Mesa Tyree – He's a MacKenna, of course they want him dead

The Theory of Ordered Colonization

John Fray’s thesis, “Theory of Ordered Colonization” received wide acclaim on Asperia, just as the scientist of that world rediscovered the trans-dimensional drive. An advanced technology lost when their world fell into chaos. Now exploration of the stars could begin anew. The Home World’s Central …

Baby Boomer Tales

https://babyboomertales.podbean.com/e/ep-159-the-tractor/ A great reminder to Never stop trying: At age 23, Tina Fey was working at a YMCA.At age 23, Oprah was fired from her first reporting job.At age 24, Stephen King was working as a janitor and living in a trailer.At age 27, Vincent …

Answers worthy of an A

Thought you’d get a kick out of this. I did. Students in an advanced Biology class were taking their mid-term exam. The last question was, ‘Name seven advantages of Mother’s Milk.’ The question was worth 70 points or none at all. One student, in particular, …

Do You Need an Editor?

I’m constantly amazed at writers who come to our writers group or any group with a story they’ve written to have it critiqued. From the first it’s easy to tell whether they’ve really serious about having others opinions or they just there to have their egos stroked. They sit …

The Adverb Crutch.

Amateur writers wind up succumbing to at least one major pitfall, the use of adverbs in dialogue tags. Adverbs are those pesky –ly words that modify verbs. For example: happily replied. said angrily. quickly asked. pensively said. In fiction, adverbs tend to weaken your writing. …

Two Bits Worth 25 Writing Tips from Fiction Authors

Writing success boils down to hard work, imagination and passion—and then some more hard work. Here are 25 writing tips from some best selling fiction authors. Print a copy to put on your desk, home office, refrigerator door, or somewhere else noticeable so you can …

5 Senses—How to Invoke Them In Your Writing (Denice Whitmore)

We all use description in our writing. We describe characters and settings, actions and reactions. Most of what we write is description of some sort. By using the 5 senses, we can broaden our descriptions from a list of attributes to an experience for our …

Your Book Cover

A popular idiom “Don’t judge a book by its cover,” might be true in an idealistic sense, but it usually refers to judging people by their appearance. There is a reality for publishers and the book industry in general. For the vast majority of readers the …

Deep POV and How it’s Used.

Deep POV is the third-person subjective taken a step beyond the normal third-person subjective. Deep POV shows your story through the eyes of one or more characters—one at a time please, avoid any head-hopping. Deep POV goes into the head and heart of a character, taking your readers beyond the …

Retired and Bored

After I retired, my wife insisted that I accompany her on her trips to Target. Unfortunately, like most men, I found shopping boring and preferred to get in and get out. Equally unfortunate, my wife is like most women – she loves to browse. Yesterday …

Leading by Example

The light turned yellow, just in front of him. The driver did the right thing and stopped at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection. A tailgating woman behind him furious she missed her chance to get through …

Conundrum

Free people are not equal. Equal people are not free. (Think this one over and over and it makes sense!)The definition of the word Conundrum: Something that is puzzling or confusing. Here are six Conundrums of socialism in the United States of America : 1. America …

Stick To Said

I started to write an article on dialogue, but in research, I found this article on the Reader’s Digest site and I could never say it better than Ms. Trupkiewicz. This is a copy of her article on dialogue. The link to the article is:http://www.writersdigest.com/editor-blogs/there-are-no-rules/keep-it-simple-keys-to-realistic-dialogue-part-ii The following …

Which of these sentences is correct

1. Winston tastes good like a cigarette should. (This is a famous ad jingle?) 2. He spends money like a drunken sailor. 3. He lied on the witness stand like one would expect a guilty person to do. 4. My cousin looks like Greta Garbo. …

The “Green thing” (Humor) First Posted 2/18/19

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment. The woman apologized to the young girland explained, “We didn’t have this ‘green thing’ …