Just for Laughs (9): T-Shirts I Love

Funny T-Shirts

David and Goliath

Threadless

Threadless

David and Goliath

David and Goliath

Which one do you like best? :-)

Writing Tip (9): Setting

Setting

In THE FIRST FIVE PAGES, Noah Lukeman speaks about how often setting is neglected. Neglecting setting = BAD! If you use setting to your advantage it can add a whole new dimension, almost like the setting itself has become another character.

He gives the following example:

"Take a father and son, for example, having a casual conversation in their living room. Change that setting to a prison, the father and son having the same casual conversation on either side of a plastic divider. It's the same conversation, but it's not. There is suddenly a layer of subtext, of immediacy, of tragedy -- and all without telling us a word. A writer's chief objective is always subtelty, to convey information without actually saying anything, and setting is one powerful way to do that."

~ pg 163, The First Five Pages, 2010 Edition

He offers a few solutions to help bring your settings to life:

1. Tiny details. A stain on the carpet, a broken window pane
2. Draw on all five senses. A room can reek of dead fish or rubbish or a corpse. We can feel the characters feet sinking into the mud as they trudge through the mire.
3. Climate. A torrential downpour, a steam room, a blizzard. Or get even more drastic with earthquakes and tornadoes!
4. Interaction with the setting. A mother involved with kitchen chores as she chats to someone, a man struggling for his life in a boat in the midst of a storm.
5. Use details to make an impression. A setting can be well described by saying, "It was a small dark room, poorly lit and airless", but better described by adding, "It was oppressive, like a tomb."

~ page 165 - 167 (paraphrased), The First Five Pages, 2010 Edition

This book has a lot of great advice, including examples of good and bad writing, possible solutions, and exercises at the end of each chapter. You should check it out if you haven't already got it!

Signature (You know you plan to sign some books one day!)

Image found here

I had a random thought the other day (well, I have many random thoughts, but I thought I'd share this one with you...). Let's say I actually publish a real life, hold-in-your-hands book one day -- and someone actually wants me to sign it.

I've never signed  Rachel Morgan  before!

These two names are my first and middle names. I've only ever signed R and my surname! Now I have to figure out a super duper awesome and elegant way to scribble R Morgan!

So tell me: 

if you're using a pen name, have you already figured out how to sign it? 

(You know, for all those book tours you'll go on one day!)

Book Piracy: How Do You Feel About It?

My first thought is that I would be seriously ticked off knowing that the novel I spent years writing, revising, editing, polishing, crying, bleeding, aching through was being handed around the web for free. I mean come on! After all my hard work you can't even pay a few bucks to help me make a living?!

And then I watched this very interesting interview with bestselling author Neil Gaiman...

What do you think about the points he makes? Do you think this whole piracy thing could work in your favour too?

Here's a great post that discusses this issue from the other side.
An Incident We'd Rather Not Discuss - "Free" Books Aren't Free
(Thanks, Sarri, for sharing this link!)

Teaser Tuesday (12): Red Glove

This teaser is for all those who have also read Cassie Clare's Mortal Instruments series and who know that Cassie and Holly are critique parterns and therefore borrowing one another's characters for a few sentences is ok!

Title: Red Glove
Author: Holly Black

"That stoner dude, Jace, says he hooked up with someone over the summer," Kevin whispers. "But I hear all the pictures he's showing around are really pictures of his half sister. Fifty bucks says there's no girlfriend."

"Find someone to be that he did hook up or does have a girlfriend and I'll give you the odds," I say. "The house doesn't bet."

(eGalley)

I had a little chuckle when I read those lines :-)
If you haven't read the Mortal Instruments you won't get why (so go read them! They're awesome!).


Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme hosted by MizB of Should be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read.
• Open to a random page.
• Share two "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!
• Share the title and author too so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!