Thinking Outside the Bin

This morning my family was awakened by the neighbors’ gardener, who considered it both necessary and appropriate to run a leaf blower for 35 minutes straight at a very early hour.  While discussing the issue with my son over breakfast, he reminded me of the best (or in his words, only good) use of a leafblower either of us had ever seen. Last autumn, I looked out the window and saw my elderly neighbor running a leafblower.  He had it pointed upward, and was using it to blow the last few leaves off the liquid amber tree in his yard. 

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An Advance look at the October observances

Every month, we in the United States celebrate a variety of important causes.  Since I know you’re all very observant, I thought I’d bring you up to date on the things we’ll be, er, celebrating in October. (With the snark’s comments, as always, in italics.) October 2010 is official: Caffeine Addiction Recovery Month (Note: this one is for the rest of you.  I’m not addicted.  I can stop any time I want to.  In fact, I already gave it up four times today.) Free Thought Month (Use them up now.  We start charging in November.) Church Security Month (Because everyone

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Wednesday Writing Challenge #3: Word Play

A writer gets nowhere without words.  The more, the merrier. I’ve also heard it said that a writer should never use a word in a manuscript until (s)he is comfortable using it “for real” or the word will sound forced, no matter how hard you try to wedge it in there. This week’s Writing Wednesday challenge takes its cue from necessity: learn a new word, once you’ve never even heard before…and use it in at least two sentences.  First time is here (get thee to the comments!) or on your own blog or Twitter feed (feel free to @susanspann me

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A brief word about how Friday reads, and a disclaimer.

I’ve had a couple of questions about how I select books for Friday reads. First, I only review books I would recommend.  There are basically three categories: recommended, highly recommended, and Stop Everything And Read This Book Now.  Almost nothing gets the highest level of recommendation.  In fact, nothing I’ve read this year (even before I started writing the blog).  That means almost all of the books I review will fall into one of the other two categories.  This doesn’t mean that I like every book I read – quite the contrary.  I simply prefer to reserve this space for

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In Honor of Maritime Day: Across the Sea in an Open Boat

Many people know that Vikings sailed extensively throughout northern Europe (and parts of southern Europe, too) during the Viking Age (roughly AD 793-1066). Viking settlements dating from the tenth century have been found in Greenland and North America. What many people don’t know is that the Vikings sailed all that way in open boats that measured, on average, less than 100 feet long.  The drakkar (alt: drekar) or dragon-ships are the most famous, but merchant ships, known as knarr, also braved the Atlantic ocean and various northern seas.  Although knarr sometimes had multiple decks (or at least a layer of

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The Only Statistic That Matters to You

Last Monday Kristin Nelson posted a valuable blog entry titled “White Noise” which dealt with authors’ need to know-but-ignore the overwhelming statistics regarding the query, agent acquisition and publication process. I spent some time over the past week thinking about the issue, and it seems very similar to something I used to tell my students (back when my day job title was “Professor” instead of what it is now): the only statistic that matters to you is binary, not percentage-based.  The answer is either “yes” or “no.”

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All My Friends Are Dead*

*(Calm down, it’s a book title) I don’t normally post on Saturdays (and won’t unless something particularly good goes on) but I had to shamelessly steal and re-post this link that Janet Reid posted earlier: All My Friends Are Dead. It’s short, and safe-for-work-and-kids.  It’s also hilarious. Riffing on the theme, however, it occurs to me that most writers of historical fiction – myself included – can probably say the same thing.  I spend several hours a day playing with people who’ve been dead for at least 300 years (in some cases, more like 1500).  I know them well.  I

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Friday Reads #2: Blind Descent

This week’s offering: Blind Descent: the Quest to Discover the Deepest Place on Earth, by James Tabor. Blind Descent follows the explorations of two supercave pioneers, American Bill Stone and Ukranian Alexander Klimchouk, as they seek to discover the deepest cave systems on earth.  The first half of the book chronicles Stone’s discoveries in Mexico’s Huautla and Cheve caves.  The narrative then shifts to Klimchouk’s efforts in Abkhazia’s Krubera, ending with the 2004 race that resulted in the discovery of the world’s deepest cave. Short review: Recommended.  Author James Tabor maintains a relatively fast-paced narrative style throughout the first half

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A Piece of my Wednesday evening

Son and I are sitting in the living room, watching television.  The program mentions the US metals market, where commodities such as steel, gold, and silver are bought and sold.  At the mention of one particular word, son (who has a thing for nuclear physics) sits bolt upright on the couch. Son: What?  There’s a place where you can buy uranium? I already know what he’s thinking.  (Note: this is the child who, when told he could not have a Tesla coil for Christmas last year, modified his Christmas list to include all the parts to make his own.) Me:

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Writing Wednesday #2: Tell Me a Story

Novelists owe a lot to the bardic tradition, and in many societies (if not most) that tradition hasn’t died out.  We are storytellers by nature, almost from the time we’re old enough to speak. With that in mind, today’s writing challenge is: tell a story from your past.  Long, short, funny, sad.  Tell it in the comments, on your blog (feel free to link) or to anyone who will listen. Here’s mine: When my son was three years old, I took him to the doctor for a checkup.  For a variety of reasons, mostly relating to my own shortsightedness, we

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