The Aspiring Bard

Last month's hare-brained scheme turned out as somewhat of a success. Quite a few folks seem to have enjoyed the story, and I even got one other participant, which was hugely exciting! So why not keep a good thing going, eh? Here are a couple more randomly paired photos from my vast collection of Inspirational Things. I'm curious to see what I'll come up with. And I'd like to see what you come up with, too, so please drop your link below .

Hunsay The air was fresher , up there on the rooftop and the clangorous, grimy old city below was almost beautiful; dipped in sunset orange and hung about with smoky shadows. I swept over the familiar silhouette of spires and chimneys to a profile even more well-known, but infinitely more interesting. I studied the way the highlights fell across her decisive nose and rounded her chin and the delicate fan of her downturned lashes, remembering the fairy child of the irrecoverably distant past. She had been a slight, wise-eyed wisp of a thing surrounded by a cloud of wind-tangled yellow hair. I smiled, noting that the hair, at least, had stayed the same. She opened her eyes and, seeing the remains of the smile lingering on my face, answered it with one of her own.  "What're you thinking about?" She asked. I shrugged my shoulders against the sun-warmed brick of the wall.  "The olden days, I guess." Her smile widened, pushing asid...

Today it occurred to me that I haven't written any short stories in a long time.  Short stories are fun and satisfying and give me a place to try out new characters and settings and writing styles. I like writing short stories. So I decided to go search out a little inspiration and get to scribbling. In the midst of a search through some of my favorite blogs for interesting link-ups, writing prompts, ideas, or virtually anything to get my writing gears in motion, I was struck by the astonishing idea of why don't you just make your own? So I wended my way Pinterest-ward, opened up the pinboards I've created for Images that Should End Up in a Story Someday, and blindly selected two of them.   I'll be writing some fiction based off the below images, and it probably won't be brilliant, but at least it will be better than the nothing I've been writing lately. And, just for fun, I created a link-up so you can join in if you feel so inclined....

It's an ocean, this life, and I'm drifting With no trace of land in my sight. Just the wheeling of planets above me And the dark water-sound of the night. I heard of the doubt and the darkness, The fathomless depths down below, But fear was an anchor to drown me So I let all the mooring lines go. 

My blogging world has, recently, been quite preoccupied with the hot topic of gender roles in fiction (link list of specific blog posts below). Specifically, what a 'strong' female character is supposed to look like. In an unusual fit of bandwagon-jumping, I decided to pitch in with my thoughts...mostly because this is a topic that I have thought (and, frankly, wrestled) with for a couple of years now. "I do not fear. God is with me. It was for this that I was born."-Joan of Arc You see, I'm a very, very fortunate girl. I grew up around a bunch of truly amazing men who encouraged me, valued me, and always challenged me to think a little bit bigger, be a little bit better. I also grew up around a bunch of very smart, very well spoken women who were mentally, emotionally, and physically strong, who managed to be tough and beautiful and feminine all at the same time, who probably could have achieved just about whatever they wanted to achieve in life, and d...

It has just occurred to me that God of Wind and Fire has come a long way from its original purpose as a fun, swashbuckling frolic of a break from my 'serious writing'. I've already got a blood feud, a battle, and slavery...and I'm only on chapter 12. My main concern now is how to handle these very real but also fairly dark themes in a way that won't cause unnecessary trauma to potential readers. I have no wish to wallow about in darkness, but I have realized that, especially in the context of this book, it is necessary to be honest about what darkness does to people, both on individual and societal levels. We can't get properly excited about Light until we have some idea of the depths of the darkness from which the Light sets us free. That being said, I'm very excited to finally be getting to the place in God of Wind and Fire where I can begin writing the story of one of the book's agents of Light. The people walking in darkness have seen a gre...