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Blog Details for "The World in the Satin Bag"
The World in the Satin BagThe World in the Satin BagA Blog and YA Fantasy Novel by S. M. Duke. Writing discussion, genre fiction, reviews, and more! 
Articles
New Design and Writing
2007-09-05 06:08:00 Some of you who visit here may have noticed that the look of my blog has changed. This is only the start of the changes for it. I've decided to stick with Blogger for now. I imagine that while WordPress might have some amazing features, such features will end up being a part of Blogger anyway, and the idea that I can edit and change just about anything for free on Blogger is more important to me than having some of the neat features of WordPress under restriction.First and foremost, what do you think thus far? I've added the left hand sidebar and was trying to figure out how to add another bar so that the left is identical to the right. This was hopefully to reduce the length of all the information so it is a little more accessible for people. Does it look okay? I don't want it to be incredibly cluttered and hopefully it isn't that way. The idea is so that things look a little smoother without a bunch of annoying buttons and junk or an endless sidebar.What other improvem... More About: Design , Writing
Acknowledgments and Such
2007-09-02 21:49:00 Now that WISB is finally finished it's time for one of those long winded thank you posts.First, I'd like to thank anyone who has been reading this blog and the novel, even if you have never left a comment. I do check my sitemeter and there are several people who apparently stick around for a while and return at other times. Thank you for coming by and please leave a message some time.Second, I'd like to thank Mr. Bramage for his support of the project. While I haven't heard from you in a long while, I still must thank you for keeping me writing in the beginning.I'd like to thank Alex of SmackJeeves for drawing all those lovely pictures including the one that is in this post and for being a one man cheering squad. I hope to see more of your art soon! Make me a new banner! And a logo! And something else that's pretty!Next I'd like to thank Imelda, Eva, and Calamire from TW for pushing me on to finish the novel even through the hardest times when my brain wanted to quit. ...
Chapter Thirty One: Of Captain Norp and the Last Journey
2007-09-02 06:16:00 They made camp the following afternoon after following the Nar River south and crossing a wooden bridge wide enough for two carriages to pass at the same time. Iliad guessed they had traveled a good sixty miles; James knew it would be several days before they reached Sem’pur. Along the riverbed they washed the filth from their clothes until the fabric no longer stunk. Triska took a moment to sprinkle the petals of little green flowers on their clothes, and before long all the stench of the sewage lines were lost. The first night proved eventful. Nobody had asked James about his hand, and he had made no effort to discuss it. Even Triska, who normally seemed aware of injuries at all times, being a healer and all, was oblivious. James sat in the dirt silently. “You came for me,” Laura said, cool and collected, looking at James with her bright green eyes. He nodded. “That’s amazing.” “I... More About: Journey , Chapter , The Last , Captain
Chapter Thirty: Of Dark Interests
2007-09-02 01:29:00 James sat on one of the ridges along the edge of the octagon. None of the others bothered sitting. Darl took a position behind Bourlinch as if ready at any moment to beat the memories out. James watched the water as it flowed down the tunnel off somewhere unknown. He was getting used to the smell now. It had easily been twenty minutes of them setting around as Bourlinch argued with himself over which tunnel was the correct one. At one point Darl suggested they just split up into each of them, but that idea was quickly shot down as Iliad explained how unlikely it would be that they would find a way out doing that. James wondered what would happen to them if they never found a way out of the tunnels. Even if they were forced to turn back he wasn’t sure he could trust Bourlinch’s memory. What if he forgets? We’ll be stuck here forever. Darl spoke in hushed whispers to himself. James could tell they were angry, bitter words, each phrase com... More About: Dark , Interests , Chapter , Eres
Point of View Gone Haywire
2007-09-01 08:37:00 It has been coming to my attention more and more lately that it is becoming acceptable in the literary world to completely ignore all the little rules that have been laid down in regards to POV. Why has this become a good thing to do? I don't get it. One of the biggest rules of writing, well, perhaps not a rule but a big know-how, is not to switch tenses. Not only am I seeing this in young writers--which is probably rather common--but also in professional, published literature. A novel I recently reviewed went from first person past to first person present, and even dared to go from first person past to third person past in the middle of a chapter. What exactly is spawning this sudden change? It's destroying literature I think. Has anyone else discovered this issue in any particular books they've seen? More About: View , Point
Official Notice of Nothing Whatsoever
2007-08-30 03:11:00 Alright all, I've sat around arguing with myself for the past week and a half now about whether to jump to WP or not. SQT has given me some great advice on what I could do. As of this moment I am doing nothing whatsoever. I've searched the net for an easy template to fiddle with that has a built in top bar (which you apparently can have with Blogger and which I can actually create alternate blogger accounts to go with those links), but quite honestly, it's all a lot of work I'm not willing to do for a blog, at least not right now with my schedule and with all that is going on.So I have some questions.Is anyone really all that bothered with the layout now? Are there things you would like to see improved? These are serious questions. It won't hurt my feelings if you mention what you don't like. In fact, I would appreciate it if someone said somethingOne thing I was considering is using a 3 column version of this particular template, but at the same time I think such a templat... More About: Notice , Official
Chapter Twenty Nine: Of Journeys in the Dark
2007-08-27 01:02:00 “Marked?” Pea said, showing remarkable control of his voice. James nodded. “Assuming this is true, this is a horrendously negative turn of events. Marked…by Luthien. We have to presume that Luthien is reading his future too. Which means that Luthien must know this creature.” “No,” James said. “I don’t think Luthien knew him, probably never even heard of him. Most likely anyway.” “The laws of magic…” “I know the laws.” In fact, he did know the laws, most of them at least. He had read them in the etiquette book. They were more general understandings that laws. Nobody had set down the rules of how magic worked. It had always been there. In a strange way, James thought of magic scientists casting out theories, digging up evidence, and doing experiments to prove some point. “Magic cannot be used on the unknown.” “Which is precisely why Luthien must know this man.” ... More About: Twenty , Dark , The Dark , Journeys , The D
The Argument Continues (with some tips thrown in)
2007-08-25 07:08:00 First, because this whole thing about WordPress and Blogger might annoy the crap out of you, or bore you, I'm going to give away some interesting links and information.First is the TW Blog. I've become a weekly contributor there, partly because I've become a mod at the TeenageWriters site and partly because I'm editing their first anthology. I do the writing tips/discussion type stuff. Two posts of interest to anyone that reads this blog would be The Golden Rule and Enemy #1: Info-dump. The former is about none other than that infamous "show, don't tell" rule and the latter is quite obvious I think. Check them out because I think they are rather helpful, and perhaps if you have any comments I'd love to hear them.Another thing of interest is that I have volunteered and been accepted to help do book reviews with SQT at her F & SF Review Blog. She's becoming very active in the SF/F community and trying to get her foot in the review door by asking for ARC's and the li... More About: Tips , Conti , Some
Start Wars and Write Better
2007-08-23 04:08:00 Yes, the title is intended to make you blink twice. I wrote it that way on purpose. How can wars be good for writing? When they are "Word Wars ".So, what exactly is a Word War?A Word War is essentially a no pressure contest between two or more individuals, all writers for obvious reasons, who decide on a set amount of time, stop everything, and write. Technically speaking, the person who has the most words at the end wins, but really, if you write 100 words and your partner writes 1,000, it doesn't really matter at all. Why? Because you wrote something!Sessions can be 5, 10, 15, 20, even 30 minutes. If you're brave you'll go for an hour, but I recommend doing two 20 minute sessions with a 5-10 minute break in the middle.How are Word Wars helpful?Simple, they actually make you write. The object of a Word War isn't to make you write something that is superb and amazing, it's to get you writing in the first place. Forcing yourself to just write something with a surefire de... More About: Write , Start
Chapter Twenty Eight: Of Stranger Friendships
2007-08-19 23:54:00 By the time dinner had come and gone James had a sense of accomplishing absolutely nothing. He hadn’t contributed to the plan to spy on the towers, nor had he been involved. He had simply sat around doing little of anything for an entire day. Even when Iliad, Triska, and Darl had returned from the inner city he remained, to put it simply, antisocial. Something inside him made him not want to be involved with the others. He knew it had to do with the way they looked at him. For some reason it felt much like how he had been looked at when those he had first come to know found out he had been marked by Luthien. He still didn’t know what that meant for sure, but he knew all too well that Luthien wanted to know about him. He wondered what it would be like to know the future. Dinner turned out to be far more respectful than in previous nights. Bourlinch’s shop had a wood stove and a modest supply of wood and kindling. Before long the flames were crackling, pot... More About: Twenty , Friendships , Chapter , Tran , Went
Random Bits and Links of Potential Interest + Ranting Goodness
2007-08-19 05:51:00 Thanks for the fan art!Thanks to everyone who has been coming to this blog and thanks Tobias Buckell for actually paying attention to all the times your name pops up on the net and dropping by to leave a comment. That was really cool. And yes I will continue to listen to your Podcast sessions!Now for some other stuff here. I've had a lot of thoughts going through my head lately about this blog and about WISB. One of my thoughts involves this newfangled thing called Podcasting. TW has been putting together a Podcast for the site. I don't know why they thought of doing this, but more power to them. The idea got me thinking about Podcasts and I started Googling them. I had already heard of I Should Be Writing and The Survival Guide to Writing Fantasy (which I am listening to now and catching up on), and happened to find this one I previously mentioned called Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing. I thought for a moment that Podcasts were just these dorky things that idiots did tha... More About: Random , Links , Interest , Goodness , Tent
The Proverbial Million Words
2007-08-17 05:48:00 I heard Tobias Buckell say in an interview at Adventures in Sci Fi Publishing that most writers need to write a good one million words of crap before coming up with anything publishable. Obviously this isn't always the case, but it got me thinking of how many words I have written.My total?276,377 words! Is that a lot? Granted, I've written loads more short stories than novel attempts, but that means I'm a little over a quarter of the way to that million. Is that a good thing? I don't know. Perhaps I'll break the mold with some short stories, but perhaps those aren't generally counted and Tobias was referring to novels, which would make sense.What about your word counts? Count everything that is fiction! All of it, even unfinished stuff! More About: Words , Million , Prove
Interview w/ Susan Beth Pfeffer
2007-08-14 04:57:00 Susan Beth Pfeffer has graciously allowed me to interview her after reading her recent book Life As We Knew It. So, without further adieu, here it is!SD: First, tell us a little about yourself. A brief history if you will of why you started writing and why you continue today. SBP: I wrote my first book, Just Morgan, my last semester of college (NYU). It was published when I was 22, and I never looked back. Since then I've written over 70 books, all for children and teenagers, and can actually claim to never having had a day job.I'd always wanted to be a writer, and have been incredibly fortunate to live my dream.SD: What are you currently reading? What's your favorite book?SBP: Right now, I'm between books (I finished one on Friday and spent Saturday reading newspapers). I'll probably read a fairly junky novel next, and then I think I'll read a book about Alan Freed and the radio payola scandal. I read a lot more non-fiction than fiction.I don't really have a favo... More About: Interview , Susan , Susa
Chapter Twenty Seven: Of the Inner City
2007-08-13 01:55:00 There was a knock at the front door to Bourlinch’s place of business. Everyone stayed still for a moment, then another knock came and Darl got up and opened the door a hair. The conversation that started was loud enough for everyone to hear. James knew immediately that the person at the door was a soldier. He could hear the gentle rustle of chain mail and the light tapping of the wooden end of a spear on solid ground. “What?” Darl said. Great, James thought, just start off with rudeness. “Sorry to bother you sir,” the soldier said with a voice that gave away his youth, “but old Early from two doors down reported some unusual activity here.” “What kind of unusual activity?” Darl’s grumpiness increased. “Magic being used. Old Early is sort of a sensitive man. Knows a lot of things most people don’t that are Blood-less.” “I see. Well, this is a healer’s shop.... More About: Twenty , City , Chapter , Went
Chapter Twenty Six: Of the Golden City of Crystal
More articles from this author:2007-08-12 05:17:00 It was day, the sun gleaming above, casting brilliant yellow rays over Teirlin’pur. The rays struck crystal, cascaded down in all directions like leaves in the wind. The city could have been called City of Amber as far as James was concerned. It glowed like an enormous gold nugget. Tall snow covered mountains, clear blue lakes and rivers, and verdant, moss green fields, where thick groves of equally green trees made their home, paled in comparison to the impending beauty of Teirlin’pur. They rode, James now turned away from the city as Mirdur’eth pulled him along, and before long they were at the mouth of a wide thoroughfare. They took it west, avoiding the minor roads nearby. Men lumbered along the sides of the road, pulling along barrels or other heavy objects; women laid out clotheslines, attended to children, or simply hustled through side alleys to business unknown. There were all manner of strange creatures that James had never seen before, even in fa... More About: Twenty , Crystal , Golden , Chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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