Debbienho !

  Ooh, I make it sound so fancy. I watched a YouTube video.  (Although, in all fairness, a commenter under said video said he couldn’t believe it was free.)  It was a lecture, about 45 minutes long, and I’ll link it here so you can watch the whole thing. (Ms Kowal’s a great writer and teacher, so even if you’re already a short story expert it wouldn’t hurt to watch.) Read this bite-size version before you go there, though, and write along if you will.   Let’s talk about MICE There are four types of stories:  Milieu ( M ) - A character’s trying to get from Point A to Point B. Between those two points are a bunch of difficulties that make the story.  Character enters → Difficulty → Character exits Inquiry ( I ) - The character wants to figure something out.  Question → No answers for you! → Answer  Character ( C ) - This is an internal struggle. The character wants to know something about himself, or change something about himself.  Cha...

  That is the question. I’m not sure when this blog became a quarterly. Because how am I only updating this for the first time in over three months? Sorry that I’m asking you. I had to ask someone. Photo Credit: Kaboompics, Pexels. Now that we’ve gotten the apology of my inconsistency out of the way (🙈), let’s celebrate!  I’m 24! Woohoo! In the voice of Liesl from The Sound of Music, ‘I am twenty-four going on twenty-five!’ Yes, I’ve been twenty-four for a few years now, but let us concentrate on important things.  In slightly less incredible news, I set a goal to read 25 books this year. Thus far, I’ve read 24. It’s not because I’m disciplined, or that I’ve got so much time on my hands. It’s just proof of how much traffic I have to sit through to and from work. People have got to learn to stop buying cars and just…walk! The air would be so much cleaner.  As is my habit, when I read a good book, I’ve got to talk about it, give the mandem something to add to their TB...