(There's a note for you from Tirz above my latest note. I don't want it to be lost by my silliness.) 
1 2018-01-26 20:56:00
Re: NOTE!! Shutting the shop! Group will Close (8 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
2 2018-01-26 20:44:12
Re: NOTE!! Shutting the shop! Group will Close (8 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
Dill Carver wrote:
We'll find somewhere else to do this.
Hopefully it will support happiness.
3 2018-01-26 20:41:00
Re: Trivia and Trouble. Get it here! (46 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
"Trivia & Trouble."
Today at work I was setting the staff rec wall (where booksellers recommend their recent favorites), and I wrote out a recommendation for a feminist book for my co-worker. He is so anti-feminist he denies I am feminist so that we can remain on speaking terms. He says, "No, you're not a feminist. You're so nice." And I say, "Feminists can be nice," and he rolls his eyes. Anyway, he's extremely conservative and a TAD grouchy, so I recommended a book for babies called "Feminist Baby" in his name. I wrote "I really enjoyed this book. It's not only funny, it's inspiring."
4 2018-01-26 20:35:09
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
I just looked up "bollocks." I missed that one on the first read. I had no idea what it meant!
I missed the first foreshadow too. I love that when you go back over the scene, it all makes sense.
5 2018-01-25 23:09:50
Re: NOTE!! Shutting the shop! Group will Close (8 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
It seems so.
6 2018-01-25 23:09:04
Re: Post-Its. (58 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
Dill Carver wrote:
Why should we ever learn from history?
Indeed.
7 2018-01-25 23:07:47
Re: Trivia and Trouble. Get it here! (46 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
I wonder what Dickens would think. He basically (from what I've read) wrote installments of his novels based on what readers wrote that they'd like to see next. I'm sure he made his own choices about the story but he had input throughout. I'd find that distracting!
Hemingway said that when you write a novel, you must write it completely without sharing it. Then let it sit. Then edit it to your own satisfaction without sharing. Then let it sit. Then edit it again. Only then should you share it -- once you are satisfied it's as close a match to your vision as you can make it.
8 2018-01-25 23:04:19
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
That is excellent!!!I couldn't quite place they were on stage until he says "I was the old woman" and then I grinned when they call him "Richard" because men had to play the lady's parts. LOVE THIS. Especially the allusions I caught to Shakepeare's work: "dark beauty" (the sonnets), "I die! And then she dies." (the play within a play in Midsummer!!!!)
I love "thou art known!" HAR! I love the wit right from the start. It has ENERGY!
I also love the tasty bits like this: "There are those who claim that Her Majesty, Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queen of England, France, and of Ireland, will not allow clocks to strike the hour in her palaces. Time is not allowed to pass for her. She has defeated time." THAT is a voice! It reads as though it's another century -- a different rhythm. But it isn't overdone. (And I just "saw" Elizabeth in that description, without ever seeing her.)
"I did not write the line, so I am not responsible for the older woman stating what must already have been obvious." I laughed there.
Sadly, Dill, I don't think this would make it out of the review heap here. Cornwell would be encouraged to explain the allusions in the scene lest he lose his audience. He would be encouraged to remove the adjectives and adverbs throughout (until it lost its edge and looked like everyone else's work). To "show" the "with unnecessary force" he mentions ABOVE rather than tell it to the reader (because that's the part of the scene we MUST SEE), to remove the passive voice in "The clock has just struck nine times" (even though it isn't passive voice), and finally to describe the speaker and let us get to know him before beginning because it's all very disorienting.
(I love that he refers to himself in the third person! That makes it a play for us as well! And then a bit of a shock because he's a man dressed as a woman, and it's actually a play. Which makes it FEEL as though we've been dropped into the disorienting world of the 17th century!)
Thanks for sharing! 
x
9 2018-01-25 00:09:55
Re: NOTE!! Shutting the shop! Group will Close (8 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
Just popping this back to the top.
10 2018-01-25 00:07:35
Re: Post-Its. (58 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
You make a good case for Brexit. I haven't done the research because I didn't have a vote on it but honestly I imagine I'd have voted for it. It sounds like your country is as split on that as ours in Trump vs. Clinton. The ones in the middle here (don't want either, didn't vote for either) are scorned for voting third party, or for not voting, or for not choosing a side and fighting to the floor over it. Friends against friends, families so split that it's easier to say nothing than fight about it. At work we cannot even mention politics.
I don't know why it's necessary to get imperious about it. I don't mind being told one's position (at all. I love hearing different perspectives and value those few friends who can calmly share theirs), but I dislike an imperious stance. I think the majority is imperious, which is a real shame. No one listens to imperious. They are the Know-Nothing Party of the 21st century.
11 2018-01-24 23:59:36
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
I was in conversation a few days ago with a man at my bookstore. I assume from his accent he was British, but I didn't ask. He told me all about Bernard Cornwell & how much he loves his work.
I like the opening above so much (it reminds me of that something or other I was trying to write a couple months ago!) that I'm thinking of picking up Rebel. Which you suggested forever ago, which has been waiting on my shelf since forever ago! (I just counted: I have 405 unread owned books! 233 read. My, I have a stack. I was thumbing through Rebel a moment ago, & I believe I will love the voice. It's not actually mine. I stole Mom's copy.)
12 2018-01-24 01:27:20
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
AHHHH! This one is on my "soon" list! I spied it in the new releases at work! You are liking it?
My brother says there is only one way to tell a story. ‘Begin,’
he says in his irritatingly pedantic manner, ‘at the beginning.
Where else?
Imagine, if you will, a woman.
I LOVE that voice!!
x
13 2018-01-24 01:25:26
Re: Post-Its. (58 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
It is a French parent company and a such a division is considered normal.
French! 
14 2018-01-24 01:23:52
Re: The Shred Group (55 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
Quite honestly, if Dill's going, I'm out too. He's the main reason I've stayed. Quality discussion and quality tomfoolery. Peace out, folks! And write well.
15 2018-01-23 20:49:56
Re: The Shred Group (55 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
SolN wrote:
Hi all,
I've created a new group called The Shred Group for those who want total blatant honesty without any of the niceties or encouragement writers should be receiving in the Premium Group. Sometimes reviewers are great at pointing out flaws and helping a writer edit their work but not as diplomatic in how they deliver it. These reviewers still offer a ton of value for writers who have thick enough skins (most of us don't). If you are ready for this type of feedack, or feel like this is how you like to review, then this group is for you.https://www.thenextbigwriter.com/group- … -group-106
Sol
Sounds like a good idea, sir. Thanks for this!
16 2018-01-23 20:48:02
Re: The Shred Group (55 replies, posted in TheNextBigWriter Premium)
If not for the forums, I would never have met Dill, and that would have been a travesty. I agree with Memphis: he's strengthened my perspective, in SO many ways. The forums are a space for us to exercise our writing chops by beating our heads together. Sometimes that results in friendship. Sometimes not. Dill is one of the finest people I have ever met. I'm sad when I think I might never have bumped into him here, and had a good rip-roaring fight that sent us to one another's writing and a long friendship filled with constructive conversations about prose and history and literature. That's what it's all about. So thanks for not closing the forums back then, Sol. I think our little fight lit up the forums for a few days, but you never intruded or threatened to shut it down, and now I can't imagine not knowing him.
17 2018-01-23 20:28:45
Re: Love the Family (3 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
Well said, bunny. x
18 2018-01-23 20:27:23
Re: Post-Its. (58 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
Dill Carver wrote:
Laws requiring businesses to prove they are paying men and women equally have recently come into force in Iceland.
The only country in the world where is it now illegal to pay a female less than a male for doing the same job!
Such a simple 'no brainer' law and it is 2018 and there is only one country enforcing this?
A few years ago I called a peer of mine (male, same age, hired five years after me) & told him my salary. I asked him if I had a reason to call my boss and demand more equal pay. He didn't want to tell me his salary (fairly enough), but he told me to fight. Apparently I was far under him (same job title). It's insanity.
19 2018-01-23 20:24:36
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
I'm reading a biography of Prince Charles.
20 2018-01-12 14:37:23
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
I've just begun North & South by John Jakes. I'm loving it so far.
21 2018-01-11 18:19:20
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
... it appears that more girls have been killed in the past fifty years, precisely because they were girls, than men were killed in all the battles of the twentieth century...
Wow! Sounds really interesting, F.
22 2017-12-09 13:24:48
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
x
23 2017-12-07 13:03:36
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
For a little behind the scenes insight and some research.
Next you should read Behind the Scenes by Elizabeth Keckley. The nineteenth century version.
Today I'm completing The Man Who Invented Christmas by Les Standiford. I was going to read a bunch of biographies on presidents, but then I got bit by the Christmas spirit, and I accidentally scored a free copy of Artemis by Andy Weir. Well, one must obey the muse. (I should share Weir quotes for your amusement! He's the same guy who wrote The Martian.)
24 2017-11-19 17:10:54
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
Dill Carver wrote:
I like the look of, The Blue & Gray in Black & White: Newspapers in the Civil War: by Brayton Harris; I might track that title down.
That's the one that caught my eye too!
Dill Carver wrote:
Also, Moby Dick. I've never actually read it. I've read excerpts and quotes and feel like I know the story; but I've never actually read it. It's on every 'top 100 novels' list that I've ever seen.
I'm loving it so far. However, fair warning -- there is a LONG passage on the anatomy of the whale about halfway through.
Herman Melville wrote:
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off - then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship. There is nothing surprising in this. If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish very nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me...
25 2017-11-19 13:36:33
Re: WHAT ARE YOU READING RIGHT NOW? (326 replies, posted in The Write Club -- Creative Writing and Literature Discussions Group)
On that note, I added a couple titles from this article to my TBR. I've also added the two above.
I'm just beginning Melville's Moby-Dick.
