Writers, Don’t Quit ~
“Don’t quit. It’s very easy to quit during the first 10 years. Nobody cares whether you write or not, and it’s very hard to write when nobody cares one way or the other. You can’t get fired if you don’t write, and most of the time you don’t get rewarded if you do. But don’t quit.”
~ Andre Dubus
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Thursday’s Off The Beaten Track
One of my favorites on Off The Beaten Track,
Eluvium ~ Envenom Mettle
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TORN (Fire Born #2) Playlist Countdown
Continuing on with the TORN playlist this week.
I am compiling all of the songs for the book and will be posting them up until the launch in September.
So, for the second track, here’s:
QUIET
by
This Will Destroy You.
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My Music Monday
Today on My Music Monday,
Quiet
by
This Will Destroy You,
from their Young Mountain album.
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On Writing
A series of random thoughts.
Writing is akin to hearing a thousand voices screaming at you all at once and you trying to decipher which ones you should listen to, and which ones you should ignore. Life’s a bit like that too.
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Thursday’s Off The Beaten Track
Okay … sorry about yesterday’s mishap on the post. Continuing on, here’s Active Child from their 2011 album, You Are All I See.
Ivy.
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Best Of: Author Excerpt Series
There are so many incredible writers, so much talent, and too many books to ever try to read them all. I thought, in light of that fact, it would be nice to share some of the best of the best. Quick little hints of what lies inside the pages of some of the books from my favorite authors.
Neil Gaiman:
“Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn’t it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up. You build up all these defenses, you build up a whole suit of armor, so that nothing can hurt you, then one stupid person, no different from any other stupid person, wanders into your stupid life…You give them a piece of you. They didn’t ask for it. They did something dumb one day, like kiss you or smile at you, and then your life isn’t your own anymore. Love takes hostages. It gets inside you. It eats you out and leaves you crying in the darkness, so simple a phrase like ‘maybe we should be just friends’ turns into a glass splinter working its way into your heart. It hurts. Not just in the imagination. Not just in the mind. It’s a soul-hurt, a real gets-inside-you-and-rips-you-apart pain. I hate love.”
― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 9: The Kindly Ones
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Thursday’s Off The Beaten Track ~ Sir Sly
Along with my usual My Music Monday posts (yes, they have resumed), I wanted to start another continuing music post. A *new* music one. Where each week or so I’ll post some newly—or fairly newly released, off the beaten path, track.
*****
Sir Sly — Gold
(This is track is explicit)
Related articles
- Thursday’s Off The Beaten Track (laneymcmann.com)
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My Music Monday
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It is not the critic who counts …
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.
The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
~ Teddy Roosevelt
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Thursday’s Off The Beaten Track
Along with my usual My Music Monday posts (yes, they have resumed), I wanted to start another continuing music post. A *new* music one. Where each week or so I’ll post some newly—or fairly newly released, off the beaten path, track.
- Thursday’s Off The Beaten Track (laneymcmann.com)
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Anything In Life Worth Having …
“Anything in life worth having is worth fighting for.”
~ Susan Elizabeth Phillips
As TIED went live two weeks early (Amazon only so far), I’m reminded of this quote. Of how true it is.
So, don’t give up, or give in, or walk away. Fight for what you want, work for it—believe in it.
Don’t be afraid to take the chance.
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The Only Thing That Can Make You A Writer …
Really, in the end, the only thing that can make you a writer is the person that you are, the intensity of your feeling, the honesty of your vision, the unsentimental acknowledgment of the endless interest of the life around and within you. Virtually nobody can help you deliberately — many people will help you unintentionally.
– Santha Rama Rau
*Originally posted October, 2012
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Writing A Novel Is Like …
“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
E.L. Doctorow (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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THE 8 Rules for Writing
I know most writers have seen, read or heard of Neil Gaiman’s 8 Rules for Writing. Obviously you guys have figured out that I am huge fan of his work—I am also a huge fan of his advice.
Here it is:
Neil Gaiman (Photo credit: davextreme)
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Write
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Put one word after another. Find the right word, put it down.
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Finish what you’re writing. Whatever you have to do to finish it, finish it.
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Put it aside. Read it pretending you’ve never read it before. Show it to friends whose opinion you respect and who like the kind of thing that this is.
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Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.
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Fix it. Remember that, sooner or later, before it ever reaches perfection, you will have to let it go and move on and start to write the next thing. Perfection is like chasing the horizon. Keep moving.
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Laugh at your own jokes.
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The main rule of writing is that if you do it with enough assurance and confidence, you’re allowed to do whatever you like. (That may be a rule for life as well as for writing. But it’s definitely true for writing.) So write your story as it needs to be written. Write it honestly, and tell it as best you can. I’m not sure that there are any other rules. Not ones that matter.
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May Your Coming Year Be Filled With Magic …
“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.”
~ Neil Gaiman
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Imagination, Not Invention …
Only in men’s imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art as of life.
~ Joseph Conrad
English: Joseph Conrad Print Collection portrait file. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Fear Stops Most People …
“If you want to write, you can. Fear stops most people from writing, not lack of talent. Who am I? What right have I to speak? Who will listen to me? You are a human being with a unique story to tell. You have every right.”
– Richard Rhodes
Richard Rhodes 2 (Photo credit: afagen)
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And The Nominees Are …
I was nominated for the Liebster Award! Thank you so much to Jaime Guerard for nominating me for this very unexpected award. 😉 Jaime is a fellow YA fan as well as YA Paranormal Romance Thriller writer and author. Go check her blog out!
The award works like this:
– I list 11 random facts about myself.
– I will answer the 11 questions asked of me by the person who nominated me.
– I will then nominate my 11 picks for the award along with my 11 questions for them to answer when they post a response.
– If you’re nominated, your name/link will appear at the bottom of this post along with your questions. Follow the same format; paste the award badge to your blog, give us 11 random facts about yourself, answer my 11 questions, and choose your nominees…but you cannot nominate the blog who nominated you.
Here are 11 random facts: (Hmm … I’ve gotta think about this.)
1. I’m a Tea fanatic. Yes, really. Hot tea, iced tea, black tea, flavored tea. I could hang out in Teavana.
2. I’ve been dancing since I was a little. Love it. Miss it. Quit after too many injuries. Now I run. (Like that’s better or something … )
3. I’m a chef.
4. I read obsessively. Even when I should be writing and editing my own books. ;P
5. I’m a Tolkien fan to extremes. Love, Love, Love his books. Movies too. I could watch LOR from start to finish without a hitch. All 9 hours.
6. Same goes for Harry Potter. I can recite the books.
7. I have 3 dogs, and if I had more space, I would own way more than that.
8. I love Summertime.
9. I’m an introvert, but a few of my friends would probably argue with me over that.
10. I’m of Irish decent.
Here are my questions from Jaime Guerard:
1. Who is your favorite author?
I have so many, so I’ll name the big ones. Anne Rice, J.K. Rowling, George R. R. Martin, and J. R. R. Tolkien. Oh, and I really enjoy Michael Scott.
2. What is your favorite quote?
“You can’t win or lose if you don’t run the race.” ~ The Psychedelic Furs
3. What type of genre do you like to read? Why?
Fantasy. High fantasy. Paranormal. Mythology and some Sci-Fi. Both YA and Adult. I write what I read. Why? Because these genres are transporting and magical.
4. Where do you hope to be in 5 years?
I hope to still be writing stories from my heart. The ones that inspire me and speak to me.
5. How long have you been writing?
I started writing poems are a young age. 7 maybe. They were a kind of expression that just flooded out. I still write poetry. Short stories followed, and in my early twenties I tried a few strike out swings at novels. I think my writing has grown considerably since then.
6. Who has inspired you throughout your life?
My mom.
7. What is one word to describe your personality?
Hmm … Sarcastic? Hahaha. Probably depends on which friend you asked.
8. What is your favorite book and why?
That’s almost impossible to answer. Although all of my favorite authors have things in common, their writing styles are vastly different, yet equally brilliant. I could name series’ of books. The Witching Hour series by Anne Rice. The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. The Lord of The Rings/The Hobbit by Tolkien. Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling.
9. Life’s too short for …
Regretting the chances you were afraid to take. Better to have tried/spoke your mind/put yourself out there, and failed, than never to have tried at all.
10. What is your desert island food (you only get one choice)?
Coconut!
11. If you could have one celebrity on your speed dial, who would it be and why?
One celebrity? Geesh … idk. Probably Anne Rice. I could bounce some pretty amazing ideas off of her, I think. She’s the queen of dark fantasy.
And … my nominees are:
Short Story Diary http://shortstoriesdiary.wordpress.com/
My Story To You http://dragoneystory.wordpress.com/
Bottledworder http://bottledworder.wordpress.com/
Gin and Lemonade http://ginlemonade.wordpress.com/
Lee Rawn http://www.leerawn.com/
Rich Weatherly http://richweatherly.wordpress.com/
AK Taylor http://www.backwoodsauthor.com/
Alison DeLuca http://alisondeluca.blogspot.com/
Ido Lanuel http://idolanuel.com/
Leigh Gembus http://submeg.com/
Whitney Moore http://writeinlife.wordpress.com/
Nominees, here are your 11 questions:
- What books are you reading?
- Who are your favorite authors?
- What do you like to do when you’re not writing?
- Where do you see your writing taking you?
- How do stories come to you? (or blog posts, poetry, etc …)
- Plotter or Pantster?
- What is your favorite genre?
- If you could travel anywhere, where would you go?
- Introvert or Extrovert?
- Who inspires you?
- What inspires you to keep moving forward in your writing?
Go check out all these great blogs! And Congrats to the nominees!
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Always Dream
“Always dream and shoot higher than you know how to. Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”
William Faulkner, 1954 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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You Must Be Prepared …
“You must be prepared to work always without applause.”
~Ernest Hemingway
English: Hemingway posing for a dust jacket photo by Lloyd Arnold for the first edition of “For Whom the Bell Tolls”, at the Sun Valley Lodge, Idaho, late 1939. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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