One late afternoon in my Florida childhood, another lightning storm rolled in. A wall of rain moved steadily over the lake towards our house. I love the change in the air and the smell. The lightning flashed and flashed and flashed. I knew to go inside, but the terrifying and amazing light fascinated me. I …
Like many others, I watch the news from Paris with sadness and rage. There will be the dead. The lives cut short because of where they happened to be. There will be the loved ones, the hearts broken, the families devastated. There will be the survivors, the nightmares, the destructive coping mechanisms. Of course, this …
I'm participating in NaNoWriMo again. I'm posting about this new world over here at The Book of Astrophilia. Sometimes NaNoWriMo feels like a fool's errand. I've got other manuscripts that need finishing. What is the point of adding to the pile of words? Well, I've a story to tell. This has been in mind for …
The tide of National Novel Writing Month is upon us. Are you getting into storytelling ship and setting out on the turbulent sea? Or are you staying on shore, watching other mad sailors disappear over the horizon, sink under the waves? Perhaps the metaphor is wrong, but it went with my gold ocean up there. …
Ages ago I bought Scrivener. It looked cool with all its tabs and features, but I could never motivate myself to use. Opening a Word doc was easier. But my work-in-progress, The Fairy Tale Asylum, has finally motivated me to make the most of what I paid for. The motivating factor being choreography. The Asylum …
I've been focused on the art these last few weeks. Above is a recent piece I finished. It took hours and hours to do. I started with the main circle, the sun perhaps or the center of a flower. The viewer can decide. I had the new idea of adding flowers going across. I used …
I don't remember the interview, but I do remember an interviewer in which JK Rowling said how it surprised her that not everyone wanted to be a writer. And sure, I understand that we all want to do different things and that is a good thing. We need firefighters and teachers and all those other …
JK Rowling explained how Harry Potter appeared in her mind while she was on a train. Toni Morrison came up with the idea for Beloved after she read a newspaper article about a former slave murdering her child. J.R.R. Apparently, Tolkien imagined a hobbit while he was grading student exams (which gives me hope every …
When I was a kid, I would pick a bagful of tangerines off the neighbor's tangerine tree (I had permission) and sit on the dock to eat the tangerines and watch the sunset. Or just watch the lake. Sometimes I'd take a book with me. I discovered that if I stretched out on the dock …
Recently, my son decided to watch the Harry Potter movies. I'd loved the books, but he was never interested. He preferred Star Wars or things that showed you how to make things. But for no clear reason, he said a few weeks ago, "I might watch a Harry Potter. Maybe." He watched the first one …
Marta Pelrine-Bacon 