Cop Out Monday

What I'm reading: Fault Line, by Barry Eisler

It's a cop-out post today. I've got a cold--nothing really bad, but annoying enough so I spent the weekend doing the bare minimum in the way of household chores, and added nothing new to my manuscript. Instead of coming up with something clever or deep and meaningful for my post today, I dug into my email.

First, some quotes from my Quote of the Day collection:

The opinion you need to trust is your own. I'm not saying that presenting your work to others is a bad idea. I'm saying other people's opinions should not substitute for your own. You can't depend on others to tell you what you've done, or not done. You can't depend on others to make your work harder or feel better about your work. You must learn to depend on yourself. How? By not giving away the responsibility to others. ~Lauren Kessler
The Writer, Aug 2008

Keep Reading...

Writing for adults, you have to keep reminding them of what is going on. The poor things have given up using their brains when they read. Children you only need to tell things to once. ~Diana Wynne Jones

It makes one hope and believe that a day will come when, in the eye of the law, literary property will be as sacred as whiskey, or any other of the necessaries of life. It grieves me to think how far more profound and reverent a respect the law would have for literature if a body could only get drunk on it. ~Mark Twain

How can you hate the actual writing? What is there to hate about it? How can you hate the magic which makes a paragraph or a sentence or a line of dialogue or a description something in the nature of a new creation? ~Raymond Chandler

Next, some vocabulary words from my Word of the Day collection

pinchbeck \PINCH-bek\, noun, adjective
inanition \in-uh-NISH-uhn\, noun
velleity \veh-LEE-uh-tee; vuh-\, noun
thaumaturgy \THAW-muh-tuhr-jee\, noun

And finally, a clip hubby sent. Yes, it's been around, but it made me laugh out loud, and maybe it'll bring a smile to someone else as well.



And by all means, come back tomorrow. Author Patricia Stoltey is going to talk about Cranky Old Women. One way or another, I think we can all relate.

Odds and Ends

Jewish holidays all start at Sundown, so tonight is the first night of Hanukkah. For those who celebrate the holiday, have a wonderful week.

Yesterday, Amazon.com finally showed When Danger Calls as 'available now'. It's been a long time coming.

And, since one of the joys of the season is watching the delight of children, here's a writing quote for the day.

Reading good writers will help you pay attention to detail: the way gestures reveal true emotions, the dialogue of people around you, the way an event unfolds in your life, in others' lives. Pay attention to the world around you with intense interest. ...When you begin to pay attention in this way, you'll find ways of being amazed again--feeling the kind of discovery in everyday life the way a child does. You'll never be bored.
~Elizabeth Cox
The Writer, Dec 2008

Weekend Words

This was my writer's quote of the day. I wonder if it means I need to back up and rewrite the end of the last scene.....

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.

~Colette