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Alma Alexander's Blog (29)
A necessary rant...?
So, there's this dude (I am assuming) at Deviant Art who has created a poster of "Action figures" of "Heroes of Science" - i.e. folk who have had an influence, presumably, on the world of science. He has drawn the action figures as they might appear were they actually real - they are, as far as I understand it, not real as themselves. There is just the poster, not the actual figures. You can see it <a…
ContinueAdded by Alma Alexander on November 29, 2012 at 10:23pm — No Comments
A "Haunted" Halloween contest!
Win an ebook of ghost stories by Yours Truly, in time for Halloween! Details here:
Added by Alma Alexander on October 20, 2011 at 3:59pm — No Comments
So, then. Harry Potter.
Last night, I went to see the final Pottermovie.
Let me start with a few disclaimers here. The last Potter BOOK that I read was #3. The rest of my Potter experience was movies alone - and I appreciate at the outset that I may be losing out on the minutiae of it all thereby. But speaking of the movies, I thought that #1 was full of precisely the kind of glee and vivid invention that made Rowlings's workd so irresistible. #2 I barely remember. #3 was perhaps my favourite of…
ContinueAdded by Alma Alexander on July 21, 2011 at 2:14pm — No Comments
"Midnight at Spanish Gardens" - the new novel!
What If … ? What if you could make a different choice at a critical moment in your life? What if you had married someone else, turned right instead of left, had taken that job you rejected? What if you had been born a man instead of a woman?
My new novel, "Midnight at Spanish Gardens,(cover here )explores this universal question. It is now AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER as an… Continue
My new novel, "Midnight at Spanish Gardens,(cover here )explores this universal question. It is now AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER as an… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on June 29, 2011 at 9:26pm — 1 Comment
Stories, stories everwhere
One of the perennial items tossed at every living writer in almost every interview is "Where do you get your ideas?"
One well-known writer famously provided an address for an Ideas Shop in Schenectady (and had people TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY). I usually say that I have an Ideas Tree growing out back (and I've had people take THAT semi-seriously).
Most writers, though, when confronted with the Question, simply fling their arms up in resignation and say "EVERYWHERE!" And they are,… Continue
One well-known writer famously provided an address for an Ideas Shop in Schenectady (and had people TAKE HIM SERIOUSLY). I usually say that I have an Ideas Tree growing out back (and I've had people take THAT semi-seriously).
Most writers, though, when confronted with the Question, simply fling their arms up in resignation and say "EVERYWHERE!" And they are,… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on May 6, 2011 at 2:04pm — No Comments
Talisman Books
Alison Goodman defines a Talisman Book as "one of those novels that you read over and over again, a book that seems to resonate through you, that wards off the disappointments and insecurities of everyday life."
My Talisman Books are the ones I'd rescue from a burning building. For example:
-- My dogeared paperback copy of 'Lord of the Rings'. This book – broken-spined, tattered, beloved – was probably one of the first thing that made me kneel at the altar of fantasy and… Continue
My Talisman Books are the ones I'd rescue from a burning building. For example:
-- My dogeared paperback copy of 'Lord of the Rings'. This book – broken-spined, tattered, beloved – was probably one of the first thing that made me kneel at the altar of fantasy and… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on May 3, 2011 at 2:34pm — 1 Comment
Coming This Fall... RIVER, the Anthology
It begins. Somewhere. An insignificant trickle of water that grows and changes, gathers a history, becomes the River, and finally reaches the sea, and vanishes into its vastness.
The River. Full of life. Full of mystery. Full of stories.
Rivers have always been very important to humankind. They've been explored. They've been navigated. They've been called gods. They've been blessed and cursed and venerated and used and enjoyed and exploited and polluted since the beginning of… Continue
The River. Full of life. Full of mystery. Full of stories.
Rivers have always been very important to humankind. They've been explored. They've been navigated. They've been called gods. They've been blessed and cursed and venerated and used and enjoyed and exploited and polluted since the beginning of… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on April 28, 2011 at 12:54pm — No Comments
What is it about notebooks?
I've always been in love with notebooks. When I was younger it was hardcover notebooks in which I would write ENTIRE NOVELS, by hand, often in pencil. Later, especially when I graduated to the computer as a primary writing tool, they became smaller things I toted around in various purses and in which I scribbled quotes, ideas and half-finished poetry.
Some were set aside as dedicated "research journals" for particular projects, and are filled with scrawled notes culled from various… Continue
Some were set aside as dedicated "research journals" for particular projects, and are filled with scrawled notes culled from various… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on March 30, 2011 at 9:51pm — 2 Comments
Happy Eleventy-Ninth Birthday, Professor
I don't know when I first REALLy encountered J.R.R.Tolkien, and Middle Earth. They have simply been a part of my life forever.
I fell into "Lord of the Rings" and it closed over my head, and I've been breathing it through silver ever since, its words and worlds often as real to me - and sometimes far more real to me - than the ones I was physically contained in. It was the worlds of my heart and my spirit and my mind that have always mattered to me; all the rest is merely existing.… Continue
I fell into "Lord of the Rings" and it closed over my head, and I've been breathing it through silver ever since, its words and worlds often as real to me - and sometimes far more real to me - than the ones I was physically contained in. It was the worlds of my heart and my spirit and my mind that have always mattered to me; all the rest is merely existing.… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on January 13, 2011 at 5:29pm — 1 Comment
Inspiration and technology
I wrote my first poem -- about a
broken alarm clock -- when I was five. I've been writing about
life, the universe and everything ever since -- in novels, poems, short
stories and essays.
I just can't not write, so when the blogging age came
along, I embraced it with great enthusiasm.
When my favorite local book store, Village Books, acquired its magical Espresso Book Machine for
self-publishing small-run publications, I… Continue
broken alarm clock -- when I was five. I've been writing about
life, the universe and everything ever since -- in novels, poems, short
stories and essays.
I just can't not write, so when the blogging age came
along, I embraced it with great enthusiasm.
When my favorite local book store, Village Books, acquired its magical Espresso Book Machine for
self-publishing small-run publications, I… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on December 27, 2010 at 10:06pm — No Comments
Imposter Syndrome
I've had a bunch of writer friends admit to falling prey to this thing called the Impostor Syndrome at least once in the course of their writing lives and careers.
It's the perennial "I'm here under false pretenses – there are so many who are so much more qualified to be here or deserve to be here so much more than me…" kind of response. It's feeling the urge to slink away into the shadows because you've somehow been "unmasked" as being at the ball wearing another's robes of…
Added by Alma Alexander on December 17, 2010 at 4:10pm — 1 Comment
Here's to great editors
I suffer from occasional attacks of chutzpah.
Back in the mid-eighties, London Magazine, the grand, the venerable, had been in more-or-less constant publication for SEVERAL CENTURIES. It had a Reputation. It had a Renown.
I was in my early-to-mid-twenties at the time it and I crossed paths. It was edited by Alan Ross, who had been at the helm for decades, who was synonymous with the magazine at this point in time. So we had a daunting double barrier here - a famous… Continue
Back in the mid-eighties, London Magazine, the grand, the venerable, had been in more-or-less constant publication for SEVERAL CENTURIES. It had a Reputation. It had a Renown.
I was in my early-to-mid-twenties at the time it and I crossed paths. It was edited by Alan Ross, who had been at the helm for decades, who was synonymous with the magazine at this point in time. So we had a daunting double barrier here - a famous… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on December 1, 2010 at 2:48pm — No Comments
Espresso Magic
I wrote my first poem -- about a broken alarm clock -- when I was five. I've has been writing about life, the universe and everything ever since -- in novels, poems, short stories and, in the past few years, hundreds of blog essays.
When Village Books in my home town of Bellingham WA acquired its magical Espresso machine for self-publishing small-run books in the store itself, I collected some of my blog entries for a new book entitled, Shoes & Ships & Sealing… Continue
When Village Books in my home town of Bellingham WA acquired its magical Espresso machine for self-publishing small-run books in the store itself, I collected some of my blog entries for a new book entitled, Shoes & Ships & Sealing… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on November 5, 2010 at 10:00pm — No Comments
The comfort of a book
Feeling a little under the weather, I took a day off and sat down with a cup of herbal tea … and a book.
After I had finished the book (its spine cracked with love, its pages beginning to age, its shape and weight comfortable in my hand) I went back to the computer to take a look at what had been going on in the world since I had last looked in on it and discovered a discussion on e-readers.
E-book readers are proliferating like mushrooms after the rains, and the more… Continue
After I had finished the book (its spine cracked with love, its pages beginning to age, its shape and weight comfortable in my hand) I went back to the computer to take a look at what had been going on in the world since I had last looked in on it and discovered a discussion on e-readers.
E-book readers are proliferating like mushrooms after the rains, and the more… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on October 24, 2010 at 3:17pm — No Comments
Fences
I was driving along suburban roads when I was suddenly struck… by fences.
There's a little house on a corner in my town, older and less than perfectly cared for, with a short picket fence more decoration than any kind of impediment to anything at all, once white but now a cheerfully peeling grayish motley revealing the weathered wood underneath. Around and through it nod flowers. The lawn beyond is a child's dream of dandelion grass.
There's another house, a little further… Continue
There's a little house on a corner in my town, older and less than perfectly cared for, with a short picket fence more decoration than any kind of impediment to anything at all, once white but now a cheerfully peeling grayish motley revealing the weathered wood underneath. Around and through it nod flowers. The lawn beyond is a child's dream of dandelion grass.
There's another house, a little further… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on September 19, 2010 at 3:11pm — No Comments
When I was a teen...
I am posting online a novel I wrote as a teenager -- 30 years ago -- and will rewrite it, a chapter at a time.
When I was 14, I wrote a 200,000 word novel in longhand, in pencil, three years after I had learned English.
That first novel was, not too surprisingly, unpublished. But decades later, I finally mustered the courage to look at it and found it … not too bad. Oh, the writing is sometimes appalling, but the characters and the plot hold together very… Continue
When I was 14, I wrote a 200,000 word novel in longhand, in pencil, three years after I had learned English.
That first novel was, not too surprisingly, unpublished. But decades later, I finally mustered the courage to look at it and found it … not too bad. Oh, the writing is sometimes appalling, but the characters and the plot hold together very… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on September 7, 2010 at 3:46pm — No Comments
Confessions
10 Authorial Confessions
1. There are times that I have sat and watched words which *I am typing* appear on the screen in front of my eyes… and not recognized them. That's how much my characters – or sometimes just my story – take over when I'm in "writer mode". I sometimes think it's a mild form of possession.
2. There are characters I have created that I actively dislike and there are times that it's HARD to be fair to those characters. I like to think I generally come… Continue
1. There are times that I have sat and watched words which *I am typing* appear on the screen in front of my eyes… and not recognized them. That's how much my characters – or sometimes just my story – take over when I'm in "writer mode". I sometimes think it's a mild form of possession.
2. There are characters I have created that I actively dislike and there are times that it's HARD to be fair to those characters. I like to think I generally come… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on September 2, 2010 at 3:13pm — No Comments
10 Authorial confessions
10 Authorial Confessions
1. There are times that I have sat and watched words which *I am typing* appear on the screen in front of my eyes… and not recognized them. That's how much my characters – or sometimes just my story – take over when I'm in "writer mode". I sometimes think it's a mild form of possession.
2. There are characters I have created that I actively dislike and there are times that it's HARD to be fair to those characters. I like to think I generally come… Continue
1. There are times that I have sat and watched words which *I am typing* appear on the screen in front of my eyes… and not recognized them. That's how much my characters – or sometimes just my story – take over when I'm in "writer mode". I sometimes think it's a mild form of possession.
2. There are characters I have created that I actively dislike and there are times that it's HARD to be fair to those characters. I like to think I generally come… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on September 2, 2010 at 3:11pm — No Comments
On Magic
August 5th 2010
On Magic
Fantasy is a lens which sharpens and clarifies the sliver of reality viewed through it; magic is one of the tools used to accomplish this. It's a powerful tool and often it is a threatening one, because there is the propensity to react against something that affects you deeply.
Sufficiently advanced magic takes on a reality all of its own and begins to be something believed in on its own terms, with something approaching religious faith. This… Continue
On Magic
Fantasy is a lens which sharpens and clarifies the sliver of reality viewed through it; magic is one of the tools used to accomplish this. It's a powerful tool and often it is a threatening one, because there is the propensity to react against something that affects you deeply.
Sufficiently advanced magic takes on a reality all of its own and begins to be something believed in on its own terms, with something approaching religious faith. This… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on August 6, 2010 at 1:16pm — No Comments
It all begins somewhere...
I wrote a novel when I was fourteen years old.
In longhand.
In pencil.
On 570+ pages in three A4-sized hardcover notebooks.
It was, at the time, a considerable achievement - this was nearly 200,000 words of coherent narrative populated by characters who had considerable personality and 3-dimensionality. The actual writing, of course, was that of a raw fourteen-year-old beginner, and now, these many years later, that shows. Painfully.
Yes, I… Continue
In longhand.
In pencil.
On 570+ pages in three A4-sized hardcover notebooks.
It was, at the time, a considerable achievement - this was nearly 200,000 words of coherent narrative populated by characters who had considerable personality and 3-dimensionality. The actual writing, of course, was that of a raw fourteen-year-old beginner, and now, these many years later, that shows. Painfully.
Yes, I… Continue
Added by Alma Alexander on August 1, 2010 at 10:25pm — No Comments
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B. Lynn Goodwin replied to the discussion 'In Six Words: "What Makes My Writing Unique"'"Nothing, something, everything and back again. =)"
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