The Hobbit: The Desolution of Smaug

Oh my this was as good as the first movie! Ok i mentioned in my second post I think Mr. Tolken is the gold standard for fantasy writing. I just watched Peter Jackson’s second installment of The Hobbit. I enjoyed it thoroughly even if we had to pause for s’mores. Oh those were so good too, maybe better than popcorn. Anyway one thing that caught my attention was the way the movie filled in some gaps from the book. 

Since Hobbit is written from Bilbo’s prespective it makes sense that when Gandalf leaves Bilbo wouldn’t know what happened until later. I am trying not to give anything away in case you haven’t seen it yet. I so enourge you to watch both movies if you like Lord of the Rings or fantasy adventure. I give it two thumbs up and s’mores. Ok thats my two cents worth. Cheers,

Night owl

I love this quote I found on the internet. It says it all for me. I usually write on the nights my husband works. Although I may play or read over stuff when he is home, the hours between 9:30 and midnight are mine to create. Hope you enjoy the quote. Cheers

Rainy Sunday Night

I am ashamed to admit it but Friday night I had the whole house to myself excepting my dog and my sister’s dog that I was dogsitting. I set up my writing desk with my nook and niffty nook keyboard, ( if you have a nook and you write get a nook keyboard they are awesome) turned on smooth jazz, pulled out my legal pad with my story and started typing. I hit a passage that I had marked for expanding and leaned my head back to plot and I fell asleep. I don’t know for how long I was asleep, pretty good to judge my companions snoring at my feet. 

So moral of the story is if you are tired and the house is quiet and the rain is gently tapping on the roof and windows, don’t be suprised to find you fall asleep when you should be typing. So tonight I can hear the wind blowing the rain around and no jazz music is playig and I am playing on the internet typing confessions instead of writing. However I must have needed the rest because my mind is alive with ideas for future stories, future story plots, and some wicked twists to the current story I am working on. 

So what do you like to do on a rainy Sunday night when you have the house to yourself and the music is just right?

Dear Readers have a great week.

 

Indie Author Review

Here it goes paying it forward about an indie author both me and my husband enjoy. Ms. JD Nixon currently writes two series, although there have been rumors of a third series appearing.

Little Big Town is the first series and my favorite. Set in Australia she tells the trials and tribulations of a small town police department. The main heorine is Tess Fuller and she is as neat a character as they come. The bane of Tess’s life and small town are the Bycroft family. The crowd is bad to the bone with one exception Jake Bycroft, Tess’s boyfriend. Excellent series with plenty of plot, humor and good writing. 

The second series is Ms. Nixon’s Heller series. Heller is the name of the main male character while her female character is Tilly Chambers. Tilly is a hoot and seems to waltz right off the page. 

So I heartly encourge giving JD Nixon a try. She has the first books of both series availble for free. She self publishes on Smashwords and her ebooks are available thru Nook, Kindle, and Ipad ( I think). She is on Facebook, an author page and JD Nixon fan club. 

 

Blood Ties- Little Big Town series first novel
Heller- Heller series first novel

Pay it forward

Since getting a nook I have read the first books that were free and gone on to purchase the next in the series. I have slacked off in leaving reviews but reading Dylan’s post reminds me I need to get back to leaving reviews. Also I am currently reading the third book in a series called the Cat’s Eye Chronicle by T.L Shreffler if you like fantasty. So far there are three novels and a short story leading to book four. So there’s one down and a boatload to go. Cheers and thank you for the post Dylan.

Suffolk Scribblings

I’ve been thinking a lot recently on the difficulties faced by independent authors like myself. The indie author community is very supportive of each other when it comes to the writing process. We encourage and congratulate, offer tips and advice, yet when it comes to talking about independent books we tend to focus predominantly on our own work. I am as guilty of this as many. But a number of things have happened recently that have made me decide to change.

How independent musicians support each other

As some of you long-term readers will know, I used to review the monthly Live at the Cottage gig that is held every month in my local village. These gigs attract high quality unsigned acts, most of which make a living through performing live and selling their independently produced CD’s. There are many similarities between what they are doing and what we, as independent authors, are looking…

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Mapmaking

Well it ain’t (excuse the local venacular) pretty but I guess it will serve to guide me through my story. I made one of several attempts at mapmaking. So far it looks like a sheet of graphpaper with squiggily lines for rivers/streams and dots for places of inteterest/important events.

I decided since i was using graphpaper and I am working against time. I would let time be my scale instead of miles. I also have noted on my map one square equals one hour of travel one foot. While three squares equal one hour by elk (I know cool right. Whoever thought of using an elk as a riding animal) I will at a later date ascribe the miles into a more traditional map.

I must say I am waiting for the day in the future when my doodle/scibble looks like a real map. I am inspired by the fact Middle Earth’s map was a collage of many different maps Mr. Tolken made over the years. Practice and patience will sure win the game and I will draw something worthy of the name. 

Writing vs. Typing

Quick question: When you write how do you do it? Handwritten first on paper or typing on a computer.

My answer is I hand write then I type and apply the spit shine. The feel of a good writing pen gliding over a fresh blank sheet of paper lifts my spirits no matter how crappy the day or even how good the day. Writing just feels good and putting pen to papper even more so. The one fly in the cream is my handwriting, it is a terrible mismash of print and cursive. I have tried re-teaching myself handwriting but it never sticks.

I have a love affair with pens and paper. A trip to Staples or Office Max or Office Despot always lifts my spirits. Usually those trips are to look and drool over new pens, neat looking paper, notebooks or journal, and all the other awesome stuff they cram in those stores.

Most of the time I buy my writing supplies from the local Dollar Tree. Then I don’t feel guilty splurging on cute solar dancing animals and bless them for the stock of pens and packs of yellow legal pads without margins. All of which can be had for the nominal sum of $1.00.

Bless you wonderful folks at Dollar Tree!

So that’s my dollar’s worth of comentary.