World in the Satin Bag

World in the Satin Bag

Note On the Map

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I want to make a quick note to any that might be so deeply into WISB. The map itself is designed, on my part, in reverse of where everything actually is. West on the map is actually East. I designed the map not really thinking about direction, but more about the placement of things. I likely will change this in the story at some point–making Teirlin’pur sit on the east or something of that nature. Right now, though, the correct way to look at the map is in reverse. West is East. East is West. Most likely I’ll just talk to my cartographer and have him invert it. Edit: I lied. I have gone through and fixed all the directions so the map is correct. It was actually less work than asking my cartographer to waste four hours trying to invert the map and make changes to the Aor River so it winds the correct way. So, really it doesn’t change anything to the story. It just means some minor scenes have been changed. I’ll be reposting all the changes. Don’t worry, unless you’re so into every minor detail of WISB it shouldn’t even affect the story for you.

World in the Satin Bag

Punctuation: A Writer’s Worst Enemy — Semicolons

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It has come to my attention that one of the things I should really address in my blog is punctuation. I was recently reading work from a lady in my lit. class and it occurred to me that the semicolon is the most misrepresented punctuation there is. George Orwell once shunned it because he considered it an arcane piece of the English language. To some extent we would have to agree with him because it is a rather old and rarely used item. There is good reason for its lack of use: people generally don’t know how to use it. A semicolon is, in some ways, a super comma. Unlike the comma, however, you must have two independent clauses. What is this bit about clauses? A clause, to put it simply, is a sentence that contains a subject and a verb. An independent clause is a sentence that is a complete thought. A dependent clause is one that does not complete a thought and requires additional information to do so.  Example: Fighting in the old restaurant = DependentThey were fighting in the old restaurant = Independent Notice the difference? Now, in regards to semicolons, you need two independent clauses. You can’t say:   She was a happy girl; smiling all the time. That makes no sense because the first part is independent, but the second is dependent. It requires additional information to make it a complete sentence. The following would be correct: She was a happy girl; she smiled all the time. Two complete clauses (sentences).  Generally speaking you always want the two clauses around the semicolon to be related. Notice how the above example has a happy girl who smiles. Both are related to her happiness. Sometimes you can get away with it, but for the most part you should stick to having the sentences stick together. Besides, if you have a sentence that is unrelated it probably should be on its own somewhere anymore. Just remember this the next time you want to use the semicolon. It can be your friend if you use it correctly; it can also be your greatest enemy. If you use it poorly it is a sure fire way to end up in that slush pile or in the garbage can. Editors generally do not like flashy punctuation; semicolons can be seen this way if you use them a lot. It’s a clear warning when your use of the semicolon is incorrect that you are not developed enough in your writing for publication.  I personally love the semicolon. It’s a cool piece of punctuation I think. So, that’s that!

World in the Satin Bag

Final Critique Group Update

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Officially we are not doing it through CC anymore because I’m not going to ask Andrew or anyone else to subscribe to the premium account there. It’s not fair to you, especially since this is just starting up and there isn’t a definitive guarantee it will last for a year or forever for that matter. However, I did a little research and found that we can do critiques in MS Word without a problem. It takes a minute to set up some quick keys for the two commands we’ll likely be using–strike through and comment. So, for those that were interested (Andrew for example) send me a direct email so I can tell you how to do these quick keys. And then we’ll start doing it via email and just send each other documents. Would anyone be opposed to having a mailing list that makes discussing stories easy amongst one another? A very low key list. Just something that only the members would send to one another. Not advertised so there would be no spam. So please email me in regards to the critique group. And another post will go up later this evening on the evil semicolon–which I am quite fond of but people tend to use incorrectly on a consistent basis.

World in the Satin Bag

CC Updates

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I have just discovered that the premium membership at CC only allows me to start a private queue for all of you to use who don’t have premium memberships that will only let me post to the group and not you. This defeats the entire purpose of the group obviously. So I’m wondering now a few things. The reason I really enjoy CC is because of the ‘inline critique’ template, which makes critiquing super easy online. I don’t think it fair to ask people who don’t use CC to go off and pay for a membership, but at the same time I don’t know of any place that offers an easy way to critique. The only thing I can think of is sending things to one another via snail mail, but I completely understand why nobody wants to do that. There isn’t any way I can think of to snail mail without giving away addresses. I don’t have a P.O. box, but I’m also completely unworried about anyone knowing where I live really, at least in regards to a critique group. But, again, I understand if nobody else likes this method.So here are the options I have right now:1) Everyone who wants in gets a premium membership ($34 dollars for a full year, $24 for six months) . It isn’t really a lot of money, but for some of you who are full time students it is. It’s a commitment that I can’t ask any of you to make. That would be unfair.2) We say “screw CC” and go elsewhere. I don’t know where to go that will give us at least some way to organize our critiques, nor where we can get that ‘inline critique’.3) Someone tell me or teach me how the heck they can easily do critiques in word with whatever crazy feature they use. (Someone mentioned this to me. This would mean we could just send MS word docs, or RTF files to one another and do it that way. Perhaps start some sort of mailing list or whatever for it. This would mean not using CC of course, but I probably could utilize my premium membership for doing a real good run through of WISB since I am considering publishing it). And there has to be some sort of quick key for this otherwise it will make clicking around take way too much time.4) Someone give me another idea of what the heck to do about this. I’m a little lost here. So, does anyone have any ideas?

World in the Satin Bag

Critique Group! In Motion!

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This is a short email to let everyone know that I have paid for the premium service on CC and as soon as they update my account I will be starting up the critique group. Now for further discussion and some questions that need answering from those that were interested. What is a reasonable frequency of new material to there? (my thoughts are at least once a month, not more than once a week) What should we call it? (the queue needs a name, so figure I would ask. I’m impartial.) Should we put some sort of limit on people? (I mean, if they don’t do anything for 6 months and are perfectly healthy should we not allow them to be a part? I want this to be a serious writers group with the intention of getting things to a good publishable level. I want people to get published from this. So, people who aren’t wanting to take part might not be useful to the group anyway). Anything else that might be of concern to anyone?

Book Reviews, World in the Satin Bag

Book Review: The Dark Dreamweaver by Nick Ruth

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I recently received a review copy of this book after wandering through a series of blogs. I found out about this book from one such blog and thought to myself that it sounded really good. So I request a review copy. I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though it was written for an audience somewhat younger than I am used to. I love Harry Potter, Leven Thumps, and other such novels that are written for that slightly older teen audience–the more versed groups. The Dark Dreamweaver is written, obviously for a much younger audience. The language, while at times a little advanced, is perfect for those 8-13 year olds.That being said, the story basically is as follows:David is a young boy from our world. He collects caterpillar eggs with his parents, pretends his a magician (the real kind, not tricks), and goes about life like any young boy does. Then one day one of his caterpillars starts talking to him. This is Houdin, a wizard who has been cursed into a constantly repeating life cycle as a caterpillar–growing, sprouting, dying, all repeated over and over. David soon learns that the dark dreams he keeps having and all the dark dreams plaguing the world are due to a dark wizard named Thane from the world of Remin, where Houdin comes from. Remin is the world of imagination, dreams, and spectrum–the curious magical glitter than allows select few people in Remin to do amazing things. Now David finds himself caught in a battle not only to save Remin from Thane’s destructive path, but also to cure Houdin of his curse and save his own world before it’s too late… I found the book to be delightful. It’s not a perfect book, and I think that won’t matter considering the audience it is meant for. Younger kids aren’t too concerned with scenes that move a little too quick. The magic of this world is really interesting too. The idea of having to ‘load’ wands with ‘spectrum’ the way you might load a gun is a neat little twist. Some of the characters are great too. Sir Head-a-lot is a guy who can change his appearance by switching his heads. Houdin, obviously, a little caterpillar. And there are more characters too, all lovable in their own way. I couldn’t help but find Houdin as my favorite–and I think that stems from reading Leven Thumps some time ago where one of the characters was a talking toothpick.One notice for this book as that it does have some dark sections to it. It is not so dark in the same sense that Stephen King is dark. There are mentions of some blood, which for me is perfectly fine, and themes that I think might be a little scary. Regardless, I think kids can handle it. It’s a powerfully driven tale with swift and well drawn action, interesting puzzles, and a well paced plot. Good work!

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