Robin Layne's Blog: From the Red, Read Robin - Posts Tagged "vampires"
Eenie Meenie Miney Moe . . . Catch a Title by the Toe
What should I Name this Blog?
I started brainstorming titles, and came up with a veritable kaleidoscope of them! I thought I’d throw them out here because they show various facets of myself, my interests, aims, and writings. I might come up with more in time, but for now, I welcome thoughts on these—or combinations of them. You can see I’ve already eliminated some of these, but I hope that seeing why is informative and entertaining. I plan to write on subjects for book lovers and writers alike.
Red Robin’s Bloggin’—could mean either the process of blogging or the fact that Robin is blogging. The color red has significance to me on a number of levels. Downside: could be confused with the restaurant. (How do you trademark a color and a bird? But they did.) Also sounds like “noggin,” and that’s where these thoughts come from.
Red Robin Bloggin’—rhymes, and so is more poetic than the former idea. Still could be confused with the restaurant.
Red Robin’s Bloggin’ Toboggan—a wild ride, to be sure.
Robin’s Red Blog—reminds me of the Portland Red Book, but it’s not a very similar name.
The Little Red Blog—sounds like a children’s book blog—not appropriate for most of what I will talk about.
Robin’s Big Red Blog—possible.
Little Red Robin Hood—now that’s a mixture of tales!
Little Red Bloggin’ Hood—too cutesy, I think.
Robin’s Blood-red Blog—this is okay, although it reminds me of “The Blood-red Pencil” (a writing website). But I like “blood-red.”
Robin’s Blood-read Blog—a little cleverness thrown in for readers with eyes sharp enough to see it, and would be especially appropriate when my book comes out.
Blog Blog Bloggin’ Along—a play on my name but nothing more.
A Walk Down Robin La(y)ne—another play on my name, but what does it mean to walk down me? No, I think not.
Robin’s Song—lame, unoriginal.
Herald of the Eternal Spring—this is a name for my spiritual identity and purpose, and also sounds like the name of a newspaper, perhaps. But I don’t know that people would connect a blog with a newspaper. A robin is a herald of the spring; I am a herald of the spring of Christ’s blood and God’s Spirit, and of the eternal spring they will bring.
My Night-blooming Series—a blog is a series of posts, and my books are expected to be a series as well. I usually bloom at night, like the night blooming cereus flower (pronounced “series”), and in the morning feel wilted and half-dead. I also might still have some graphics from my old web domain picturing a red-toned night-blooming cereus. . . . Just checked all over the computer. Nope; I don’t have the picture, except for part of it with “Robin’s Nest” written on it. But anyway, I wrote a poem in my younger days called “The Night-Blooming Cereus,” expressing the value of fleeting beauty and life. This poem will appear in the novel I’m working on, as written by one of the characters. And since my novel and its planned sequels concern vampires, the name is appropriate on that level as well. A discouraging thought is that people making the connection with the flower may think I misspelled its name.
I think I like this last name best, but I would like to sit on it a while. Still, I hope you have found this fun to read. What do you think?
Welcome to my blog!
I started brainstorming titles, and came up with a veritable kaleidoscope of them! I thought I’d throw them out here because they show various facets of myself, my interests, aims, and writings. I might come up with more in time, but for now, I welcome thoughts on these—or combinations of them. You can see I’ve already eliminated some of these, but I hope that seeing why is informative and entertaining. I plan to write on subjects for book lovers and writers alike.
Red Robin’s Bloggin’—could mean either the process of blogging or the fact that Robin is blogging. The color red has significance to me on a number of levels. Downside: could be confused with the restaurant. (How do you trademark a color and a bird? But they did.) Also sounds like “noggin,” and that’s where these thoughts come from.
Red Robin Bloggin’—rhymes, and so is more poetic than the former idea. Still could be confused with the restaurant.
Red Robin’s Bloggin’ Toboggan—a wild ride, to be sure.
Robin’s Red Blog—reminds me of the Portland Red Book, but it’s not a very similar name.
The Little Red Blog—sounds like a children’s book blog—not appropriate for most of what I will talk about.
Robin’s Big Red Blog—possible.
Little Red Robin Hood—now that’s a mixture of tales!
Little Red Bloggin’ Hood—too cutesy, I think.
Robin’s Blood-red Blog—this is okay, although it reminds me of “The Blood-red Pencil” (a writing website). But I like “blood-red.”
Robin’s Blood-read Blog—a little cleverness thrown in for readers with eyes sharp enough to see it, and would be especially appropriate when my book comes out.
Blog Blog Bloggin’ Along—a play on my name but nothing more.
A Walk Down Robin La(y)ne—another play on my name, but what does it mean to walk down me? No, I think not.
Robin’s Song—lame, unoriginal.
Herald of the Eternal Spring—this is a name for my spiritual identity and purpose, and also sounds like the name of a newspaper, perhaps. But I don’t know that people would connect a blog with a newspaper. A robin is a herald of the spring; I am a herald of the spring of Christ’s blood and God’s Spirit, and of the eternal spring they will bring.
My Night-blooming Series—a blog is a series of posts, and my books are expected to be a series as well. I usually bloom at night, like the night blooming cereus flower (pronounced “series”), and in the morning feel wilted and half-dead. I also might still have some graphics from my old web domain picturing a red-toned night-blooming cereus. . . . Just checked all over the computer. Nope; I don’t have the picture, except for part of it with “Robin’s Nest” written on it. But anyway, I wrote a poem in my younger days called “The Night-Blooming Cereus,” expressing the value of fleeting beauty and life. This poem will appear in the novel I’m working on, as written by one of the characters. And since my novel and its planned sequels concern vampires, the name is appropriate on that level as well. A discouraging thought is that people making the connection with the flower may think I misspelled its name.
I think I like this last name best, but I would like to sit on it a while. Still, I hope you have found this fun to read. What do you think?
Welcome to my blog!
Take Stock of the Word: Wordstock 2012, Saturday Edition
Been awake since about 1 a.m. and can't sleep. What irregular sleeping patterns! But it's all the better for you, if you want to read about my experiences at Wordstock, because I've have a lot of things to juggle, and only in the insane hours of the middle of the night do I feel justified to do something I don't absolutely have to do. I figure I'm too tired to pursue my obligations during such an hour. And I'll test out that semi-dream state I heard about, although I don't remember any of my dreams of the evening.
I was going to start with some highlights, but ended up covering a good amount of detail in the order that I enjoyed it.
The event began an hour later than I expected, and I was there early even for my expected time. It wasn't clear that doors open at 10, not 9, so it was hurry up and wait, then wait and hurry up. Fortunately, two books vendors had their ware on display out front, YA and poetry, respectively, and I was soon so engrossed in looking over those that I missed the 10 o'clock starting time. (My watch band broke that morning, so I had my watch in the pocket of my tight pants and I didn't look at it that often.) I rushed in to do the Open Write, and after waiting in a line with nothing much to do (books, books, everywhere, but none of them to read!. My nine minutes of fame was a disappointment. My fingers had a hard time finding the proper keys on the laptop, and I lost much precious time going back and fixing mistakes in a slow way I'm not used to. My prompt didn't inspire me much, and what I wrote was banal and incomplete. I will try again this morning with a different prompt and a different judge and I'll ask ahead of time what to do about typos. (My home keyboard is a large ergonomic one designed for carpal tunnel sufferers.)
I barely made it to my first panel, "Putting Words in the Mouth of God." Three authors with radical approaches to religious subjects led a fascinating discussion of saints of old, and imagined ones of today--their courage, their determination, and even their humor. I think it was Colin Dickey (but it might have been James Bernard Frost) said that there is no laughter in the New Testament--an idea I find absurd, considering the laughter I and many others experience under the power of God today and the absurdities of some of Christ's sayings. Who could have kept a straight face when the carpenter described a current religious leader swallowing a camel, or a judge with a beam of lumber sticking out of his eye? Dickey, who wrote Afterlives of the Saints said that Lawrence was the patron saint of comedians; Lawrence joked about being done and ready to eat while he was being burned to death. Dickey thought that Lawrence seemed to come from another religion. Certainly, he doesn't belong with the Jesuit who told his class the story and then upbraided them for laughing at it.
This reminds me of a dating site I am familiar with. You can use multiple choice answers to fill in some basic information, and if you pick a religion, you can say you are "very serious about it," "somewhat serious about it," "not very serious about it" or "laughing about it." To be serious might be to be devoted to your God or faith with all your heart that you are able, or it could mean you are a stuffed shirt. "Laughing about it" could mean you don't like the label you've been given and you make fun of it, or it could mean you just plain don't care. Or it might mean that your religion really makes you happy. How often these days is laughter really about happiness, and how often is it an expression of cynicism, ridicule, or a shallow escape from deep sadness or anxiety? I think even in those cases, it can sometimes be healthy. The problem comes in when "taking things seriously" means we can't laugh at ourselves, our circumstances, even our sufferings and deaths. As I like to put it, Don't take yourself seriously; you're just a character God invented.
Someone in the audience pointed out that today people with the intensities of the once-admired saints are labeled with mental disorders and subdued with drugs. Where are the zealous today? Tanya Hurley said that much of her novel, The Blessed, about three reincarnated teenaged girl saints, takes place in mental the ward.
Panelist James Bernard Frost wrote a very Portland- (Oregon)culture story called A Very Minor Prophet: A Novel, concerning people who have lost their religion and still need something. And based on some of the things I've heard and read about religion, losing it can be for some the best way to start on a path of real life. As Frost put it, religion is stiff and reverent, and new life is needed. The dwarf preacher in his story gets carried away, swears, and is a laughingstock but a breath of fresh air. But the author says it is a Christian message and that some ministers have expressed appreciation for this unorthodox book.
All three of the panelists grew up in Catholic homes and were influenced by stories of the saints. Dickey appreciates their spunk, although he is an atheist today. Within Christianity, it is chiefly Catholics (and then only those who actually LIKE Catholicism rather than those who have found themselves scarred and left the Church) who don't treat "religion" as something of a dirty word. It used to be a good thing to be thought of as religious, but today, both the born-again crowd and New Agers prefer to call themselves "spiritual" and the people outside their belief system "religious."
After this panel, I was hard-pressed to decide whether to attend a reading by two apocalyptic writers or listen to parts of A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. Poetry feeds the soul and I don't read or listen to enough of it, so I chose the latter. Persona poetry turned out to be just what I guessed it was: poetry written from the point of view of characters other than the poet--the poetic version of first person fiction. I got to meet the goddess Calypso, who finds Odysseus washed ashore like a drowned kitten and wonders if she can keep him; a Russian fairytale version of Snow White; a total jerk of a man; the Hulk; and more. The poets said that you need empathy to wear the mask of another person and that not everyone is capable of doing that regarding people very different from themselves. These poems were great, and I want to try writing more of this type of poem myself.
The next event I attended was "The 'Adult' in 'Young Adult,' about handling "adult" subject matter in teen novels. I put "adult" in quotes here because, as both audience members and authors acknowledged, everyone is younger in some ways and older in others. I didn't take down who said what here, but it was said that who you write about determines a books niche rather than who you write for.
I learned some interesting facts about libraries: 1. Faced with budgets that limit the number of books they can order, they don't so much out-and-out ban books as avoid ordering ones that are likely to create a hubbub. 2. At least some libraries buy the newest titles, keep them for a little while, and then send them back and buy the fresh new titles.
Many questions strayed from the topic. People wanted to know more about techniques of writing YA. Most YA is written in first person. Third person can be done, but authors using it tend to tell rather than show. It is important to keep an intimate point of view, whichever approach you use.
Next, from authors Lisa Burstein and Katie Kacvinsky, I learned some surprising things about what publishers and reviewers consider acceptable today in young adult books: sex is, drugs and alcohol are not. However, Steve Brezenoff includes drugs and alcohol, as well as cussing in his YA novel, Brooklyn, Burning. A writer must be true to the characters. The writers also pointed out that teens always feel like they have a spotlight on them. Yes, I remember that self-consciousness well!
I'm getting increasingly tired and it's getting fairly close to the time I should get ready, so I'll gloss over most of the next talk I went to, featuring Steve Brezenoff and Inara Scott. I was very glad I went to this, though, because it was a great relief to hear from successful published writers who don't follow all those rules they tell you you have to do: Brezenoff doesn't write every day. Inara says you don't have to. She writes in spurts like me! At last, I have been validated! She said, "If the passion's not there it's okay to take a break." As a pin I inherited from my mother says: Screw guilt.
There is, it was said, a huge crossover between young adults (up to age 21) and adults--about half and half. Understandably, then, there is more sex and violence in YA today than there used to be. Parents concerned about what their children read can ask booksellers and librarians about books appropriate to their ages, and when the youths liked a book they can ask for similar titles.
It was pure enjoyment listening to Ray Rhamey read from The Vampire Kitty-Cat Chronicles. Told from the undead tomcat's point of view, it is funny and takes into account a lot of practical matters that vampires might have to deal with. I absolutely had to buy it. I confess my mind wandered as Rhamey read from two of his other books and I didn't get interested in them, but afterward I ran to the bookseller's table, bought the last copy of Vampire Kitty available, and ran to get the author to sign it for me.
I heard a new term from two different writers, the second one explaining what it means. A pacer is a writer who doesn't plot. Rhamey writes to see what happens. He wrote the kitty story online at first, something I did for a while with one of my vampire characters. That character, by keeping his own journal, seemed to invent himself; he developed in a matter of months while others have taken years.
The final panel was about sidekicks, or secondary characters. A sidekick isn't necessarily the protagonist's best friend. The sidekick is almost always of the same sex, but there are exceptions. There can also be more than one of them. Sidekicks can be a contradiction of the main character, to keep things in balance. A panelist gave the example of Don Quixote's Sancho Panzo. The character may be an externalization of the protagonist so he isn't talking to himself; the sidekick can be either antagonistic or agreeing.
For my novel-in-progress, Blood of the Willing, I like to throw my protagonist Mary together with her cantankerous and humorous friend Darrell for contrast in personality and in views toward how to handle the problem the book poses. Darrell, the traditionalist, thinks vampires are purely evil undead monsters that should all be killed. Mary finds herself taking a different view and approach. Either way they choose, both approaches have serious prices to pay.
I think I have finally said all I want to say about yesterday's half of the book fair. Tomorrow is here, that is to say it is 5:33 a.m., and I have to "get up" in less than half an hour. I pray I will have an energetic day in spite of my lack of sleep. I look forward to my workshop on starting a series.
I was going to start with some highlights, but ended up covering a good amount of detail in the order that I enjoyed it.
The event began an hour later than I expected, and I was there early even for my expected time. It wasn't clear that doors open at 10, not 9, so it was hurry up and wait, then wait and hurry up. Fortunately, two books vendors had their ware on display out front, YA and poetry, respectively, and I was soon so engrossed in looking over those that I missed the 10 o'clock starting time. (My watch band broke that morning, so I had my watch in the pocket of my tight pants and I didn't look at it that often.) I rushed in to do the Open Write, and after waiting in a line with nothing much to do (books, books, everywhere, but none of them to read!. My nine minutes of fame was a disappointment. My fingers had a hard time finding the proper keys on the laptop, and I lost much precious time going back and fixing mistakes in a slow way I'm not used to. My prompt didn't inspire me much, and what I wrote was banal and incomplete. I will try again this morning with a different prompt and a different judge and I'll ask ahead of time what to do about typos. (My home keyboard is a large ergonomic one designed for carpal tunnel sufferers.)
I barely made it to my first panel, "Putting Words in the Mouth of God." Three authors with radical approaches to religious subjects led a fascinating discussion of saints of old, and imagined ones of today--their courage, their determination, and even their humor. I think it was Colin Dickey (but it might have been James Bernard Frost) said that there is no laughter in the New Testament--an idea I find absurd, considering the laughter I and many others experience under the power of God today and the absurdities of some of Christ's sayings. Who could have kept a straight face when the carpenter described a current religious leader swallowing a camel, or a judge with a beam of lumber sticking out of his eye? Dickey, who wrote Afterlives of the Saints said that Lawrence was the patron saint of comedians; Lawrence joked about being done and ready to eat while he was being burned to death. Dickey thought that Lawrence seemed to come from another religion. Certainly, he doesn't belong with the Jesuit who told his class the story and then upbraided them for laughing at it.
This reminds me of a dating site I am familiar with. You can use multiple choice answers to fill in some basic information, and if you pick a religion, you can say you are "very serious about it," "somewhat serious about it," "not very serious about it" or "laughing about it." To be serious might be to be devoted to your God or faith with all your heart that you are able, or it could mean you are a stuffed shirt. "Laughing about it" could mean you don't like the label you've been given and you make fun of it, or it could mean you just plain don't care. Or it might mean that your religion really makes you happy. How often these days is laughter really about happiness, and how often is it an expression of cynicism, ridicule, or a shallow escape from deep sadness or anxiety? I think even in those cases, it can sometimes be healthy. The problem comes in when "taking things seriously" means we can't laugh at ourselves, our circumstances, even our sufferings and deaths. As I like to put it, Don't take yourself seriously; you're just a character God invented.
Someone in the audience pointed out that today people with the intensities of the once-admired saints are labeled with mental disorders and subdued with drugs. Where are the zealous today? Tanya Hurley said that much of her novel, The Blessed, about three reincarnated teenaged girl saints, takes place in mental the ward.
Panelist James Bernard Frost wrote a very Portland- (Oregon)culture story called A Very Minor Prophet: A Novel, concerning people who have lost their religion and still need something. And based on some of the things I've heard and read about religion, losing it can be for some the best way to start on a path of real life. As Frost put it, religion is stiff and reverent, and new life is needed. The dwarf preacher in his story gets carried away, swears, and is a laughingstock but a breath of fresh air. But the author says it is a Christian message and that some ministers have expressed appreciation for this unorthodox book.
All three of the panelists grew up in Catholic homes and were influenced by stories of the saints. Dickey appreciates their spunk, although he is an atheist today. Within Christianity, it is chiefly Catholics (and then only those who actually LIKE Catholicism rather than those who have found themselves scarred and left the Church) who don't treat "religion" as something of a dirty word. It used to be a good thing to be thought of as religious, but today, both the born-again crowd and New Agers prefer to call themselves "spiritual" and the people outside their belief system "religious."
After this panel, I was hard-pressed to decide whether to attend a reading by two apocalyptic writers or listen to parts of A Face to Meet the Faces: An Anthology of Contemporary Persona Poetry. Poetry feeds the soul and I don't read or listen to enough of it, so I chose the latter. Persona poetry turned out to be just what I guessed it was: poetry written from the point of view of characters other than the poet--the poetic version of first person fiction. I got to meet the goddess Calypso, who finds Odysseus washed ashore like a drowned kitten and wonders if she can keep him; a Russian fairytale version of Snow White; a total jerk of a man; the Hulk; and more. The poets said that you need empathy to wear the mask of another person and that not everyone is capable of doing that regarding people very different from themselves. These poems were great, and I want to try writing more of this type of poem myself.
The next event I attended was "The 'Adult' in 'Young Adult,' about handling "adult" subject matter in teen novels. I put "adult" in quotes here because, as both audience members and authors acknowledged, everyone is younger in some ways and older in others. I didn't take down who said what here, but it was said that who you write about determines a books niche rather than who you write for.
I learned some interesting facts about libraries: 1. Faced with budgets that limit the number of books they can order, they don't so much out-and-out ban books as avoid ordering ones that are likely to create a hubbub. 2. At least some libraries buy the newest titles, keep them for a little while, and then send them back and buy the fresh new titles.
Many questions strayed from the topic. People wanted to know more about techniques of writing YA. Most YA is written in first person. Third person can be done, but authors using it tend to tell rather than show. It is important to keep an intimate point of view, whichever approach you use.
Next, from authors Lisa Burstein and Katie Kacvinsky, I learned some surprising things about what publishers and reviewers consider acceptable today in young adult books: sex is, drugs and alcohol are not. However, Steve Brezenoff includes drugs and alcohol, as well as cussing in his YA novel, Brooklyn, Burning. A writer must be true to the characters. The writers also pointed out that teens always feel like they have a spotlight on them. Yes, I remember that self-consciousness well!
I'm getting increasingly tired and it's getting fairly close to the time I should get ready, so I'll gloss over most of the next talk I went to, featuring Steve Brezenoff and Inara Scott. I was very glad I went to this, though, because it was a great relief to hear from successful published writers who don't follow all those rules they tell you you have to do: Brezenoff doesn't write every day. Inara says you don't have to. She writes in spurts like me! At last, I have been validated! She said, "If the passion's not there it's okay to take a break." As a pin I inherited from my mother says: Screw guilt.
There is, it was said, a huge crossover between young adults (up to age 21) and adults--about half and half. Understandably, then, there is more sex and violence in YA today than there used to be. Parents concerned about what their children read can ask booksellers and librarians about books appropriate to their ages, and when the youths liked a book they can ask for similar titles.
It was pure enjoyment listening to Ray Rhamey read from The Vampire Kitty-Cat Chronicles. Told from the undead tomcat's point of view, it is funny and takes into account a lot of practical matters that vampires might have to deal with. I absolutely had to buy it. I confess my mind wandered as Rhamey read from two of his other books and I didn't get interested in them, but afterward I ran to the bookseller's table, bought the last copy of Vampire Kitty available, and ran to get the author to sign it for me.
I heard a new term from two different writers, the second one explaining what it means. A pacer is a writer who doesn't plot. Rhamey writes to see what happens. He wrote the kitty story online at first, something I did for a while with one of my vampire characters. That character, by keeping his own journal, seemed to invent himself; he developed in a matter of months while others have taken years.
The final panel was about sidekicks, or secondary characters. A sidekick isn't necessarily the protagonist's best friend. The sidekick is almost always of the same sex, but there are exceptions. There can also be more than one of them. Sidekicks can be a contradiction of the main character, to keep things in balance. A panelist gave the example of Don Quixote's Sancho Panzo. The character may be an externalization of the protagonist so he isn't talking to himself; the sidekick can be either antagonistic or agreeing.
For my novel-in-progress, Blood of the Willing, I like to throw my protagonist Mary together with her cantankerous and humorous friend Darrell for contrast in personality and in views toward how to handle the problem the book poses. Darrell, the traditionalist, thinks vampires are purely evil undead monsters that should all be killed. Mary finds herself taking a different view and approach. Either way they choose, both approaches have serious prices to pay.
I think I have finally said all I want to say about yesterday's half of the book fair. Tomorrow is here, that is to say it is 5:33 a.m., and I have to "get up" in less than half an hour. I pray I will have an energetic day in spite of my lack of sleep. I look forward to my workshop on starting a series.
Glitches and Vampires and Blogs, Oh My!
Tonight I tried to add a few things to my basic profile information: My new blog address (though I'll keep this one going, too, with a different emphasis), and the news about my earning my editing certificate (see previous blog entry). Goodreads wouldn't let me save the changes because, it said, my Influence list was too long. I hadn't even changed my Influences list. I hadn't even touched it. And no matter what I did, I got the same message. I had to give up making the changes. I'm reminded of a shirt I once had (until it got stolen). It said "Computer Wizard and the Glitch." The Glitch was a little monster sitting on the wizard's shoulder.
Speaking of monsters, my friend Francis Franklin let me know about a contest (or it was originally a contest; I don't think now that it has winners, unless everyone nominated is a winner) called the Vampire Lover Blog Award. People were asked, If you could ask a vampire one thing, what would it be? Actually, some people submitted more than one question, but all 29 questions submitted are available to choose from by any vampire who wishes to respond by picking and answering 11. Being a writer of vampire stories, I was immediately interested, and I submitted a question and told Francis my Carletta was aching to talk. Soon I had four vampires lined up and wrote all their interviews in Word files. But someone was missing. Ah,then I remembered, the new kid on the block. I will post them all in the order I wrote them--but not on this blog, because it won't let me attach special images to my blog, and it's part of the rules to post the logo of the contest on your blog. So I started a new blog on Wordpress.com. Here it is, with 11 things about myself to start and then my first interview with a vampire: robinlayneauthor
If you want to join in the fun of the contest, see vampireloverblogaward
(I hope those links work. Writing them in code is a pain.)
Speaking of monsters, my friend Francis Franklin let me know about a contest (or it was originally a contest; I don't think now that it has winners, unless everyone nominated is a winner) called the Vampire Lover Blog Award. People were asked, If you could ask a vampire one thing, what would it be? Actually, some people submitted more than one question, but all 29 questions submitted are available to choose from by any vampire who wishes to respond by picking and answering 11. Being a writer of vampire stories, I was immediately interested, and I submitted a question and told Francis my Carletta was aching to talk. Soon I had four vampires lined up and wrote all their interviews in Word files. But someone was missing. Ah,then I remembered, the new kid on the block. I will post them all in the order I wrote them--but not on this blog, because it won't let me attach special images to my blog, and it's part of the rules to post the logo of the contest on your blog. So I started a new blog on Wordpress.com. Here it is, with 11 things about myself to start and then my first interview with a vampire: robinlayneauthor
If you want to join in the fun of the contest, see vampireloverblogaward
(I hope those links work. Writing them in code is a pain.)
Persectives on Youthful Beauty
When people learn I’m writing vampire fiction, many say, “Good for you, that’s a very popular subject right now.” And they’re right. Vampire books abound, you can take your pick of vampire shows and movies, rock artists sing about them, and the web abounds with them.
Why are people so interested in vampires today?
One reason is that the vampire holds time still, freezing youth in its place. The fountain of youth holds such an appeal that some people, fictional or real, will pay any price for it—even blood. Even their souls.
Read the rest on my other blog:
The Vampire's Lure of Youthful Beauty
The blog post introduced here was inspired by the blog of someone writing something quite different from my vampire series. I am very familiar with her soon-to-be released science fiction novel, "Never Again," because I have the wonderful fortune of being its editor.
While reading submissions soon after joining the staff of Barking Rain Press, I fell in love with Heather Starsong's manuscript. Written in poetic prose, her charming story of an 80-year-old woman transformed by compassionate extra-terrestrials. It made me cry, and still does. I told the publisher I wanted to represent it, so I have been working with Heather on every stage of the process. We are wrapping up the copyediting today. We await the cover art, and in July we bring in the fresh eyes of a proofreader to help us catch any last-minute mistakes.
The book is slated to come out this August. Here is the link to Heather's information about it:
HeatherStarsong.com/NeverAgain.
And here are her reflections about youthful beauty, which inspired my own post on my vampire series blog:
The Lure of Youthful Beauty
Beauty is Dangerous
Beauty is Power
Why are people so interested in vampires today?
One reason is that the vampire holds time still, freezing youth in its place. The fountain of youth holds such an appeal that some people, fictional or real, will pay any price for it—even blood. Even their souls.
Read the rest on my other blog:
The Vampire's Lure of Youthful Beauty
The blog post introduced here was inspired by the blog of someone writing something quite different from my vampire series. I am very familiar with her soon-to-be released science fiction novel, "Never Again," because I have the wonderful fortune of being its editor.
While reading submissions soon after joining the staff of Barking Rain Press, I fell in love with Heather Starsong's manuscript. Written in poetic prose, her charming story of an 80-year-old woman transformed by compassionate extra-terrestrials. It made me cry, and still does. I told the publisher I wanted to represent it, so I have been working with Heather on every stage of the process. We are wrapping up the copyediting today. We await the cover art, and in July we bring in the fresh eyes of a proofreader to help us catch any last-minute mistakes.
The book is slated to come out this August. Here is the link to Heather's information about it:
HeatherStarsong.com/NeverAgain.
And here are her reflections about youthful beauty, which inspired my own post on my vampire series blog:
The Lure of Youthful Beauty
Beauty is Dangerous
Beauty is Power
Never Again--at least this year--can you get such wonderful books at such prices
In my last post, I told you how excited I was to be editing Heather Starsong's "Never Again," a beautiful science fiction approach to the theme of the fountain of youth. The book is done, and you can get it for half off this month--and here it is the last of the month! I am so sorry to be let you know this late in time. Everything's been happening. Now I am still getting over being sick, but I'm doing this so you can take advantage of Barking Rain Press's 4th Anniversary Offer. (I tried to put a picture of the book on here, but I couldn't find it by title and the program doesn't allow me to use the ISBN.) You can get half off on any of Barking Rain Press's books when you use the code BRP4YEAR when ordering any version from their website or the electronic version anywhere.
Secondly, I want to tell you about another great book from Barking Rain that I had the privilege of working on--this time as a co-editor. It's called "The Stage," by Catherine Russell--a new twist on the vampire romance genre that has the capability to be a bestseller. And it's the first in a series. I'll tell you more here when I'm feeling better, but you can read recommendations on my website, writingthatsings.com and order them on BRP's site: for "Never Again," BarkingRainPress.org/NeverAgain
--and for "The Stage," BarkingRainPress.org/TheStage
Secondly, I want to tell you about another great book from Barking Rain that I had the privilege of working on--this time as a co-editor. It's called "The Stage," by Catherine Russell--a new twist on the vampire romance genre that has the capability to be a bestseller. And it's the first in a series. I'll tell you more here when I'm feeling better, but you can read recommendations on my website, writingthatsings.com and order them on BRP's site: for "Never Again," BarkingRainPress.org/NeverAgain
--and for "The Stage," BarkingRainPress.org/TheStage
New Addition to my Vampire Interviews
In 2013, a friend on this site, Francis Franklin, started The Vampire Lover Blog Award--a chance for people to write the questions they were dying to ask vampires. Bloggers like me let their vampires out to respond to 11 questions of their (or the blogger's) choice. Because we were expected to include the nice graphic for the "award" with the blog posts, and Goodreads doesn't have an option for a separate pictures on blog posts, I started a second blog on Wordpress, Robin Layne, Author: Welcome to the AVS. I had five vampire characters answer the most appropriate 11 of the questions asked, including the one I submitted, in separate interviews that August. But some of my vamps could provide interesting answers to more than 11 of the questions, and, inspired by an interview Francis wrote, I decided to let two of these characters answer the rest of the questions in a descriptive scene instead of just quoting the questions and having the vamp simply answer each in written form. The setting for the dual interview is a Starbucks. I'm the uneasy interviewer, and the vampires, Luke and Carletta, don't like each other. In the interview posted on October 3, 2013, Luke helped interview the 16-year-old beauty Carletta--using psychic manipulation and bribery to get her to answer honestly questions she wanted to avoid. We left the post with the promise that Carletta would help interview Luke next. Now, after 2 years and over 5 months, the I have at last finished and posted Luke's second interview! And in the interim, guess what? Several MORE questions were posted to the Vampire Lover's Blog Award site. So Carletta had to answer those along with Luke.
Please consider all the time this literary meal has been on the loving backburner and go enjoy At Last--Luke Answers the Rest of the Questions!
I had a lot of fun writing it, and every project I do with my characters helps me know them better, adding to the depth of the books I've been working on since about 2000. It will be a whole series (AVS:The Anti-Vampirism Society). I'm thinking of 6 books at this point. Later, I'll post notes on what it's like to envision and put together a series of novels. I'm learning as I go along. It's harder than I thought it would be, and I'm taking longer than most writers seem to. But why boast about how LITTLE time it takes to write books, when life increases the meaning and skill that go into them?
I think you'll enjoy the whole blog, if you haven't read the other parts yet.
Please consider all the time this literary meal has been on the loving backburner and go enjoy At Last--Luke Answers the Rest of the Questions!
I had a lot of fun writing it, and every project I do with my characters helps me know them better, adding to the depth of the books I've been working on since about 2000. It will be a whole series (AVS:The Anti-Vampirism Society). I'm thinking of 6 books at this point. Later, I'll post notes on what it's like to envision and put together a series of novels. I'm learning as I go along. It's harder than I thought it would be, and I'm taking longer than most writers seem to. But why boast about how LITTLE time it takes to write books, when life increases the meaning and skill that go into them?
I think you'll enjoy the whole blog, if you haven't read the other parts yet.
Why Vampires? In Defense of a Dark Symbol
I wrote the following article for “Robin’s Nest,” my web domain of “Den of Insanity” (later called “Artisan’s Republic”) many years ago. I have made just a few changes to update the progress of the manuscripts in progress. Today the issue it discusses is more pertinent than ever. Picture, if you will, a mob of villagers armed with torches and pitchforks, chasing a “monster” down in the dark of the night. The monster? A writer of fiction.
The writer takes a stand in front of the old, creaking windmill. This is what she says—or tries to, before they cast her down from her pedestal and burn her to death:
Some of my Christian friends don't seem to understand what I am doing in writing my AVS fiction series. It's true we say people don't understand us if they disagree with us, but most of the people who disapprove of my writing about vampires haven't even heard me explain my story and its purpose, much less read a word of it. All they have to do is hear the word “vampire,” and they think I'm doing something terrible. One of them went so far as to inform me, “Don't you know God doesn't want you to write about vampires?” It's interesting that she knows better than I do what God wants me to do, especially when I have been working on this story for years.
Why do I care what people think? These people are my brothers and sisters in the faith. I need their prayers and encouragement over a work whose main idea, I believe, was inspired by the Lord himself. It's hard enough that this is a crossover novel that may be hard to place with a publisher. I need all the moral support I can get. And I love talking about my writing because, second to God Himself, it is my greatest passion.
It has been hard having my various subject matters rejected by fellow Christians over the years, anyway. Fantasy? No, it has to be realistic. Romance? That's naughty. Do any characters cuss? Do any characters have sex? Even think or talk about sex? Then forget it! Some people—not all—are quick to condemn everything they possibly can. They seem to think it is their ministry to discourage people like me.
My AVS series has a few scattered cuss words in the mouths of my characters. Shocked? I cuss myself sometimes, mostly when I'm really angry. God hasn't hit me with a lightning bolt yet. I know that doesn't prove He approves, but I just don't feel it's such a terrible sin to let each character talk in the way that is natural for him or her. I think it would bring more attention to cussing if I censored them each time by always saying “she cursed.” There is a meaning to their words; it's not just cussing for no reason. They are not the kinds of people who cuss all the time so that their words lose meaning. These characters do not start as Christians, but the stories do have a Christian message. When a few of my characters get involved sexually, it is not on camera, as it were. By letting them do that, I am also letting them be themselves, not condoning their activities but instead showing some possible consequences. What is wrong with presenting human beings realistically? Because of the existence of vampires in my stories, they are a type of fantasy, but when I write fantasy, I work all the harder to keep all mundane details as mundane as possible, to create the illusion that such an event could really happen and to express the realities of human life.
What is it that bothers many Christians about vampires? I'm not entirely sure. For one thing, I think these people make assumptions. Does my writing glorify evil? No. The Bible speaks of evil, including Satan himself. It doesn't condone evil but instructs in fighting against it. I'm doing the same thing, and in a similar way—through the lives of imperfect people who struggle with difficult issues. Am I claiming vampires are real? No. There are real people who drink blood but not who grow fangs like dogs and live on blood indefinitely. And there are still some people today who believe the undead exist (like Montegue Summers, who wrote books about vampires), but by writing fiction that uses some of these ideas I am not proclaiming my own belief in vampires any more than Tolkien claimed he believed in the reality of elves. My Christian friends may assume that I am trying to copy Anne Rice or some other vampire writer. I couldn't even if I wanted to. I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't think it was a fresh approach for a worthy cause. Least of all, I'm not copying any vampire movies.
Disclaimer: It is possible to dwell upon evil too much, and I have sometimes done so while writing about my vampires. It harmed my mental, spiritual, and even physical health. I learned from that and sought out greater balance in my life. But you can't write a story about the battle between good and evil without some evil in it. And what subject is more worthy than good verses evil?
I didn't think of vampires as a subject for some of my writing until a certain dream suggested a particular story—the one that started it all. But the more I've thought about it, and the more I've researched the subject, I've found many good reasons to write about vampires. This being represents a lot of things that touch us at a deep level, and it can be used to teach us a good deal about life, death, and ourselves.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Count said, “The blood is the life.” This quote comes from the Bible. God required the Israelites to drain the blood out of all their meat and give it to him as an offering. He did not want them to partake of the blood of animals. This prohibition shows the vampire as particularly evil in a tragic way; he is driven to break this law and cannot find sustenance any other way.
Jesus said, “He who has the son has life; he who has not the son has not life.” What was he referring to? He spoke of people who did not believe in him as being “dead in their sins.” He said that to enter the kingdom of God, one had to be “born again,” or “born from above.” If, as he said, the road to life is narrow and the road to destruction wide, most of the human race is spiritually dead. That is not an idea that most people choose to believe. Why, then, are undead creatures such a popular fiction, and why do many act as if vampires are real? Could it be related to some innate sense of not being fully alive?
Traditionally, the vampire is undead. He is a corpse animated either by some altered form of the original soul or by a demon. This is a gruesome counterfeit of the Resurrection. Christ is the first example of what the resurrected righteous will be like in the end. Most people today are probably not aware that God promises a physical existence beyond the grave. But I think we all have a craving for immortality. In a world devoid of belief in an end-time Resurrection, the lure of immortality attracts people to the vampire. Why not let them learn that it is those who are born again spiritually, not those fictional beings who are re-animated supernaturally, who will live forever?
The vampire represents a neediness that takes and never gives. He is appetite run amok... guilt, addiction of any kind, seduction, rape, violence, and murder. He is the bitterness that lingers in the victims of such crimes and urges them to be too much like their abusers. He is the darker side of all of us, something so bad that we sometimes cannot face him except in nightmare or horror story. In the largest application of the idea, vampirism is sin. In a sense, we are all vampires.
If God doesn't want anyone to write about sin, then why did he inspire the Bible?
If all I wrote about was the dark side, from its own point of view, there would be reason to question it. Yet even the noted Christian writer C.S. Lewis' famous novel The Screwtape Letters used a demon's point of view to cleverly communicate Christian truths. My book doesn't even dwell on the darkness as much as his does. Question if you will, but don't come to conclusions based on nothing but the word “vampire.” That would be as shallow as a vampire who shies away from a cross without any knowledge of what the Cross means.
For you readers of “Den of Insanity, Robin's Nest,” I write this. For my Christian friends, I have fallen into a more comfortable tactic. Now if they ask what my story is about, I tell them it's about a teenager who has prophetic dreams. I get glowing encouragement for that. And really, Mary Lodge needs more attention than her enemy, anyway. A commentator on the “Blade” series complained that in other vampire stories the vampire is the most interesting character but always ends up with a stake in the heart. I want my main character to be at least as interesting as her nemesis. People do like Carletta already. Whether she ends up with a stake in her heart is more than I will reveal here. The novels will also reveal more spiritual truths than I have in this article. Hope you will read the books when they’re finished and published! And if these books are not your cup of tea... at least pray for the many people who will develop a relationship with the living God through them. The world is a large and varied place, and God is much bigger. There is no room for fighting against those who serve Him in a little different way from you.
The writer takes a stand in front of the old, creaking windmill. This is what she says—or tries to, before they cast her down from her pedestal and burn her to death:
Some of my Christian friends don't seem to understand what I am doing in writing my AVS fiction series. It's true we say people don't understand us if they disagree with us, but most of the people who disapprove of my writing about vampires haven't even heard me explain my story and its purpose, much less read a word of it. All they have to do is hear the word “vampire,” and they think I'm doing something terrible. One of them went so far as to inform me, “Don't you know God doesn't want you to write about vampires?” It's interesting that she knows better than I do what God wants me to do, especially when I have been working on this story for years.
Why do I care what people think? These people are my brothers and sisters in the faith. I need their prayers and encouragement over a work whose main idea, I believe, was inspired by the Lord himself. It's hard enough that this is a crossover novel that may be hard to place with a publisher. I need all the moral support I can get. And I love talking about my writing because, second to God Himself, it is my greatest passion.
It has been hard having my various subject matters rejected by fellow Christians over the years, anyway. Fantasy? No, it has to be realistic. Romance? That's naughty. Do any characters cuss? Do any characters have sex? Even think or talk about sex? Then forget it! Some people—not all—are quick to condemn everything they possibly can. They seem to think it is their ministry to discourage people like me.
My AVS series has a few scattered cuss words in the mouths of my characters. Shocked? I cuss myself sometimes, mostly when I'm really angry. God hasn't hit me with a lightning bolt yet. I know that doesn't prove He approves, but I just don't feel it's such a terrible sin to let each character talk in the way that is natural for him or her. I think it would bring more attention to cussing if I censored them each time by always saying “she cursed.” There is a meaning to their words; it's not just cussing for no reason. They are not the kinds of people who cuss all the time so that their words lose meaning. These characters do not start as Christians, but the stories do have a Christian message. When a few of my characters get involved sexually, it is not on camera, as it were. By letting them do that, I am also letting them be themselves, not condoning their activities but instead showing some possible consequences. What is wrong with presenting human beings realistically? Because of the existence of vampires in my stories, they are a type of fantasy, but when I write fantasy, I work all the harder to keep all mundane details as mundane as possible, to create the illusion that such an event could really happen and to express the realities of human life.
What is it that bothers many Christians about vampires? I'm not entirely sure. For one thing, I think these people make assumptions. Does my writing glorify evil? No. The Bible speaks of evil, including Satan himself. It doesn't condone evil but instructs in fighting against it. I'm doing the same thing, and in a similar way—through the lives of imperfect people who struggle with difficult issues. Am I claiming vampires are real? No. There are real people who drink blood but not who grow fangs like dogs and live on blood indefinitely. And there are still some people today who believe the undead exist (like Montegue Summers, who wrote books about vampires), but by writing fiction that uses some of these ideas I am not proclaiming my own belief in vampires any more than Tolkien claimed he believed in the reality of elves. My Christian friends may assume that I am trying to copy Anne Rice or some other vampire writer. I couldn't even if I wanted to. I wouldn't be writing this if I didn't think it was a fresh approach for a worthy cause. Least of all, I'm not copying any vampire movies.
Disclaimer: It is possible to dwell upon evil too much, and I have sometimes done so while writing about my vampires. It harmed my mental, spiritual, and even physical health. I learned from that and sought out greater balance in my life. But you can't write a story about the battle between good and evil without some evil in it. And what subject is more worthy than good verses evil?
I didn't think of vampires as a subject for some of my writing until a certain dream suggested a particular story—the one that started it all. But the more I've thought about it, and the more I've researched the subject, I've found many good reasons to write about vampires. This being represents a lot of things that touch us at a deep level, and it can be used to teach us a good deal about life, death, and ourselves.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the Count said, “The blood is the life.” This quote comes from the Bible. God required the Israelites to drain the blood out of all their meat and give it to him as an offering. He did not want them to partake of the blood of animals. This prohibition shows the vampire as particularly evil in a tragic way; he is driven to break this law and cannot find sustenance any other way.
Jesus said, “He who has the son has life; he who has not the son has not life.” What was he referring to? He spoke of people who did not believe in him as being “dead in their sins.” He said that to enter the kingdom of God, one had to be “born again,” or “born from above.” If, as he said, the road to life is narrow and the road to destruction wide, most of the human race is spiritually dead. That is not an idea that most people choose to believe. Why, then, are undead creatures such a popular fiction, and why do many act as if vampires are real? Could it be related to some innate sense of not being fully alive?
Traditionally, the vampire is undead. He is a corpse animated either by some altered form of the original soul or by a demon. This is a gruesome counterfeit of the Resurrection. Christ is the first example of what the resurrected righteous will be like in the end. Most people today are probably not aware that God promises a physical existence beyond the grave. But I think we all have a craving for immortality. In a world devoid of belief in an end-time Resurrection, the lure of immortality attracts people to the vampire. Why not let them learn that it is those who are born again spiritually, not those fictional beings who are re-animated supernaturally, who will live forever?
The vampire represents a neediness that takes and never gives. He is appetite run amok... guilt, addiction of any kind, seduction, rape, violence, and murder. He is the bitterness that lingers in the victims of such crimes and urges them to be too much like their abusers. He is the darker side of all of us, something so bad that we sometimes cannot face him except in nightmare or horror story. In the largest application of the idea, vampirism is sin. In a sense, we are all vampires.
If God doesn't want anyone to write about sin, then why did he inspire the Bible?
If all I wrote about was the dark side, from its own point of view, there would be reason to question it. Yet even the noted Christian writer C.S. Lewis' famous novel The Screwtape Letters used a demon's point of view to cleverly communicate Christian truths. My book doesn't even dwell on the darkness as much as his does. Question if you will, but don't come to conclusions based on nothing but the word “vampire.” That would be as shallow as a vampire who shies away from a cross without any knowledge of what the Cross means.
For you readers of “Den of Insanity, Robin's Nest,” I write this. For my Christian friends, I have fallen into a more comfortable tactic. Now if they ask what my story is about, I tell them it's about a teenager who has prophetic dreams. I get glowing encouragement for that. And really, Mary Lodge needs more attention than her enemy, anyway. A commentator on the “Blade” series complained that in other vampire stories the vampire is the most interesting character but always ends up with a stake in the heart. I want my main character to be at least as interesting as her nemesis. People do like Carletta already. Whether she ends up with a stake in her heart is more than I will reveal here. The novels will also reveal more spiritual truths than I have in this article. Hope you will read the books when they’re finished and published! And if these books are not your cup of tea... at least pray for the many people who will develop a relationship with the living God through them. The world is a large and varied place, and God is much bigger. There is no room for fighting against those who serve Him in a little different way from you.
I Finished Draft 1, Book 1, of My YA Vampire Series!
Last month an email lured me to join National Novel Writing Month Camp for April because NaNoWriMo added a reasonable variation to its original expectation that people write a fresh novel in a month (and that month initially was November): actually FINISHING a book you started! It was high time I completed my draft of a YA vampire novel I started about 20 years ago and stop sniveling about it in any way, shape, or form.
It was an easier goal by far than what a lot of people set (and sometimes reach, amazingly!) The only barrier for the month was Easter. I could handle that, and I did. I estimated the word count I would need, based on the chapters I planned and had partially written from where I last left off until the end. 6 chapters. Join some other NaNo writers for mutual support, buckle down, and write at least X number of words every weekday, and I'd get there.
I actually beat the expected word count without finishing the novel. I'd been wrong about how much text would be necessary to cover the subject matter. The website awarded me a winner badge on my profile, gave me a link to a winner's certificate, and other links to products they thought I'd be interested. I made another estimate and re-set my goal.
The process ended up requiring 8 chapters instead of 6, and a second adjustment to the word count. But on Friday, April 23, 2021, I typed END on the final page.
I have a 401 double-spaced pages in Times New Roman 12 point font. To record the length more accurately, I have written 99,073 words.
I thought it was too long for YA, but another writer assured me it wasn't. YA, he said, is typically between 70k and 110k. Non-YA is 80k-130k. By length alone, what I have could fit into either category. In future edits, I will trim redundancies and other lengthening errors and may even cut out scenes I will find unnecessary, but I may add more description, so it's hard to say what the final length will be. But I'm feeling good about how my subject matter formed. SO glad to have it all down and not have to make any excuses to anyone!
I had to celebrate! So I arranged to go to a fancy restaurant (actually open of dining!) with a friend, my offspring, and offspring's roommate. That food was great, and it was such a nice treat for us al. I got all dressed up in a black, jeweled dress and a fancy red hat with black trim and some gothy jewelry.
Another wonderful thing today happened as a surprise: an successful author of similar subject matter who shares my Christian faith responded to my comment on her Facebook account and sent me a friend request. How wonderful of Sue Dent to talk to me about ins and outs of publishing and relate to my frustration! Thank the Lord!
It was an easier goal by far than what a lot of people set (and sometimes reach, amazingly!) The only barrier for the month was Easter. I could handle that, and I did. I estimated the word count I would need, based on the chapters I planned and had partially written from where I last left off until the end. 6 chapters. Join some other NaNo writers for mutual support, buckle down, and write at least X number of words every weekday, and I'd get there.
I actually beat the expected word count without finishing the novel. I'd been wrong about how much text would be necessary to cover the subject matter. The website awarded me a winner badge on my profile, gave me a link to a winner's certificate, and other links to products they thought I'd be interested. I made another estimate and re-set my goal.
The process ended up requiring 8 chapters instead of 6, and a second adjustment to the word count. But on Friday, April 23, 2021, I typed END on the final page.
I have a 401 double-spaced pages in Times New Roman 12 point font. To record the length more accurately, I have written 99,073 words.
I thought it was too long for YA, but another writer assured me it wasn't. YA, he said, is typically between 70k and 110k. Non-YA is 80k-130k. By length alone, what I have could fit into either category. In future edits, I will trim redundancies and other lengthening errors and may even cut out scenes I will find unnecessary, but I may add more description, so it's hard to say what the final length will be. But I'm feeling good about how my subject matter formed. SO glad to have it all down and not have to make any excuses to anyone!
I had to celebrate! So I arranged to go to a fancy restaurant (actually open of dining!) with a friend, my offspring, and offspring's roommate. That food was great, and it was such a nice treat for us al. I got all dressed up in a black, jeweled dress and a fancy red hat with black trim and some gothy jewelry.
Another wonderful thing today happened as a surprise: an successful author of similar subject matter who shares my Christian faith responded to my comment on her Facebook account and sent me a friend request. How wonderful of Sue Dent to talk to me about ins and outs of publishing and relate to my frustration! Thank the Lord!
Want to read more about finishing my novel draft? Or about NaNoWriMo?
Take a gander at my website's blog, "The Writer's Layne." Here's a link: An Accomplishment Worth Celebrating--Much Thanks to NaNoWriMo
My website, WritingThatSings.com, introduces my editing services and includes lists and samples of my published writing. Please let me know if you want help with your own writing! You can use the form on the website or just email me at [email protected]. You are also welcome to comment here or on my website, or to email me if you have any reactions to my writings or want to talk shop.
My website, WritingThatSings.com, introduces my editing services and includes lists and samples of my published writing. Please let me know if you want help with your own writing! You can use the form on the website or just email me at [email protected]. You are also welcome to comment here or on my website, or to email me if you have any reactions to my writings or want to talk shop.
From the Red, Read Robin
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