Quite the Life (and all in Times New Roman 10pt!)
“If in the first act you have hung a pistol on the wall, then in the following one it should be fired. Otherwise don’t put it there.” – Anton Checkov I keep running into editors and publishers wanting trigger warnings when submitting manuscripts. The need for trigger warnings confuses me because it raises a question … Continue reading “Trigger Warnings – Did you forget to put the gun in Act I?”
Read Shaman Story Chapter X – Mr. Zelli’s Ice Cream. Shaman Story Chapter X – Council of All Beings Voices dance over me like ants at a harvest. I shake with the deep bellow of whale song, the answering trumpet of elephant, am tickled with the chirping of crickets the size of busses. A … Continue reading “Shaman Story Chapter X – Council of All Beings”
[A previous version of this post appeared on Rennie St. James’ blog] Have you ever been in real hand-to-hand combat? Not a playground pushing contest, a real someone’s-not-getting-up-ever-again situation? Forget about what you’ve seen in movies, TV, and the like. Those are highly staged, choreographed dances, not fights. Everything they do is practiced so nobody … Continue reading “Writing Realistic Hand-to-Hand Combat Scenes”
Read Shaman Story Chapter X – Healing. Shaman Story Chapter X – Mr. Zelli’s Ice Cream Grandma, Buppa and I walk to Mr. Zelli’s ice cream shop, up two streets on the corner. Buppa likes the ice cream there. It’s special, called gelato. Mr. Zelli has ice cream for his L’Inglese and gelato for … Continue reading “Shaman Story Chapter X – Mr. Zelli’s Ice Cream”
Read Shaman Story Chapter X – Little Girl Lost. Shaman Story Chapter X – Healing A woman comes on a hot August night. Grandpa and I sit on the frontporch watching traffic and sipping steaming hot espressos. She carries a boy in blue shorts, white shirt, blue three button jacket, knotted blue tie and … Continue reading “Shaman Story Chapter X – Healing”