Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween, filled with candy and costumes!

Random #63 - Glenn

No!!!!!!!!! Please, let me see you soon. 

Quote #47 - D.H. Lawrence

I like to write when I feel spiteful; it's like having  good sneeze.

- D.H. Lawrence

Random #62 - Do My Book Covers Need To Match?

No?  Yes?  Sometimes?

Let's use examples.

Last week, I would have said, no, I do not need my covers to match. I own Stephen King's Dark Tower series and the covers do not match.  I have a mix of paperbacks, trade paperbacks and hardcovers. The designs on the covers themselves are different. I bought the first three novels years after they were released, when I first started the series.  I got others in the series at different points after their release. It didn't matter to me that the covers didn't match, I just wanted the stories. I have a couple other series like that.

Recently, I read The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde and loved it. I had to find out about the other books. I believe there are currently seven books in the series with one more set to be released. I don't know why, but I really wanted the cover of the second book to match the first. Do I just like the look of it better than the others? Yes, I think so, but like The Dark Tower it shouldn't matter, I should just want the stories. I looked at different sites and checked my local bookstore. No copies of the second book were at the bookstores in town. I looked at four different sites. I found the cover I wanted, at a pretty good price too. Why was this so important to me? By the time I purchase the last book, will the editions have changed? Will the covers I have now match the others I'll get in the future? Maybe, maybe not.

I guess I don't understand why it was important to me this time around. Maybe it's just this series, just these covers.  I don't know.  I guess I'll find out the next time I buy a book for a series I'm reading.

* There were more than just the three covers.

Last Week #46 - Birthday

Today is my birthday.  I'm in my mid-thirties and I cringe whenever I think about it.  You know what made me feel better.  Two days ago, I got ID'd at the liquor store!  Wahoo!  Legal drinking age in Ontario, Canada is 19!  What!?

Sometimes, it's the little things that make you feel the best.

Quote #46 - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Talent alone cannot make a writer. There must be a man behind the book.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Or a woman or a frog, as the case may be.)

Random #61 - Thanksgiving!

I am so excited for turkey and pumpkin pie this weekend. It's all I can think about right now.

Last Week #45 - Not Weird At All

I have to do what?

I started working on the next lesson of the writing course that I'm taking. This one is all about character. I was so excited to be focusing on characters. Whenever I read a story, it is the character that captures, that pulls me in. You can have a crazy, amazing plot, but if the characters aren't engaging, that plot isn't enough for me. 

After the little "lecture" at the beginning of the lesson, it got weird.  The first instruction is to go out somewhere and people watch, which as writers, I think most do anyway. Lots of people watch other people, right? The odd part was the notes. I was instructed to go to a coffee shop or restaurant or somewhere, pick one person, and make a page full of notes about them. Really focus on them, their eyebrows, the soles of their shoes, the wear and tear on their clothing. Focus on them without them noticing, of course. While I am guilty of sometimes seeing someone and taking [mental] note of their hair or the top they're wearing or their facial expression, I've never studied them. So, though I was hesitant, I did it. I took the notes on my phone, so it would just look like I was texting. I don't think I got quite a whole page out of it, the person I was watching (out of the corner of my eye) got up and I wasn't going to follow her. Though I understand the importance of the exercise, it was still weird. I'm supposed to do it again. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. We'll see what happens.

Quote #45 - E.L. Doctorow

"Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way" - E.L. Doctorow