Ceallaigh's Blog
Sean and I took in a double feature last night and came away with mixed reviews of the films we saw. Man of Steel was wonderfully science-fictional and human, full of imaginative Kryptonian technologies and glimpses at the emotional struggle of the man-who-would-be-Superman as he came into his own over many years. However, I have to point out that this is the third Superman movie of the last decade and the sixth of my lifetime, and since the 1978 Superman with Christopher Reeve there have been few blockbuster treatments of superheroines. I was pleased with Amy Adams' Lois Lane, who was more determined than plucky, but my opinion of superhero love interests is colored by my frustration at the lack of comic book films that feature female leads.
Here are the promised links to resources for cultural worldbuilding. Best of luck in your writing projects!
Links
Patricia Wrede's Fantasy Worldbuilding Questions
Building a world: Patricia Wrede's blog
The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell
The Abhorsen Trilogy Box Set, by Garth Nix
...give up.
The latest Clarksworld Magazine editorial is an encouraging one for self-published writers. In it, Neil Clarke details some of the frustration the magazine faced at its inception; authors who wouldn't submit to online magazines, reviewers who refused to consider the magazine's stories, etc. He likens this early reception to the frustration independent authors presently face as they strive for respect in the marketplace and writes:
Here are the promised links to resources for physical worldbuilding. Best of luck in your writing projects!
Links
World Builders Home Page
Black plants 'could grow' on exoplanets with two suns
World-building and ConLangs
Pre-draft Research Bibliography
I've been thinking a great deal about what Paganism means to me and more directly about the relevance of the term 'Pagan' as a descriptor of my spiritual life. Paganism is a broad umbrella that shades a variety of budding faith paths, from Wicca to Aztec Reconstructionism (a blossom I find deeply troubling, given my recent research into Aztec religious practices). It boasts a host of non-Christian Gods and a burgeoning repository of historical, pseudo-historical, reconstructed and reinvented religious practices, including many that non-Pagans would call magical (ritual, spell-craft, tarot and the like).
I picked up an orphaned gosling in Margaree Forks today on behalf of Hope for Wildlife, and s/he is staying the night with us!
Here are some interesting gosling facts:
- Goslings can't regulate their own body temperature, so they need help staying warm. Hot water bottles or heating pads (on a low setting) wrapped in a towel are great for this. Make sure the gosling has a place to go if the heat becomes too warm! I like keeping a towel and heating pad in half of the gosling's space and a towel without a heating pad in the other half.
- Goslings like to eat chopped up grass and duck grower or chicken mash. Stay away from oatmeal. It expands a bit much in their little bellies. They also need plenty of water to drink. You can put some duck grower or chicken mash in the water, if you like. They like that.
Congratulations to Patricia Crosby, Renee' Booker and Kurt Bembridge, winners of The Ruin of Beltany Ring Goodreads giveaway! Your books will go out in tomorrow morning's mail from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.
Many thanks to everyone who entered!
The Kindle promotion went really well! 161 people downloaded The Ruin of Beltany Ring on Beltane (Get it? Beltany Ring? Beltane?), and nearly a hundred have entered the Goodreads giveaway so far. Not bad for a wee chapbook out there in the world!
Greetings Everyone,
Welcome to Issue #7 of my quarterly newsletter, posted to csmaccath.com and e-mailed to subscribers on Beltane 2013.
It's great when a story you've written years ago finds new friends. So is the case with "From Our Minds to Yours", which appeared in The Pagan Anthology of Short Fiction: 13 Prize Winning Tales.
Ally Leja of Geek Inked Magazine has written a thoughtful discussion of the issues raised by the story and given it a positive review.