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Alive in Your Dreams

Alive in Your Dreams

Fantasy is by far my favorite genre. Anything which transports me to another world. Anything which takes me out of the ordinary and shows me something extraordinary. The thing I love most about the fantasy genre are the strange, wonderful and interesting creatures which often inhabit the different magical worlds I read about. Writing magical …

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Why You Weren’t Hacked

Why You Weren’t Hacked

I spend a lot of time in this blog talking about writing and indulging in my geekyness. I’d like to devote some time to the other reason this website was established. In college, I devoted my last two years to the study of technological security. There’s a deep dark underbelly of the Internet, much like …

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Why Second Graders Should Rule the World

Why Second Graders Should Rule the World

My husband teaches at a small English school in a fair sized French town. Small schools have their own unique problems, but they also present some unique teaching opportunities. One school serves the entire English community here, from Kindergarten to High School Graduation. So my husband can do interesting things like assign his high school …

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Ladies in Waiting

Ladies in Waiting

Continuing my exploration of why I love my favorite characters (men can be found here), I have to say, this post was much harder than the first. There are many female characters I like but very few which I love. Many writers’ attempts to write strong female characters ends in an endless parade of cookie-cutter …

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A Moment of Awe

A Moment of Awe

The phenomenon known as the transit of Venus occurs when Venus passes between Earth and the solar disk. The last transit of Venus occurred on June 6, 2012. Venus will not transit again until 2117. The event inspired reactions from my brother-in-law’s desire to watch Game of Thrones instead (because, and I quote “Venus is …

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Men of the Hour

Men of the Hour

On the never-ending quest to create the perfect character, my favorite exercises is examining the characters I’ve grown to love over the years. By looking at the things that attach you to a character, you can pick out traits or themes which make a character interesting. After all, if you don’t care about a character, …

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Innovation and Brutality; Reflections on Science Fiction Trends

Innovation and Brutality; Reflections on Science Fiction Trends

Whether or not science-fiction is ‘your thing’, most people have seen a movie or read a book which falls into the category. Science-fiction sings to us about the future of humanity. About our hopes and fears. About our potential to create and our tendency to destroy. But despite being set in the far flung future, …

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Writing Process; Getting it All Out

Writing Process; Getting it All Out

A friend recently asked me about the process I use when writing my novels. As promised, here’s the second half (first post here). Step 4: Outlining Once you have all the pieces of your puzzle, it’s time to start putting them together. This will be the first, rudimentary draft of your story. When you put …

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