Author: Elizabeth

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Elizabeth: A Turn of Phrase

agents, editors, agent, editor, pitch, pitching, manuscriptIt’s probably no surprise to anyone, but I’m a big fan of words.  When writing, I love it when I find just the right one, with just the right nuanced meaning to get an idea across.  I like words that are slightly old fashioned or not commonly used; words that are whimsical; and words that are evocative.  I’d give you some examples but naturally, all the words in my head went into hiding as soon as I tried to find them.

I’ve been doing more of my reading on my Kindle app recently and one of the things I’ve really enjoyed is being able to click on a word and instantly get a definition while I’m reading along.   Sure, I could pull out the dictionary when reading a physical book, but that’s not nearly as instantaneous.   I’m finding that I’m looking up words fairly frequently – even words I’m pretty familiar with – just to be sure I’ve got their meaning correct.  I’ll admit there have been a few occasions where my understanding of the meaning of a word was not quite as precise as I’d thought.

Looking up a word when you are not completely sure of the meaning is one thing, but what happens when you encounter a phrase that leaves you puzzled?

I’m thinking about a book I read a while back that had the line: Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

Are you in the holiday mood yet?  I can hardly help it myself, having been watching the Hallmark Channel holiday movie marathon for weeks now.  I figure it’s better for my piece of mind than watching the nightly news.

My house is definitely getting in the holiday spirit, though not very quickly. There is a holiday tree in the corner, but it’s still awaiting lights and ornaments.  Guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.

Maybe.

Right now I’m just focusing on making it through one final day of work before calling this week done.  I was off at a conference for a few days, so that made the week fly by.  As a bonus, the conference was near a favorite New Orleans style restaurant, so my week included Jambalaya and Beignets – a definite win.

Now that the leftovers are gone, it’s time to turn my mind back to writing, which has been on the back burner lately.  I have some revisions to do, but first I think I’ll flex my creativity a little by giving today’s story prompt a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Gifts for Writers

I was at the local craft store this weekend  to pick up something for a project I was working on.  They didn’t have what I was looking for, but it all turned out okay since once I got home I found that I actually already had what I needed, it had just gotten put away in the wrong place.

Perhaps there is such a thing as too tidy.

It’s lucky that I wasn’t planning to stock up on holiday items at the store, however, since deep-discounts on all things Christmas were well underway on the day I was there.  The shelves made me think of the food dish after the puppy has eaten – licked clean and knocked over to make sure there was nothing left underneath.

Fortunately, if you’re looking for gift ideas for that special writer on your list you don’t have to brave the craft store, or even leave the house.  Instead, why not consider one of the non-traditional items listed below? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Friday Story Time and Sprints

Happy “NaNo-is-just-about-over” Day.  I don’t know about you, but it is often the day that I do a search-and-replace in my manuscript to spell out all of the contractions I’ve used, just for those few extra words needed to put me over the finish line.

Just me?

Ah well, it’s all a process.  If you’ve been NaNo-ing, congratulations; whatever your final word count is and how ever you got there.  As long as there was writing involved, I’m pretty sure that counts as a win.

In between working, writing, reading, and – to be honest – a fair amount of staring off into space, I’ve been cooking and baking and slowly putting out the holiday decorations.  It feels a little early, but I know the time will rush by when I’m not looking, so I figure early is better than late.  No Christmas tree yet though.  Not only is it still a bit early for that, but all of the neighborhood tree lots seem to have disappeared – victims of building that’s going on in the area.  I’ll have to do some searching this weekend, otherwise all those strings of lights and boxes of ornaments are going to look pretty strange just piled up on the table.

But that’s a problem for another day.  Today’s goal is to get some words on the page (and not just blog post words).  We’ve been having rainy weather that’s perfect for curling up on the couch and being creative.  Before I tackle my WIP though, I think I’ll give today’s story prompt a try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Book Squee – Treacherous is the Night

A while back I ventured over to GoodReads.  Initially I only planned to leave a pre-publication review for an author I follow, but while I was there I found the Giveaways section and threw my hat in the ring for a variety of books, both by authors I knew and by some I’d never heard of.

Sometimes it was the cover of the book that caught my attention and sometimes, less often, it was the little blurb describing the book.    Most were by authors I’d never heard of.  Over time, I wound up with a number of additions to my physical TBR pile, as well as a long list of titles in my GoodReads “Want to Read” list.

When I recently rediscovered the joy of the public library, I armed myself with that GoodReads list and started checking out the titles that I could find.  As expected, some of them fell into the “swing and a miss” category.    A few didn’t even make it past the “I’ll give you three chapters to catch my interest” milestone.  One recent title, however, not only lived up to my initial expectations, it greatly surpassed them.

It was the cover of Treacherous is the Night by Anna Lee Huber that initially caught my interest, but it was the story that had me reading it, buying my own copy on Amazon, and then reading it again, as seems to be my current habit for books I read and like. Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Story Time and Sprints – Recipie Edition

Happy Thanksgiving, or for those of you not located in the US or not celebrating, Happy Thursday.  Hope you have had a good week as we start that accelerated slide towards the end of the year.

I have been off work for the entire week – yay! – which should mean I’ve done lots and lots of writing.  Sadly, that appears not to be the case.  On the plus side, I did get the outdoor holiday lights put up (before the rains started up), the kitchen cleaned, and an excessive number of books read, so I’m considering the time to have been well spent.

I do feel compelled to attempt to put at least some words on the page before I have to head back to the office though, so I’m going to give today’s writing prompt the old college try.

Care to join me? Continue reading →

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Elizabeth: Publishing Parties, Guinness, and Cake

As you’ve probably noticed, if today isn’t your first day visiting the blog, we’re currently in the midst of recipe week (of both the edible and creative kind).  So far our recipe ingredient lists have included romance, bananas, sweet potatoes, and a fallen angel – though not all in the same recipe.

I have two recipes today.  The first is courtesy of a book I read a few weeks ago by Judith Flanders, who I talked about in my last Author Squee post here.    A Cast of Vultures, book 3 in her Sam Clair mystery series, opens with the heroine Sam (an editor) waking up the morning after a night spent at a launch party for a new novel that included copious amounts of alcohol and, well, lots more alcohol.  She envisions that the publicist’s recipe for the evening looked something like this: Continue reading →