Kate Flournoy

Yes, I think we can all agree to disagree on the points upon which we do not see perfectly eye to eye. It was a great discussion. Thanks for starting it, Daniel!

No one else is answering… so I guess it falls to me to make sure this topic does not fall into oblivion. Oh what a noble quest.
I’m not really a composer, but I do enjoy music a great deal. I also play the piano, the harp, the violin (kind of) and sing. I would love to be able to write music, and though frankly I don’t know how I’m ever going…[Read more]

Hello Rosey! Lemme just say really quick that I really like your last name. It sounds… like Dickens or something.
I have watched the A&E Horatio Hornblower, and yes, I love it! Actually, the movie (don’t read the books, they’re nothing special) has a special place in my heart for more than itself. The first time I watched that with my parents,…[Read more]

Oh. My. Goodness. Your bio could almost be mine, Dani! Only I was born in Texas and still consider myself a native of that state… so I must have evolved from longhorns. Or fire ants. Or scorpions. Or rattlesnakes. Something like that.
But I sing, woodburn, do calligraphy, love Tolkien (though I’m a little unsure about Lewis) and knit. Welcome to…[Read more]

Wow, if you let a topic go for half a day it completely gets away from you! Let me start at the very beginning. Reagan, all the way up there somewhere— the misunderstanding is entirely my fault. I tend to overstate my positions to make a point, then forget to go back and clarify them later. Also, at the start of this topic I thought we were…[Read more]

Hey, you have some really good points there.
Okay, just for the record, I write fantasy. I definitely write about dragons and elves (at least my own version of elves) and other such magical creatures. But I think we need to be extremely careful about using creatures that are very closely associated with darkness and evil such as vampires and…[Read more]

All of you guys made very good points. I think I know what you mean, Dani, about Tolkien, and I agree now that I’ve thought it through, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to do it that way. Tolkien didn’t take it as far as Lewis and make it essential to the story, and therefore I would venture to say that he was a little wiser, a little more wary,…[Read more]

Excellent question. Hannah got my answer before me, basically, but I want to answer a point you brought up specifically. First, I am a complete and utter, totally obsessed, diehard Tolkien fanatic. I think Tolkien did it the right way (created his own world) because he made very definite distinctions between Middle-earth and our world. I am aware…[Read more]

Let me throw in something here. While I would not write of zombies or vampires no matter what side they were on, simply because I find them utterly disgusting, I would probably write a witch if she were very obviously on the evil side. Writing a witch is simply like writing a mage gone wrong or a wizard turned sorcerer. (See general writing…[Read more]

I think you guys have this very well under control, so I will assume it is safe for me to bow out. I have been succeeded by one my superior in all matters of outlining, it would appear. I seriously had no clue where this was going. Thank you, Sarah, for saving my face.
I will simply say that I have realized that a perfect protagonist is an entity…[Read more]

Yeah, isn’t it funny how some characters you just know their name has to start with a certain letter to fit them? I have no idea why that is, but it seems to be almost always the case.
Your methods for finding names sound very similar to mine. One thing I like to do also is look up the meaning of the name and see if it fits the character’s…[Read more]

I would not be comfortable either reading or writing about zombies, because I don’t like messing with the natural laws (life and death) God has set in place. To resurrect, however imperfectly, anything that was once living and once dead, is to take the place of God and say that you know better than God who should have died and who shouldn’t. Even…[Read more]

Did you mean to say ‘illusions’? Would not the word be ‘allusions’? I really struggle with those kinds of words myself. They sound the same, for goodness’s sake! Why should they be different? *sigh* Words are such malicious creatures. I can’t believe I love them as I do. There must be something wrong with me.

Despite my earlier protest about…[Read more]

BRILLIANT! Thank you Sarah, you saved our imaginary story from the doom of a nightmare ending… literally. Karen’s sister can be named… Kimberly. Or Kim.
This is a little corny, but what if Karen sneaks aboard the submarine and discovers that all the people are imprisoned here as a giant government project. (No, I am not a conspiracy…[Read more]

All good points.
And Ezra, what you said about emotion… sniff… sniff… well, let’s just say suggestion has a lot of power. And I’ll have you know the end of the RotK makes me bawl. I can’t just sit there and cry sedately like any normal, civilized person… I have to bawl. With both the movie and the book. But you’re right— it’s fulfilling.…[Read more]

Wow… I knew you could do it. I knew it was somewhere in you. All that wisdom… how can you bear to hide it?
No, seriously, that was a great post.
Love this point: ‘The point is for the reader to feel fulfilled in reading the story, but also to take away what the author was trying to say.’
That is true for every theme and sub-theme and…[Read more]

He’s still thinking.

Maybe I can help. I’ve got a new take on this. What about female villains? What about them, hm? Why are the rules different for these gals than for male villains? Are the rules different? Does it matter? How will female villains act differently than male villains? Are they stronger? Weaker? Craftier? More stupid? More…[Read more]

This is the independent girl who lived on a farm… you know, the one you said turned into a witch and lived happily ever after? She’s looking for her sister, who went missing ten years back, and she finally had to resort to taking the same cruiser that her sister took just before her sister disappeared. She found a ledger in the captain’s cabin…[Read more]