Creative Draw of the Day: The Hanged Man

The Hanged Man seems perfect for New Years Eve, when the old year dies and the new year is born. It's a Major Arcana card, so it carries extra weight for a character. Better yet, it represents a period of intense withdrawal from the every-day world, when the character undergoes an ordeal that leads her to re-evaluate her life, emerging with more insight and wisdom than before.

I've always thought this ordeal should be voluntary--but I changed my mind after seeing The Fighter. Dicky is forced to undergo a withdrawal from the world, and the subsequent re-evaluation seems to work for him.

This card conjures up the mythology of Odin--the Norse deity who hung from the branches of Yggdrasil, the world tree, to learn the secrets of the Runes. Take a look at this post, which gives a Pagan perspective of  Odin's story and how it relates to this card.

Whatever a character's religion or mythos, the ordeal represented by The Hanged Man may leave her shaken or even shattered--but it will leave her stronger too.

Christian Bale as Dicky in The Fighter

Need a plot twist?

T. N. Tobias's 10 Ways to Create a Plot Twist is an excellent article on the subject!

Calvin on the purpose of writing:

Patting Myself on the Back

I've been writing my ass off these past two days! I've worked on Not So Safe, a new Craig and David story, plus a new fantasy-mystery. (More on that later.)

I wanted to work only on Not So Safe--at least until I finished the first draft. But that turned out to be counter-productive. Words flow more easily for me when I allow myself to jump around.

Any thoughts on that? What works for you?

Free Read: Like a Sparrow Through the Heart

M / M romance fans, take note. I found this free story via Goodreads and left a review:

Like a Sparrow Through the Heart by Aggy Bird

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a fun, snarky and often hilarious story. Talon (the shape-shifting griffin with anger-management issues) and Flit (the shape-shifting sparrow-therapist) make for an absorbing couple, and Aggy Bird's world will suck you right in.

But one caveat: there's a lot of casual violence in this story. Talon starts off as a bully, and though he arguably improves--well, read it for yourself and see.

View all my reviews

You can find the story here on Aggie Bird's LiveJournal.

To all who celebrate: Merry Christmas!

Although Chanukah is my winter holiday, many of my family members celebrate Christmas, so I get both holidays. (Life is good)

Wishing everyone who celebrates a warm and wonderful Christmas!

What was I thinking?

In addition to the two challenges I mentioned in this post, I also signed up for a challenge called 100 books in 2011. I'm not sure if the any of the challenges are allowed to overlap. I may be aiming for 136 books in 2011! That will keep my Kindle busy . . .

Need to learn more about your characters?

The Mother of All Character Questionnaires is designed for roleplayers, but I'm betting writers will find it useful to! (And not just fantasy writers, mind. There's something here for everyone.)

Two Reading Challenges for 2011

Georgette Heyer

I've committed to two separate reading challenges this year. The first one is on Goodreads' M/M Romance group (which is an 18 and over group due to some explicit content.) The challenge is to read 26 M/M books, each with a hero whose first or last name starts with a separate letter of the alphabet. For example, I'm going to read one of Josh Lanyon's Adrien English books for the letter 'A.'

The second challenge is courtesy of the Books are a Girl's Best Friend blog: it's a challenge to be "captivated" by Georgette Heyer by reading ten of her books. (You can find this challenge on Goodreads as well, in the Georgette Heyer Fans group.)

I have a love-hate relationship with Georgette Heyer, the woman who more-or-less created the Regency romance. (She had a little help from Jane Austen.) I love her books, but I could live without her antisemitism. (Her most blatant offense, as far as I know, is that horrific chapter in The Grand Sophy. And yes, I'd feel this way even if I weren't Jewish.) But when she's not talking about Jews I adore her.

So that's 36 books to complete my two challenges. I'm starting to line up the M/M books already; it will be harder to choose ten Georgette Heyer books, because I've read so many. But I'm sure I can find ten more that are new to me.

So here's to at least thirty-six enjoyable reads in 2011!

Moriah Jovan on Self Publishing

Great article on one author's experience--and she started self-publishing before we had all the options we do now. Check it out here.

The Snowflake Method

If you don't want to write by the seat of your pants, but you're not an outline-freak, this method may be the way to go . . .

Dumped and Dangerous

Author: J. Rosemary Moss (originally published under my pen name: Shoshana M. Moshe)
Pairing: pre-poly (Jonathan/Melinda/Kevin)
Warning: Non-consensual adult spanking
Summary: Kevin learns that not everyone will tolerate a drunken tirade . . .


Dumped and Dangerous by J. Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

The link to Dumped and Dangerous will take you to my Sassy Romance blog, due to some adult material.

Hanukkah Maccabeats parody of Taio Cruz's song "Dynamite"

Reality check for a would be novelist

I saw this on both Nathan Bransford's blog and The Coffee-Stained Writer. Enjoy!

No Writing For Me!

Not a single word so far today--too busy working and preparing for a Shabbat dinner/Chanukah party with my family tonight.

Sigh . . . but at least I have a good excuse!

Happy Chanukah!