Coming in hours. Live on Friday 11th Coming in days Copper is now a fully grown Drakken, but despite his magical abilities, he is shunned and shamed by his pure-blood kin. Wandering despondent in …
Source: Serpent of the Shangrove
I have this book already and it is stunning.
Good news, everyone!
For a strictly limited period (approximately the next 48 hours) The Art of Forgetting : Rider will be available for FREE (nothing, zip, nada, squat!) on Amazon Kindle. You can download it now!
We’re really hoping to get a lot of downloads out of this so the book can reach as wide an audience as possible, and pick up some new readers. So please, download it if you can. If you’re already downloaded it or you don’t do Amazon (I know some of you don’t, and I respect that) then tell your friends about it, tweet and retweet about it using #lgbt or #fantasy or even #freebooks (or all three if you have the space), share on Facebook or your own platforms. Let’s see if we can crack that elusive Amazon top ten!
Edited to add – Sammy has just told me that AOF : Rider…
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March 4th 2007 Even the cats are getting really bored. Fluffy was sitting on the windowsill with her tail dangling below the curtain and Frank, (bored and bigger than her), leapes up from the floor…
Source: Diary of a Cat Lover
So I was scrolling through my LJ account because there is something there I want to save and I am not sure when it started. Then I came across this from 2007. On a snowy day I think a bit of fun is in order. I forget where this came from originally, but it was something to do with the Olympic venue and the questions they got asked by prospective visitors. Some of you may have seen this before, but some of you haven’t. And just for fun, I will add an infogram.
These are an absolute HOOT!!
Because Everyone In Canada Lives In An Igloo.
Now that Vancouver has won the chance to host the 2010 Winter
Olympics, these are some questions people from all over the world are
asking. Believe it or not these questions about Canada were posted
on an International Tourism Website. Obviously the answers are a
joke; but the questions were really asked!
Q:I have never seen it warm on Canadian TV, so how do the plants grow?( England )
A. We import all plants fully grown and then just sit around and
watch them die.
Q:Will I be able to see Polar Bears in the street? ( USA )
A: Depends on how much you’ve been drinking.
Q:I want to walk from Vancouver to Toronto -can I follow the Railroad tracks? ( Sweden )
A: Sure, it’s only Four thousand miles, take lots of water.
Q:Is it safe to run around in the bushes in Canada ? ( Sweden )
A: So it’s true what they say about Swedes.
Q: Are there any ATM’s (cash machines) in Canada ? Can you send me a list of them in Toronto , Vancouver , Edmonton and Halifax ? ( England )
A: What, did your last slave die?
Q:Can you give me some information about hippo racing in Canada ? ( USA )
A: A-fri-ca is the big triangle shaped continent south of Europe .. Ca-na-da is that big country to your North…oh forget it. Sure, the hippo racing is every Tuesday night in Calgary . Come naked.
Q:Which direction is North in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Face south and then turn 180 degrees Contact us when you get here and we’ll send the rest of the directions.
Q: Can I bring cutlery into Canada ?( England )
A: Why? Just use your fingers like we do .
Q: Can you send me the Vienna Boys’ Choir schedule? ( USA )
A: Aus-t ri-a is that quaint little country bordering Ger-man-y, which is…oh forget it.
Sure, the Vienna Boys Choir plays every Tuesday night in Vancouver and in Calgary , straight after the hippo races. Come naked.
Q: Do you have perfume in Canada ? ( Germany )
A: No, WE don’t stink.
Q: I have developed a new product that is the fountain of youth. Where can I sell it in Canada ?( USA )
A: Anywhere significant numbers of Americans gather.
Q: Can you tell me the regions in British Columbia where the female population is smaller than the male population? ( Italy )
A: Yes, gay nightclubs ..
Q: Do you celebrate Thanksgiving in Canada ? ( USA )
A: Only at Thanksgiving.
Q: Are there supermarkets in Toronto and is milk available all year round?( Germany )
A: No, we are a peaceful civilization of Vegan hunter/gathers. Milk is illegal.
Q: I have a question about a famous animal in Canada , but I forget its name. It’s a kind of big horse with horns. ( USA )
A: It’s called a Moose. They are tall and very violent, eating the brains of anyone walking close to them. You can scare them off by spraying yourself with human urine before you go out walking.
Q: Will I be able to speak English most places I go? ( USA )
A: Yes, but you will have to learn it first.
Please send this on to any Canadian (or others) who you think will enjoy it as much as I did
Coming soon A taste of what is to come. “Who let the half-breed in?” the cultured voice of a young female cut through the chatter. Her cruel words echoed to the ceiling in the …
Source: Serpent of the Shangrove
Should they be there? Oh, my word yes. Politics is really a set of happenings that determine who will be in charge and what sort of things, based on character traits, will happen when/if they achie…
Source: Politics in Fantasy and Sci fi
Should they be there? Oh, my word yes. Politics is really a set of happenings that determine who will be in charge and what sort of things, based on character traits, will happen when/if they achieve their goal. The character traits are way more important that what they actually promise. Promises are words and words can be denied. Who a person is, inside, is much more indicative.
Frex, in Darkspire Reaches, the Angressi emperor decrees all witches must die. Now it isn’t really as simple as suddenly deciding he doesn’t like them. There is always cause before effect and he has a secret and is none too secure on his throne. He knows witches/wise women can scry, (look into the past and the future through magical means), as his own cousin he tried to have arrested had this skill. He thought he had dealt with the issue at that time, since she disappeared. Whispers have started, so he must remove all of these people with magic. His actions start a series of events, so again effect generated by a cause. In this case, the cause was fear and guilt. He needed to protect his position, which would have become jeopardised if his secret had been revealed, which is part of the guilt. Character traits are everything, for had he been a wise and kind ruler no one would be digging around for a way to displace him.
Very often the motivation is grounded in politics. Something important needs to happen for the continuation or the replacement of a set of circumstances. They are grounded into our lives so, by extension, are part of life that must be present in full in a story to create the living, believability factor. 
This is one of the penalties of being a Pantzer, (a writer who writes by the seat of their pants). Someone can just pop out of the woodwork at any time and then they become a problem. Is this going…
Source: A New Character Muscles In
This is one of the penalties of being a Pantzer, (a writer who writes by the seat of their pants). Someone can just pop out of the woodwork at any time and then they become a problem.
Is this going to be a spear carrier, or someone of importance? A Pantzer won’t know this so the character has to be developed outside the story. It is not as simple as what they look like and if they are good or bad, oh no. A whole profile needs to be worked up to give their entire history and therefore the possible reasons behind anything they might do. None of this will probably appear in the story, but it must be in the writer’s mind as the words unfold.
Another matter of major importance for the character is are they expendable? If they are not going to be useful further down the line, then the answer is yes, they are. In which case the character has to be adorable to wring out the maximum amount of angst when they die, unless, of course, they are a bad guy, in which case they have to be even more carefully constructed so they don’t appear like a cartoon bad guy. Even bad guys have needs, motivations and wishes, so there are many shades of gray between black and white.
The major trick is to determine if this is a good guy or a bad guy and sometime this is going to be ambivalent. Not that is part of the fun, the not knowing until it happens.
This is Casper Cat, a blue, lynx point Rag Doll cat and also a rescue. He likes sunbathing. The boy on the roof is a domestic cat, although a tad on the enormous size. This is one I hand-reared fro…
Source: Cats
cnlesley 