleep, I wound up ploughing through a very long personality quiz to determine what kind of character I’d be if I played Dungeons & Dragons. Which I don’t, although I’ve always wanted to. I was amused at the end result, and I thought I’d share. Let me just say here there’s…
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How Firm a Foundation
The house hunt continues. We’ve tweaked and expanded the radius of the search, which obviously yielded more results, but on the other hand it also brought us back to a conversation we’d had earlier in the search. What kind of foundation? The important bits of a house are roof, walls, insulation, but without the foundation…
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Review: Nothing and Everything
The last book I read all the way through was Poul Anderson’s David Falkayn: Star Trader. I’d had another book I meant to review today, a modern one, by an author I’ll be meeting at a con in a month, but I choked on it. I’m still not sure I am going to finish it.…
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Immaturity and Entitlement
en·ti·tle·ment noun -ˈtī-təl-mənt : the condition of having a right to have, do, or get something : the feeling or belief that you deserve to be given something (such as special privileges) : a type of financial help provided by the government for members of a particular group I was asked last week when I…
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Casting Doubts
Ha! whaur ye gaun, ye crowlin ferlie? Your impudence protects you sairly; I canna say but ye strunt rarely, Owre gauze and lace; Tho’, faith! I fear ye dine but sparely On sic a place. Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner, Detested, shunn’d by saunt an’ sinner, How daur ye set your fit upon her- Sae fine a lady? Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner On some poor body. —Robert Burns…
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The End is Near
I’m so close to the end of the book, now… I just glanced down and I can see the word count below the edge of the browser. 27,784 words… Wait, you’re saying, I thought you were writing a novel? Surely it’s longer than that. Yeah, it is. What I did with Pixie Noir, and I…
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Now Departing…
From reality, naturally. Mirror-posted over at Mad Genius Club Do you need to research when writing a fantasy novel? Not only yes, but please, do! Far too many are written without any research at all, hinging on the author’s limited imagination and lavish dollops of magical interventions. First of all, resist the urge to use…
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Mixed Company
Good morning… it’s my day to post over at Mad Genius Club, and you will find my thoughts on old fashioned or misused idioms at Not For Mixed Company . I’m working this afternoon, iwth a weather eye on the storm that is supposed to come in. I’m actually half-hoping we do get snowed in, I…
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How much Data in my Brain?
My desk is a mess. No, I am NOT posting a picture of it! This is normal for me, actually. I will clean it off, but inevitably the piles grow back, like resistant bacteria you just can’t get rid of forever. The best I can hope for is a kind of stasis, or at least…
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The Library and Research
I spent my morning class in the library today, listening to an overview of how to use academic databases to do research. I’ve been doing that for a while, but you never know what neat new tip or trick you migth pick up, and besides, I didn’t really have a choice. Now, you, my writerly…