Kate Flournoy

SKIMMING TOLKIEN’S WORK! OH HORRORS! So much of the beauty is in the details. But I do see what you mean. I guess I like Tolkien because he is un-apologetically unique, and there is something about his description that just speaks to me on a deeper level than Dickens’s and Lewis’s ‘See that? See that thing. Let me tell you something funny about…[Read more]

Two of my favorite authors when it comes to description are Tolkien and Dickens. They are also two of my top favorite authors period, but hey. Maybe that’s one of the reasons I like them.
Dickens does a lot of characterization of the objects he is describing, as in the time (in A Christmas Carol, I think?) when he likened onions in a market window…[Read more]

I really couldn’t tell that you made any effort whatsoever to make your posts entertaining, Ezra… so I don’t know why the grin starts into my eyes the moment I see your profile picture on a new thread. It must just be some weird psychological gimmick.

Hmmm… hypocrisy. I’m probably guilty of the same thing in some respects! It’s so much…[Read more]

Yep. He got it. Short and sweet.

But I’ll add a few more detailed thoughts. A government can command a person to sin without sticking a gun under his nose and saying ‘bow down to that idol or I’ll blow your brains out’. If a Christian sees a minority group being persecuted, (take for example a slave trade, or antisemitism) they are supposed to…[Read more]

Hm. Good points. I can definitely see where you are coming from. I agree, just because I (it was me who said that haha) as the writer have an incredibly detailed image does not mean that the reader will necessarily be interested. You’re right. We need to keep that in mind.
That being said…
The image I’m getting from reading your little…[Read more]

Oh yes. The poetic description. LOVE IT.
One thing I have found that helps with poeticness (not a word… hm… poesy?) is characterization. No— not having to do with actual characters! >D But take the thing you are describing and give it a personality. ‘The leaves blew and swirled across the courtyard, filling the cool air with a soft, dry…[Read more]

‘And if your reader can taste the bread, and the bread tastes good, you have done well.‘

Ahhh… poetry.

Yeah, I don’t like reading paragraphs of nothing but description either. Or rather I like it myself, but not many people do, and I am not writing my books so only I can read them. If only!
But sometimes I have such a strong image in my mind that it calls for a whole paragraph, and though I try to avoid those scenarios, one way to spice them up if…[Read more]

Hm… good question. Permit me to present my opinion… reading through the Old Testament, I find a lot of instances where the phrase ‘as the Lord lives’ is used. It is not a common, everyday exclamation, but is used only when a very solemn oath or promise is spoken. I think such exclamations can be misused, as can every exclamation according to…[Read more]

@Hope. Good thoughts!
@Rosey. I’ll do that. 😀

Oh and by the way, Hope, I think the genre you were looking for would probably be speculative fiction.

Totally get what you mean about the drone thing, Hope! It can be somewhat difficult to just mention casually that the daily drone delivery of donuts is waiting on the front doorstep— offhandedly enough that the reader will subconsciously think ‘Oh yeah. The drone delivery. Sure. Life as normal’, instead of ‘What on earth?!? How can a drone…[Read more]

Exactly. Drinking is not the bad thing— it’s drunkenness. While I have never tasted any kind of alcoholic drink (except a nasty sip of Sangria for a cold) I am perfectly okay with having my fantasy characters drink wine, or ale, or mead, because that is what they drank in those cultures and places where the water was bad, and there was no such…[Read more]

AAGGHH! NOT GENETICS! Talk about confusing. But then, I haven’t studied biology in depth yet either. 😛
Okay. Nuclear stuff. You have an atom. No— wait. You… do you know… have you studied…? Hang on. Right. I started wrong. Do you know what a cell is? Of course you do. So we have this cell— the smallest unit of life, right? Or actually…[Read more]

No doubt.

But the fact remains that I never could have come up with anything like that, and I am that weird kind of person who is interested in fission and fusion and the splitting of the atom.

Good… grief. Did you say you wanted to run a ridiculously poly-cultural farm and write in the winter? I think you should drop that right now. Science needs you, Daeus. It would be selfish and unethical to rob the field of science of your genius.

Really.

@Rosey. *sigh* I suppose you’re right. Sniff. Sniffle. Sniffsniffsniffsniffle. *sigh* Who wrote the Peleg Chronicles? What genre are they? They sound like fantasy, but titles can be deceiving. 😛 I suppose I might just have to look them up if I ever get the time. And that’s a big if… maybe when I’m eighty three.