The Halloween I was in sixth grade, we had to defend our pumpkins. That was the year my family hosted an exchange student from France. He was, well. He was the kid who wore a Kamikaze headband to school September 12th, 2001, let’s put it that way. Not exactly the kind who stops fights, or keeps… Continue reading Smashing Pumpkins For the Glory of Halloween
I would like, first and foremost, to say this is all @LMBryski’s fault. She is the one who tagged me in the game. What game? The game where there is a big list of questions and we answer them on our blogs! Okay, it’s sort of a lame-sounding game, but we’re writers and writing the… Continue reading A Great Big Fat Overview of What I Write and Why
Your character is visiting a land where they do not speak the language, but they still need to communicate with the locals. In week one’s post, we talked about how much they will have trouble learning the language. Week two was all about the differences between languages and why one language might be easier to… Continue reading Sometimes It Pays To Be Silent: Language Is Not Always Helpful
Every once in a while, my morbid sense of humor bites me in the bum. Despite the goat blood jokes, the references to those drugs that turn up every once in a while in real life to turn people in zombies who eat people’s faces, the presence in my manuscript of some seriously nasty stab wounds,… Continue reading Morbid Humor and the Sensitive Soul
I will soon publish my children’s play, Suiko and the Puzzle Box. The idea started about a month ago, when I wrote a blog post talking about my experiences submitting it around. It was nothing but a passing thought, but soon the idea was buzzing around my head. After all, I know the play’s good,… Continue reading Five Newbie Tips for Self-Pubbing on Createspace
Welcome to week three of my ongoing feature on writing characters dealing with a foreign language. Week one was what being plopped in the middle of a foreign language feels like, week two we talked about how languages differ. Today we’re going to talk about culture as it meets language. The fact is, if your… Continue reading Culture: Can’t Live With It, Can’t Pry It From Language’s Cold Dead Hands
All week, my husband’s been hinting of a present in the mail. This fact is probably more exciting than the present itself, because all week, he’s been refusing to tell me what was coming. It turns out that this was because it’s not, strictly speaking, a present for me. It’s Yoshi’s Woolly World, a new Nintendo… Continue reading The Law of Retaliation: Yoshi’s Woolly World
I am not very good at giving gifts. See, I am one of those people who believes in practical things, high-quality things. If you say you hate the cold, I want to buy you beautiful mittens for your birthday, or if I notice you always complain that your cutting board is crap, you will shortly… Continue reading Scottish Gaelic Will Be the Death of Me
This is part two in a weekly series on writing characters in a foreign language scenario. Your character is visiting somewhere that speaks a new language: what happens next? Last week was a general overview of the sheer difficultly of learning languages in Your Character Arrives in a Foreign Land: What Happens Next; this week,… Continue reading Not All Languages Are Created Equal (Not Like That, Just Listen)
Welcome to With Thorough Foodiness, my Saturday cooking feature. Here on WTF I like to present cooking in an easy-to-follow, interesting format. The most important thing for me is that when you make these recipes, you will know that you are not alone: we all screwed it up too. Not to worry! Dinner will happen… Continue reading With Thorough Foodiness Week 3: Almost Vegetarian Asian Noodles
Under-Paid, Over-Enthused 