Monday, June 30, 2008
June 30th 2008 archive
I just spent a few minutes trying to find the post where I’d mentioned how I swear some writing topics & ideas are synergistic, meaning several people write about them in a close timeframe. It’s happened to me before, and it’s just happened to me again. (I can’t find the post but I’m going to bore you with my story anyway!)
Maybe this one wasn’t karmic in nature. I like to think it was my intellect as a writer coming to the surface before someone else (whom I admire) wrote a similar article.
I’m a huge, huge fan of Chris Bibey’s Freelance Writing blog, so imagine my surprise when I hopped over for a dose and found a post (almost eerily) similar to a two-article series I just finished for the Writer2Writer.com ezine this month. Same topic, same advice (though mine spans two columns). Wild!
Check it out for yourself and tell me how crazy this is:
My articles, from May and June:
4 Ways to Get Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 1: Online Jobs
4 Ways to Get Freelance Writing Jobs, Part 2: Real-Life Jobs
and Chris’ post today:
How to Find More Freelance Writing Clients Next Month
Tell me that’s not a little bit funky!
I just hope no one is working on a novel with my unique theme…
Monday, June 30, 2008
The ugly baby’s been put to sleep
…and thank god, none too soon.
I actually re-read the story (not my usual M.O. in reviewing books) to see exactly what it was that I didn’t like so much. I discovered, aside from the crappy editing (for example, the hero asks a question, the heroine has three lines of internal thought, then a one-word response in quotation marks attached to the end of her thought…ack!!), I was disappointed that the author failed to deliver the premise.
The story started strong and romantic, but a few pages in, we get zinged with a gratuitous (and vivid/graphic) sex thought by the heroine–in the MIDDLE of a fight scene between the hero and her (bully) friend. Nothing the heroine had said, thought or done up to this point in the book was remotely graphic/erotic. Sensual, yes. But I swear (and didn’t write, though I wanted to), that it was as if the graphic thoughts were randomly inserted as if to make this story salable as an erotica.
Shame, too. Had such potential as a simple romance. Ah, well. I just signed up for three more books to review. One contemporary and two paranormal time travels. I’m hoping the ugly baby was the only one of the summer and that the rest of the reviews are smooth sailing.
It's pretty simple, really. I'm a writer who loves writing about writing, and sharing all the tricks of the trade with other writers. And when I'm not writing, I'm thinking about writing. I have a hunch you know what I mean :)