This month’s topic for #InkRipples is fairy tales. I had planned on researching some popular retold fairy tales and sharing what I learned. Somehow the month got away from me though. So, instead, I figured I’d share two of my favorite retellings. There are so many, but I decided to go with a more popular fairy tale and one I had not heard of before. I love fairy tales in general and I love fairy tale renditions even more I think. So for the more popular one, I picked a retelling of the “Twelve Dancing Princesses” by the Brothers Grimm. Although this tale has been retold many times, I thought Heather Dixon did…
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The Joy of Revision, An #InkRipples Blog Post
This month’s topic for #InkRipples is revision. I’ll start off with a little comparison I thought of late one night. Revisions are a bit like hidden gems. With hidden gems, you have to uncover them, dig them out and polish them to see their true beauty. With a revision, you have to uncover the best way to tell the story, dig through all the extraneous words and polish the piece until the words flow together bringing the beauty of the words to life in the reader’s mind. Now on to the post. I’m torn when it comes to revision. Part of me, OK, most of me is thrilled when I actually…
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Tropes, An #InkRipples Blog Post
Most people are very familiar with tropes, even if they don’t know what the word means. To be honest, I was one of those people at the beginning of the month. I had never heard the word, but I am very familiar with themes that have been used over and over again in books. That’s basically all a trope is, a well used and well known theme. For a bit more in-depth definition and some examples, head over to Mary Waibel’s blog to see what she says about tropes. If you’re interested in reading about some favorite tropes, then head over to Kai Strand’s blog. To find out what makes some trope stories stand out as unique, read Katie…
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Are Genres For More Than Just Finding A Book? An #InkRipples post
The topic for #InkRipples this month is genres. Growing up I didn’t think about genres. If a book looked interesting, I read it. To be honest, I can’t even really say when I started to think about genres. Maybe when I worked at Borders? This happened to coincide with the time I started thinking about taking my writing more seriously and attempting to write a novel myself. But what are genres really for? For me, genres are simply a nice way to find a book to read when I’m looking for something new. I have to admit, my go to genre is fantasy. Are you surprised? I love the elements of magic and…
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Book Covers, An #InkRipples Blog Post
Last year, I spent most of my ‘writing’ time editing manuscripts for others. Although I will continue to edit, I’m making a conscious decision to actually write during my writing time this year. As part of that writing, I’ll be participating in the #InkRipples blog meme. This month’s theme is Book Covers. So here we go… Since I can remember, I’ve heard the saying, don’t judge a book by its cover. That’s exactly what I do though. Don’t you? What else is going to grab your attention when it’s sitting on the shelf with a ton of other books? Unless you know the author or are looking for the book specifically, your eyes…