Tag: Writing

Words are Words

Words are wordsI claim not to be a writer, but while thinking about what I wanted to say in this post realized that I’ve been stringing words together for mass consumption by the public since 2001. The vast majority of those words have been reviews of one kind or another. That first gig was reviewing music for a website that specialized in what is now called Americana. (For those not familiar with this term imagine a Venn diagram that includes many subgenres of country, bluegrass, a sliver of folk music, “roots” rock, and everything in the cracks between.)

Just like some book genres are more character based while others are more plot based, different musical genres focus more on the musical parts of a song while with others, the lyrics matter most. Americana is squarely in the focus on the words camp. The top reviewers at the site I was associated with paid a lot of attention to lyrics, often looking for the same things your Literature teacher pointed at while studying the classics. Is there symbolism, a subtext, or a “moral to the story”? Is a point being made that isn’t obvious or possibly even at odds with the surface message. (Think Springsteen’s Born in the USA for that last one.) Continue reading “Words are Words”

Serious Research

Photo by Melissa Bowersock
Photo by Melissa Bowersock

Back in February, I wrote about my experience with JustAnswer, a service to hook up a researcher with an expert in order to get good information on a myriad of subjects. I found it to be a good resource for quick questions and answers. But what happens when you need more?

Recently I started a new book that’s based on the archaeology of 1,000-year-old Indian ruin sites near my home in north-central Arizona. I’ve found out that the Verde Valley of Arizona is virtually pocked with Indian ruins; the estimation is that there’s a ruin roughly every 1.8 miles. It’s no surprise that the Indians farmed this bountiful valley, and apparently they built their small community units with enough surrounding space to farm, but close enough to visit back and forth without too much travel. Seems like an idyllic existence. Unfortunately, as much physical evidence as we have of their activities, we don’t have a lot of cultural evidence for their family organization, spiritual beliefs or ritual processes. The Sinagua (named by the Spanish, Latin meaning “without water”) left no written record. The closest we can get to their cultural life is by looking at the Hopi (the Sinagua’s suspected descendents) and extrapolating backward a bit.

Luckily our modern archaeological processes are quite a bit easier to research. Sometimes. I thought getting this kind of information would be easy; just get interviews with the folks at the local archaeology organization, find out what their processes are, how they survey a site, how they report their findings. Pretty straight-forward. But in my first interview with a veteran surveyor, many of my questions brought forth the response of, “I can’t tell you that.”

Huh? Continue reading “Serious Research”

Why Every Writer Should Have a Go at Stand-Up

ComedianIt’s no good jeering at me and saying this post is rubbish. I am immune. I am deaf to your complaints and even better, I have learned how to deal with hecklers. You can say what you will, I’m determined to continue and explain why I’ve written it.

I understand your reluctance, after all, you probably write Science Fiction or Romance or YA and can’t see how doing stand-up comedy can help. Rest assured it can.

In a nutshell, stand-up comedy is brilliant for the brain, your self-confidence, and for boosting your presence. People love comedy even if you’re not very good at delivering it.

You do not need to go on a course to do stand-up. There are plenty of self-help books on this subject and indeed comedians who are willing to do online mentoring for merely a mention on your blog. They are artists like us and willing to assist others. If you want to sign up for a course and learn to do it with others, there are plenty available. Continue reading “Why Every Writer Should Have a Go at Stand-Up”

What’s our Ceiling?

sanibel_island_doc_fordsEach of us has our own idea of success in writing. I’ve found that out the past few weeks in the comments on my past few blog posts for Indies Unlimited. Some are in it for the pleasure; others are in it for the dough. By no means does that represent every reason for pursuing our passion for writing, but I believe that it does provide for the two bookends of our main reasons for what we do. The question is … have we really thought about how far we can take this thing? Continue reading “What’s our Ceiling?”