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Blog the Seven and A Halfth? |
| This is just the second blog I've had at writing.com. It seems that every time someone gives me a bit of time here, or else, I end up with a few months there, I take advantage of it. What is it with me and blogs, anyway? I'm Beth_Ensley over in my blog at Lulu.com, in case anyone's curious. |
| I finished The Bronze Sword. All that is left is to write its review. I am starting to feel better, so of course, my blogging (and writing!) activities are again on the vista. Gah! Okay then, you try to write without overusing aphorisms! *grin* The post-apocalyptic zombie romance novel was a bust. Not that I won't write it, but it needs a bit more planning. Anyway, there is one peice of good news. I decided to outline the first novel in the trilogy with an eye towards revision; looking to Holly Lisle for advice on outlining, I suffered a Major Epiphny, so I am in the process of reworking the novel. It does not change the major framework of book one, so I should also still be able to write book 2 concurrently, if necessary. --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| If this is redundant, then my apologies. http://julnowrimo.thewrigro.com/ I have decided to work on a post-apocalyptic zombie romance. not two zombies, but one zombie and one non-zombie. I'm pondering several openings, and have not decided on its particulars, but one element is that it shall be written, tongue firmly planted in cheek. EDIT: Ah, it is redundant. Still, it shows I'm still thinking about it. In the meantime, I'm reading the second book in the LORE OF DAYONE series, BRONZE SWORD, by A. A. Wolfner (PublishAmerica). I've been looking forward to it for some time now, and it's finally out. It's one of the better books out of PublishAmerica, which has really also published some stinkers (which you haev to expect from a vanity press). --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| I've decided what I want to write for July. It will be a break from thinking about my trilogy, though that will remain in my mind. I plan to write a post-apocalyptic zombie romance. It's fermenting in my brain right now, thanks to http://www.permutedpress.com/novels.php (the submissions guidelines). I'm just going to spew it out, no looking back till well after I'm done. I'll only have 31 days to write it. One handy guideline is on a Yahoo list I belong to called write_workshop. Candy Havens has a writer's event on occasion called Fast Draft. The goal is to write 20, double spaced, mss format pages per day, for 20 days. I've checked my won work for the group in the past (word count), and it's averaged 50k for the final total. the goal of the month, or of FD, is to get the pages out, no looking back. If the story decides to change, spew it out anyway. We're not looking for perfection in the first draft. Heck, why do you think they call it a first draft? Any first draft, unless you've been writing as long as Harlan Ellison, Isaac Asimov (in particular!), Stephen King, any long-published author with a proven tack record, needs to be revised and rewritten. And hey, even those guys started the same way. The lnoger you write, the more you write, the less editing you find yourself donig as you grow in your writing. To paraphrase Commander Mark: Write, write, write. Write every day." --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| Beyond Dancing: A Veteran's Struggle, a Woman's Triumph (Hardcover) by Anita Bloom Ornoff Hardcover: 311 pages $23.95 Publisher: Bartleby Press (November 2003) ISBN-10: 091015550X ISBN-13: 978-0910155502 It's taken me a while to figure out how to approach this review. See, I'm used to reviewing fiction, and not autobiographies. Anita's story helps to bring to life aa period during WWII, and circumstances of which I was only peripherally aware of one, and that was the WAAC's mainstreaming and transition to the WAC. For the uninitiated, that's from the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps to the Women's Army Corps. Injured in an incident in boot camp, which I've taken to thinking of as a case of "friendly fire" (and medical malpractice), and disabled as a result, this book takes us through Anita's struggles to be recognized as a disabled veteran, injured in the service of her country. It's her story, but it happened during that period, and her life, and the transition, and the struggle for the rights of those women veterans disabled during the transition adds a dimension to this story. It's one woman's struggle, and ultimate triumph, that illustrates the struggle, not only for women veterans, but for all veterans. It's an important part of history that should not be overlooked, and brings to life the period in which it transpired. Anita was also the first woman to pass a drivers license test using hand controls. Considering that this period was WWII, that point also shows that civilization was not quite so barbaric as some of the medical methodology was, for that period.  I have to admit that I was looking at the story and thinking about how different it was fro mthe America portrayed in A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN, which was more about a depressed economy than about the child of a business owner. A different economic strata is portrayed, and this book, unlike that one, is not fiction. Still, I could relate to Anita's story. I never was in the military, but... I would recommend this book to both historians, and to people who like to read human interest stories. Other folks might find it interesting, too. The author will be doing a book signing in Orlando at the Urban Think Bookstore this Saturday, on the 15th of December. --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| Goblin Hero by Jim C. Hines. Paperback: 352 pages Publisher: DAW (May 1, 2007) Language: English ISBN-10: 0756404428 ISBN-13: 978-0756404420 No sane goblin wants to be a hero. They usually wind up dead. Then again, since when has sanity ever stopped a goblin? Jig Dragonslayer, for instance. He's not insane. Then again, he's a runt. He also admits, freely, that he's no hero. Still, he's the voice on Earth for the god Tymalous Shadowstar, and he can heal goblins, hobgoblins, and even ogres. Speaking of ogres... The events in Goblin Hero take palce one year after the first book, Goblin Quest. One year after the events in the preceding book, an ogre comes to Jig for help. It seems that his family's been enslaved by something. Now, orges are the biggest, baddest, and smartest (at least, compared to most goblins) creatures in the mountain. Jig's a runt. Still, with TS on his side... What do you do when your people's leader wants you dead (though not overtly), because she fears you as a political rival? Or when an ogre comes seeking your help, because he's under the erroneous impression that you actually killed a dragon? Jig never wanted to be a hero. For that matter, no sane goblin wanted to be a hero. Goblin heroes tend not to live for a very long time, you see. They charge into battle without thinking, always getting themselves killed. Regardless, Jig has survived being a goblin hero for one, whole, year, since the events in Goblin Quest. Jig doesn't think of himself as a hero. For one thing, he's still alive, which proves it to him. The scrawny, bespectacled goblin was not even that much of a warrior, really, so why did everyone seek him out under the mistaken impression that he was? Of course, this time, Jig has competition, in the form of a fledgling goblin wizard and hero wanna-be named Veka. Veka is an unusually large goblin who some call "Vast Veka" behind her back, and sometimes even to her face. When Jig doesn't want to take her on as his apprentice in magic and heroism ("binding spell", indeed!) Veka sets off on her own, though on a parallel course to Jig. She recruits a "heroes' sidekick" she calls Slash, for the scar on his face. Not that Slash is all that interested in side-kickery. Veka tricked him into coming along, you see. Oh yes, Slash is a hobgoblin, and not on friendly terms with goblins. Enemies make for strange bedfellows, but Jig's the one who, er, has to "get Jiggy" with it, and unite both goblin and hobgoblin, if he wants to defeat the enemy. Remember the Necromancer from the past book? Well, there was only one of him... Oh, and keep an eye on Smudge, too. For one, he actually doesn't die in this book. For another, he gets to... Nah, I don't want to give too much of the story away, do I? --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| BLACK TIDE by Del Stone Jr © 2007 TELOS PUBLISHING http://telos.co.uk/ £7.99 + £1.50 UK P&P 111 Pages ISBN: 978-1-84583-043-4 GENRE: Horror What would you do if you were stuck on a deserted island with a beautiful girl, her clueless boyfriend, and a mid-life crisis? Well, if you're Fred Miller, then you're fighting off what amounts to a zombie invasion. Miller is a college professor who recently experienced a humiliating separation and divorce from his wife, who left him for a younger man. When the opportunity to conduct an environmental impact study in a deserted island comes his way, he decides to ask Heather, a nubile young assistant, to accompany him. To Dr. Miller's great dismay, she also brings her boyfriend, Scotty, along for the expedition. The story opens with them taking a boat across Santa Rosa Sound to a spoil island by Okaloosa—a barrier island—to investigate a red tide outbreak in an area due to be flushed out by the opening of a new channel. When the three of them are alone on the island, Scotty decides he wants Heather to play Frisbee, rather than work: but when a toxic fog released by the irrigation threatens to overwhelm them, the quick-thinking professor uses the Frisbee to bury them all in the sand, until the fog rolls over and past them. When the fog clears, they see people on the opposite shore combust, and walk into the water. They hear the havoc on the mainland. Apparently, everyone is either dead, or dying. The problem is worse than your run-of-the-mill red tide. It is a kind of black tide. It caused the fog which had earlier rolled over them. The fog had turned the people on the mainland into photosensitive zombies, ones that burn at the slightest indication of unfiltered light. The three of them manage to inconerate a few with flashlights between dusk and dawn. In the daylight, Scotty decides to swim to the mainland in search of help. Not that he makes it... BLACK TIDE sets the zombie mythos on its ear. Del has zombies that can "live" underwater, filtered from the direct light of the sun. Starlight is too far removed to affect them, and sunlight filtered through the water, or if they are in shade, leaves them unaffected. In a way, Fred gets what he wants at the end, Heather's undivided atention, though he does not really want it, by then. The story is an interesting read, and throws an unlikely protagonist into an horrific situation. Can Fred and Heather mak iit out of this situation alive? Well, you'll have to read it BLACK TIDE find out. It's worth the journey. Oh, and stock up on batteries, and candles. You never know...--------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| #4, because I have been keeping count at LiveJournal, Stringing Words, the MayNo site, Blurty, and MySpace—oh yes, and on my GaiaOnline journal, and in my writing group there. 3,168 / 10,000 (31.7%) My bible's included in this, because I need the reference for what I'm writing. Word count is word count, and story is important. And, of course, I am not fully awake yet. Anyway, this count is yesterday's, and I hope to add to it today. I love it when everything coalesces: considering that this story was not supposed to be part of my series, it's turned into a viable entity. It all came together with the introduction of a new character, since I needed a foil for my primary character (who is the antagonist for the next novel and, as it turns out, for this one, though not so much as that one). This foil took precedence in my mind and soon became the major because, as it turns out, he goes through the biggest change, and the most interesting angst, in the series, and it starts with him on his deathbed. Good times, good times (for me, anyway). --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| I was a student aide in the library at college. My sociology professor, Lou Rupnick, wanted a paper, reviewing a movie in sociological terms, which he wanted as one page in length. It was supposed to be a report concerning a recent film. I asked for, and received, permission to write mine on David Merrick's The Elephant Man. Unfortunately, my paper far exceeded the requirement. In the library, in the stacks, there was a typewriter. Not just any typewriter, mind you. This one had the added bonus of being a microtype typewriter. Anyway, rather than edit the paper, I received permission to use said microtype machine. This, of course, enabled me to fit the text in its entirety upon one single, typewritten page. I am not certain whether the professor wanted to laugh, or to kill me. I did receive a reasonable grade on the paper, though with an exhortation to not use the machine again. --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| I need more sleep, I think. i only have been up for five hours, but it seems that I am ready for bed again. I started reading IVORY SWORD with an eye towards reviewing it. I finished BEAR DAUGHTER by Judith Berman. I don't even know if the review is any good. I'm waiting to hear back from the author, or I was, but I've given up and I'm just posting the review. I mean, I can always update it later. I might have ended up approaching it from a separate angle than other reviewers, though. http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/SaveJig.jpg --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
| On a broader level, the book is fantasy. It opens on Cloud, who is her mother's daughter, who has spent the first twelve years of her life as the happy daughter of a human woman called Thrush, and a bear father, called Lord Stink one of the First People. The only thing is, it opens when her stepfather, Rumble, has killed, and eaten the heart of, her father, and taken mer mother, Thrush, for his woman. The thing is, a lot of people are surprised that Cloud became human. No one expected it. Bear's lost her memories, too. The only things she remembers are glimpsed in dreams and images. There's an empty place in her, one that no food will fill. Her mother's forced to reject her, and Rumble wants to kill her. I mean, what's a girl to do, but run away from home when her stepfather tries to kill her? Thus begins Cloud's journey, a travel among and between the mortal and immortal worlds, in a search to find the bones of her father and brothers, and take them to the Edge of the World so that they can be born anew, even though she doesn't quite feel up to the task laid before her. It is a journey where she will learn to accept herself, her origins, and embrace both her past, and her future, while trying to learn how to live as a human girl. With Native American mythology as its base, Cloud's story engages you from the beginning, as you follow her quest, which is as much coming to terms with who and what she is, as to save the spirits of her father and brothers. On a more focused level, this is a story about one young woman's struggle to come to terms with herself, a voyage of discovery to find out who she is, what is her purpose in life, to stretch and surpass her limits. It is a story of acceptance, and self-acceptance. And, quite frankly, it's a good read. Bear Daughter is available on AMAZON.COM, and can also be found at, or requested by,your local bookseller. --------- Regards, Elizabeth Anne Ensley http://nanonatter.blogspot.com |
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