muses

  • “It wasn’t a case of storming heaven. It was a case of letting heaven storm you.” “The Curse of Chalion” by Lois McMaster Bujold Reading through The Curse of Chalion, a tale about a soldier who finds a second life as a saint and secretary to a cursed princess, I came to a striking revelation:…

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  • In idly searching on reddit again, I came across this post in r/writing and liked it enough to want to share it. Besides, it seems topical, since I just posted my review of Danielewski’s House of Leaves the other day. Here is a piece of an interview in which Mark Z. Danielewski explains to us…

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  • Let’s Talk NaNoWriMo.

    October means a lot of things to many people. It’s the approach of autumn, it’s the time where I’m pretty sure pumpkin spice is legally mandated to infiltrate everything consumable, and it’s all topped off with the spooky fun spectacle that is Halloween. Of course, there’s something very particular that it means to writers: “OHshit,…

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  • The Coffee Shop Writer.

    While I was in college (which seems crazy long ago), most of my writing was done in one of two places. The most notorious and terrible one was during classes, when I should have been taking notes (to be honest, even my writerly ADD was in effect then…I always had two notebooks on my desk,…

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  • Author Quotes: Orwell.

    “Writing a book is a long, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness.” –George Orwell. Though I’ve seen this quote many times before, it’s only just now that it truly strikes a chord with me. I stumbled upon it in a recent post over at Invisible Ink, and I just had to…

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  • Over at Mark, Mark posts a lot of very cool, very random images, some of which I find too inspirational to ignore. The other day, he posted this beauty: And I thought, “How perfect!” The imagery, to me, was very “Down the Rabbit-Hole,” which is the theme for the first annual issue of my anthology,…

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  • Art Day!!!

    Anyone who also has me as a friend on Facebook has probably noticed that I have what I happily declare as an “ART DAY!!!” just about every Thursday. Lately, my job has been scheduling me fairly consistently (unheard of in retail!), which includes Thursdays free, which is fabulous, because Thursday is the one day that…

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  • The Forecast for 2013.

    Hello, there, Interwebz, how have you been? It’s been a while since I’ve seen much of you, through no fault of your own. I’ve recently just returned from a pretty amazing business trip to Atlanta, and now I’m back, though I wouldn’t exactly say to the usual grind. It’s a new year, I’ve got a…

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  • Art Nouveau and Aryneth.

    One of the most notable after-effects of a trip to the Art Institute is that it never fails to inspire me to try my hand at art again. Now, writing has always been an obvious choice for me. I love it, I’m fairly good at it, I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.…

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  • ART!

    Yesterday, I gifted myself with a membership to the Art Institute of Chicago, one of my most favorite places in the world. It was surprisingly affordable, and I intend to take advantage of the membership on most of my days off from work. Like today. Shortly, I’ll be bundling up against the cold and making…

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