Category Archives: literature

ROMANCE FINANCE PISSANTS

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  Just to set the record straight—most of you probably know what romance is,  and if you don’t know anything about finance, you’re in trouble— but pissants sounds so terrible, that even my voice recognition software wants to call it, “puissance.” But it has nothing to do with ants, usually, unless you are at a picnic where they are attending. The word,  “pissants” is actually considered vulgar (but when did that ever stop anyone?). Pissants means a person place or thing that is insignificant or of no consequence or… Continue reading →

THE FEMALE HERO—ARCHETYPES and STEREOTYPES

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Departure of the Amazons by Deruet,  1620

I was going to continue this sequence of blogs with villains, but came across an article in the April Smithsonian called, “The First Wonder Women.” Amanda Foreman’s article discusses the more modern “Wonder Woman” comics persona and her upcoming presence or lack thereof in the upcoming movie, “Batman vs. Superman.” Not that favorably, either.                                     Foreman continues backwards in time until she arrives at one of my favorites:… Continue reading →

HISTORICAL FICTION READING & WRITING: PART DEUX

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Miyagawa_Isshô-Spring_Pastimes-H

 Why Historical Fiction?  How to Write Historical Fiction? Why?  BECAUSE:   1. Love   2. Learn   3. Lore   4. Leap   5. Live 1.  Love For me, I came to love historical fiction when I was about 12. I introduced myself, I think by accident, to Mary Renault — The Bull the Sea — and their other classics. I fell in love with mythology, historical fiction and probably her and her writing.                     2.… Continue reading →

READING HISTORICAL FICTION AND/OR JUST PLAIN READING

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  While this is not exactly the position I used to be in, if any of you had caught me as a young girl, but this is what I would be doing. Reading. I am one of those who used the flashlight under the blanket before we had Nooks and Kindles and iPads  … with backlighting.     I am an unabashed and total bibliophile and proud of it. A friend came into my office and kept looking behind me. Finally he said, “you sure… Continue reading →

MORE NEW, MORE OLD

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A Young Girl Reading, c. 1776, by Jean-Honoré Fragonard

I received an email from someone who said that  Pillow Book of the Flower Samurai had passed her husband’s “test.” That got me to thinking. In my critique group, we are equally diverse: psychological suspense, science fiction, cozy mysteries, and historical fiction. So how can we critique each other? I think we do it by looking at the pieces, of which you can pick up any book on writing and find a whole bunch, but also by keeping the pieces together as one whole. That… Continue reading →