Skip to content

Frozen: What Went Wrong

Okay, I’m gonna pull some hate for this one, I know. But.

Disney’s Frozen could have been amazing, but its script got in the way and made it, not a glittering glorious castle of ice, but that splashy muddy sludge left after snow melts. It had good moments, but given its individual parts, the sum should have been much better.

Vilhelm Pedersen illustration.
Gerda in The Snow Queen, Vilhelm Pedersen illustration. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m not even talking about the internet rage at the de-feminizing of The Snow Queen, a fairy tale which featured a nearly entirely female cast and a girl actually rescuing a boy. I’m talking purely internal plot problems. And yeah, there’s gonna be lots of spoilers ahead, so be warned.

the West Baden angels, restored

The Angels of West Baden

Inside the atrium at the West Baden Springs Hotel.
Inside the atrium at the West Baden Springs Hotel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

You may not have heard of the West Baden hotel, which is a shame. It was built in the town of West Baden Springs, near the better-known today French Lick, and was a luxury hotel to offer the wealthy leisure and access to the natural phenomena of the area — mineral springs considered medicinal.

Today’s travelogue is a bit different, since while I’ve visited West Baden, this isn’t that trip. It’s just the necessary backdrop.

Guest Post: How to Salvage a Bad Writing Day

They happen. Some days, you just can’t squeeze out a sentence.

Maybe you just don’t have a clue what to say or how to say it today.

Maybe your brain is fried. “It’s December first,” I heard a bunch of NaNoWriMo participants say during a quiet post-November meeting. “We’re all out of words!”

Or maybe life smacks you upside the head, and we react in different ways. A few months ago, when my dog Shakespeare was diagnosed and given weeks to live, I pounded out a short story that afternoon (and it promptly sold). Last month, when I learned my dog Laev was probably coming out of remission even before her final scheduled chemo treatment, my NaNoWriMo graph flat-lined for nearly a week. It’s hard to say how things will affect us or our writing.

Bryan Cohen Author of 1,000 Creative Writing PromptsBut we need to recover and write on. So today we have a guest post from Bryan Cohen, whose new book 1,000 Creative Writing Prompts, Volume 2: More Ideas for Blogs, Scripts, Stories and More is now available on Amazon (and yes, he had a Volume 1 of 1,000 other prompts). Also, there’s a writing contest with big money, details at the bottom.

NaNoWriMo 2013 winner

I’m a Winner! NaNoWriMo 2013

NaNoWriMo 2013 winner

So I’m not gonna lie, I was a little worried about putting the widget up on the blog so you could all track my NaNoWriMo progress, but it worked out: I validated my word count at just before 4 AM on Nov 27.

Go, me!

Con Job: “Hello, my name is Laura”

Cover of "American Gods: A Novel"
American Gods:

What do you do with that cosplay idea you’ve had forever and you know you’ll probably never actually use? Write it into the novel you’re working on.

The Joys of Research – Truth or Dare

Being a writer means you get to look up all kinds of wacky stuff and pretend it’s valid work. While researching for a story, I learned that the party game we call “Truth or Dare” is actually centuries old even in its current form. In fact, per some… 

Beware of Writers

English: Beware of Bull Beware of Bull on publ...
This photo is not directly relevant to being cautious of writers. It’s just great on its own. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve said that people just passing through a hotel hosting a writers’ convention must be frequently alarmed. For example, I was sitting in the hall at my last such conference and overheard someone pleading for ideas on how to dispose of a body. “I tried burying it, but that didn’t work,” he said, “and I’ve thought about acid in a tub but it didn’t seem likely to clean up well. Can you help?”

Tiny Youkai

A quick blur of moment drew his eye — a mouse, skimming over the ground? No, a tiny youkai, galloping through the tangled grass, waving stubby arms and piping something in a shrill, unintelligible voice.

Kaworu bent toward him. “What?”

Metal split the air above his bent shoulder and struck the tree beyond. Kaworu did not waste time looking after it but made his lean a roll, dodging to one side and coming up in a crouch.

NaNoWriMo 2013: Con Job

Mystery
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s hard to shift gears; I’ve been completely immersed in old Not-Japan and focused entirely on the upcoming launch for Kitsune-Mochi. But now Kitsune-Mochi is out and I need to think about geeky fandom and murder and amateur sleuthing, because it’s November and I have a mystery to write.