Tag: Geekery

Happily Ever After Fails

Happily Ever After Fails

Hollywood has played a cruel trick on us; it’s spent the past few years trying to convince us that every story deserves a happy ending. A few weeks ago I wrote about the reasons our favourite characters suffer, and why writers shouldn’t take the blame. The long and short of it is that we identify …

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Writers are not the Villains

Writers are not the Villains

Every now and then a post creeps across my tumblr dash in which readers express a desire to ‘steal’ their favourite novel characters from their respective author in order to ‘shield’ them. These posts usually involve keeping the writer at bay until they ‘learn how to properly take care of’ said characters. Subsequent replies discuss …

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Summer Vacation!

Summer Vacation!

English schools run quite a bit later than we’re used to. Here we are at the end of July and we’ve finally reached hubby’s first full week of summer vacation! (Canadian Schools finished back in June!) They get lots of little breaks throughout the year instead (which was strange for us, but also convenient). So …

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Missed Opportunities

Missed Opportunities

Book blurbs and movie trailers serve the same purpose; to hook the audience. They give you a little taste of what you can expect, just enough to reel you in, then they leave you hanging. Writing a good book blurb or cutting a good trailer are another blog post. For the longest time, it seemed …

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Medieval Guildford

Medieval Guildford

When company came to visit from across the ocean, we put together a large itinerary that would let us hit all the major sites. But when all was said and done, we had an extra day with nothing planned. It fell at the beginning of the trip, so we decided to hit somewhere close to …

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The Elgin Marbles

The Elgin Marbles

My husband is sometimes sent to London for workshops. So when they sent him on a Friday, the night the British Museum is open late, we decided we’d spend a few more hours exploring its hallowed halls. A friend had already asked what we thought of the Elgin Marbles, so we made that our first …

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When Time Began to Tick

When Time Began to Tick

Lest you think I forgot… Some time ago I mentioned our first trip to the British Museum and the time we spent wandering the Egyptian exhibits. Believe it or not, the day was only half over at that point. My husband wanted to check out the early British history section, so that was our next …

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Off to See the Sights!

Off to See the Sights!

Since we moved to England, I’ve been looking forward to hosting visitors. My husband’s parents are working on seeing the world. They go someplace new every year. Since we happen to be living in a place they haven’t seen yet, this year they’re coming to visit! On top of that, a very good friend of …

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A Rose Without a Name

A Rose Without a Name

As I strive to improve my writing, I take note of my bad habits. Words I tend to use too often, awkward phrasing, the unfortunate tendency to write in past perfect tense. One of my worst habits is avoiding names. Minor characters end up as confusing jumbles of description, repeatedly referenced, just so I don’t …

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To Boldly Go

To Boldly Go

I mentioned a few weeks ago that Star Trek, in many of its incarnations, is one of my all-time favorite TV shows. One of my first blog posts detailed the inspiration and lessons I picked up from watching Doctor Who. When I stop to think about it, Star Trek has taught me so much more. …

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