Category: Writing

Friday Morning FYI – 1/20/2017

Ron Delaney JrLeave a comment

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

A few weeks ago, I teased potentially having good news related to a short story I’d submitted for inclusion in an anthology. Unfortunately, my story didn’t pass the final cut. I was disappointed, of course, but not two days later I sent my latest novel out to beta readers. While they have it I’ll work on a query letter and craft synopses. That brings us to this week’s FYI:

Perspective is important. Too often we take bumps in the road and blow them up to Mt. Everest, with us standing at the base, looking up, pre-defeated. In truth, life is just as full of little defeats as it is little victories. When one of those defeats darkens your door, accept it’s OK to feel bad and then get back to work. Those little victories are out there waiting for you.

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 1/13/2017

Ron Delaney Jr2 Comments

Welcome to your Friday Morning FYI (internal darkness edition for Friday the 13th) – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

This week, I sent a story to some writer friends whose opinions I value. The responses were all positive, each picking up the cold and sinister vibe I was going for (serial killer-y goodness). One response was an observation on me, which is great to get, and made me think. It started:

“Sh!t, dude, you’re dark!”

Here’s the thing: I am dark (insert sinister laugh). I’m also very positive, light-hearted, and an all-around decent human being. I love ridiculous, over-the-top deaths in horror movies, and give to various charities. Seeing someone fall down makes me grin (unless they really hurt themselves, but by the time I learn that the grin is already grinned, if I’m honest), and I do yoga and meditate. Like most people, I’m multi-layered. That brings us to this week’s FYI:

One of the great advantages to being an artist (yes, writers, you’re artists) is having an outlet to express all the sharp angles of you. If you keep hearing your characters all sound the same, you’re holding back. Maybe it’s fear of what people will think, or maybe you just don’t think you have “that” in you. Nonsense. We’re all capable of imagining (there’s the trick – going to places in your head is not the same as acting) joy/sadness/mania/horror/relief/loss/etc.. We just have to be willing to type it out and see where it goes.

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Friday Morning FYI – 1/6/2017

Ron Delaney Jr4 Comments

Welcome (back!) to your Friday Morning FYI (late for old times’ sake) – my chance to share observations/wisdom/rants in short, easily consumed form.

Hi all! I know it’s been a while (three months-ish to be ish-y), but I’m back with all new Friday Morning FYIs. I think I’ll start us up with a writing observation, since writing has been one the things with which I’ve been so occupied.

Writing what, you ask? Great question! That leads us to this week’s FYI:

I’ve always been of the opinion multi-tasking is dumb, especially in writing. How can you put out good creative content when bouncing back and forth between what are usually separate ideas (stories) involving different characters and settings? Well, apparently I was wrong – to an extent.

While working on my novel, I’ve banged out a few pretty darn good short stories recently (hopefully good news to announce on that front soon), and found taking a break from the wide, deep story in my novel to play with some fun short stuff was not only not a hindrance to the novel’s progress, but nice mental relief. Of course novels and SSs are very different, and I wouldn’t recommend continuously hammering away at both simultaneously, but every now and then seems fine. Live and learn, or some such 🙂

Hope you all had a blessed holiday season and great new year.

 

Thanks for reading,

{RDj}

Review: The Girl with All the Gifts

Ron Delaney Jr2 Comments

The Girl with All the Gifts
The Girl with All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I know what you’re thinking: yay, another zombie book. Yes and no.

The Girl with All the Gifts takes an interesting look into the world of the walking/shambling/running/sprinting dead by making one of “them” (quotes because again yes and no, but I won’t spoil it) a main character (I use “a” because this is a multi-POV work, which is a whole ‘nother post). It also avoids the oh-so-common reanimating virus angle, but barely, basing the contagion on a fungus that gained popularity a few years ago for the crazy crap it does to ants (Google it). It does suffer from a few tropes, though, including ‘We’re safe in our base oh no the base has been overrun!’, ‘Scientists are jerks!’, and ‘This idea will probably get us eaten but I’m going to do it anyway because she’s not a monster dammit!’ (see flair gun). Still, I enjoyed the book. It has good pacing and writing (though a little tell-y), the concept is original enough to not make me roll my eyes, and the details of the ending were a cool surprise.

Thing I liked most – Melanie (and the other children). I wish the book was told from her POV only.

Thing I hated – I’m kind of over head hopping, especially when it involves characters I’m not supposed to like (and don’t).

View all my reviews