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Pirates! and a free sample

International Talk Like a Pirate DayAarrrgh! It’s offic’ly Talk Like a Pirate Day! And in honor, we’re goin’ t’ look at a burnin’ question: Why d’ our pirates talk like this?

Of course, thar aren’t a lot o’ recorded pirate speeches. Even court records o’ tried and convicted pirates don’t capture t’ dialect o’ t’ accused. What we think o’ as “pirate speak” developed rel’tively recently in modern media.

Pirates! and a free sample

Teaser Tuesday: A Short Walk Home

Today’s Teaser Tuesday comes from the short story, “A Short Walk Home.” I don’t know why I even reacted; it was just a rustle, probably an opossum or raccoon. But I became newly aware I was beside a corn field, not soybeans, and I couldn’t see a thing in… Teaser Tuesday: A Short Walk Home

I’m very visual. Except when I’m not.

English: Drummer James Roddick of the 92nd Gor...
Drummer James Roddick of the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, defending Lieutenant Menzies during hand-to-hand fighting in Kandahar, 1880, signed and dated ‘ W. Skeoch Cumming/1894’ (lower left), pencil and watercolour, 28 x 42½ in. (71.1 x 107.9 cm.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

There are two reactions I get from pretty nearly all my beta readers and critique partners, regardless of the story:

“I don’t know exactly what your characters look like; don’t you ever describe them?”

and,

“Holy smokes, your action scenes are really detailed.”

These may be phrased in various ways, but the general gist is almost always there. And it’s a problem for me.

I’m very visual. Except when I’m not.

Teaser Tuesday — Torrent

English: Arms of the Mercedarians. Català: Esc...
Arms of the Mercedarians (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today’s #TeaserTuesday comes from “Torrent,” a science fiction short story.

Merced… Mercen… What had been the word Captain Trafalgar used?

Do you mean to search for Mercedarians?

She answered in the affirmative.

Teaser Tuesday — Torrent

Teaser Tuesday — Shard & Shield

Oil on Canvas
The Fallen Angel, by Alexandre Cabanel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Another short excerpt for #TeaserTuesday! This one’s from Shard & Shield, which is today’s project anyway.

Ariana sipped at her drink and traced a finger through the condensation on the table, drawing loose geometric designs. Idly she asked, “Did you know some ancient art includes winged men as icons of beauty? Not quite Ryuven, but wings, anyway.”

Teaser Tuesday — Shard & Shield

The First Day of Kitsune – a folk tale

For the First Day of Kitsune, I’d like to share one of the oldest and most common folk stories about a kitsune. It’s a tale of a fox wife, similar to Western stories of fairy brides, and it features many of the key points in the kitsune legend.

Fox women (kitsune in human form). Woodcut by Bertha Boynton Lum, 1908. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Fox women (kitsune in human form). Woodcut by Bertha Boynton Lum, 1908. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s also a story the village girl Murame hears in Kitsune-Mochi, which prompts her to do some deep thinking….

The First Day of Kitsune – a folk tale

Twelve Days of Kitsune!

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays — but it wasn’t exactly popular during Heian and Kamakura eras in Japan, for obvious reasons. So here on the blog we’re going to celebrate Twelve Days of Kitsune, and each post we’ll discover a new folk tale, period foods, or… Twelve Days of Kitsune!