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Grand Openings

Stephen King has spoken. Again.

This time, he speaks in an interview in The Atlantic (that reads more like an essay) about a topic not covered in his On Writing memoir: Opening lines.

I hope aspiring writers read all of what he said, instead of picking their favorite sound bite.

It’s not that the first line of a book isn’t important–it is–and King discusses what a good opening line can bring to the party. On the other hand, he admits he’s not always done well with them, and stresses (waaay at the end) that an opening line won’t make or break a novel. If the story sucks, a good opener won’t save it.

The discussion prompted me to go back and look at the opening lines from my novels. How well did I do? I wondered. Let’s see.

Continue Reading »

New Contact Form

Just an FYI for regular readers…

I’ve added a “Contact” page and form to the blog; you should be able to see it up there on the menu (far right). Feel free to use it to submit questions, feedback, general comments, requests for topics and/or recipes, and other such.

Thanks,

k

Fasten Your Seatbelts

Stack of BooksThis week I came across two articles for writers that I thought I’d pass along.

The first article comes from my friends over at The Noble Dead website. Barb and J.C. Hendee are bestselling authors with nearly a score of books to their collective credit. J.C. is also their webmaster, and trust me, he knows his stuff. Continue Reading »

In Lieu of Flowers

Gossamer WheelPeople used to send flowers.

My mother died when I was five, so my memories of the house at that time are sketchy and incomplete. I remember with clarity that awful day when I learned the news, a congregation of black in our kitchen and living room, and the nightmares that tormented me through the following months. The house was likely filled with flowers, but I do not recall them.

Since that time, the sending of flowers has fallen out of favor. Death announcements now direct us to send contributions “in lieu of flowers.” How ironic that the “Flower Power” generation has turned this expression of sympathy and grief into a faux pas. Continue Reading »

Y’know…

Y’know, I get really depressed when my recipe for Chicken Noodle Soup a la David Chang continually gets more hits than my current posts on writing, culture, and current events…

…but then a vee of Canadian geese fly in from the south, happy, crossing overhead, cheering each other onward, their chatter echoing across the cul-de-sac until it fades away to the north…

…and I feel better. Chicken noodle soup for everyone. Enjoy.

 

k

Tried and True

Simple LivingSome tips for your kitchen.  (Sorry…best I can do this week.)

Today: dealing with fruit flies, and storing your onions, and potatoes.

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Sgt. Saulet of the KCSO

The Seattle Police Department (SPD) has had some bad PR lately. The King County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO) has had its share as well.

That’s assuming, of course, you call punching, kicking, and killing citizens “bad PR.” In fact, they’ve received so much of this “bad PR” that the SPD were investigated by the Department of Justice, and the KCSO was the subject of a scathing internal audit. They have repeatedly used excessive force, and have a reputation for “escalating ordinary interactions into volatile, sometimes violent, situations.” That, my friends, is bad PR.

And today, they got some more. Continue Reading »