By Anaea Lay
Between smart phones and Twitter, we're in an age where people love to lament our short attention spans and our inability to focus on any one thing. It seems like writers are particularly prone to this, complaining about flash games and social networking eating away at their fleeting opportunities to commit acts of fiction. They practically create fetishes for unplugging, disconnecting, going on retreat and just focusing on their precious prose. I'm the last person to sneer at anything that leads to more fabulous fiction in the world, but when it comes to the multitasking lifestyle taking over the modern age I can summon only one response: Bring it!
My personal advocacy for multitasking while writing goes back to the day I discovered that I work better with music in the background. Music was the gate-way distraction. At this point I'm so addicted that my response to business trips is excitement over all the writing I'll get done while I'm in meetings. When those stories sell, it's like getting paid twice.
Writing while distracted isn't for everybody, but I'd argue that quality craft demands multitasking. This is something that becomes clear very quickly if you try your hand at writing scripts: the best story craft multitasks like a fiend. A minimally competent line of dialog makes sense and is believable coming from the character who uttered it. A good one will also tell you something about the character. A brilliant one does all those things, moves the scene forward, and changes the stakes.
Writing scripts is a good way to learn the importance of multifunction prose, but you can see it everywhere. For example, take one of my favorite first lines in fiction, the opening to Robert. Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land. “Once upon a time there was a Martian named Valentine Michael Smith.” In twelve words you learn several things about the book you've picked up, among them:
1) The fairy tale opening words indicate it probably intends to teach you something
2) Mentioning a Martian tells you it's speculative, specifically involving humans having access to Mars or vice versa
3) Opening the sentence with a phrase that essentially means, “Long ago,” and ends with indications that it takes place in the future warns you this isn't an entirely serious book.
Heinlein probably didn't check his twitter feed while writing (I am careful about assumptions when science fiction writers are involved), but he definitely understood putting his prose to multitasking work.
Flash fiction, at its best, indulges in this this kind of heavy-lifting with an expertise worthy of respect, even for people who aren't fans of the form. Take, for example, a story by Robert Smartwood published in Pank magazine, “Seven Items In Jason Reynolds’ Jacket Pocket, Two Days After His Suicide, As Found By His Eight-Year-Old Brother, Grady.” It's a fabulous story, consisting of nothing more than the descriptions of the seven items. The title gives the reader all the frame they need to figure out what's going on, and then appreciate the subtle horror of the interplay between the reader's understanding of what happened and Grady's inability to parse it.
I could go on with dozens of other examples, but I won't. My RSS reader is getting full.
Anaea Lay is not an evil alien bent on sowing chaos and ending the world. Nor is she a mad scientist prone to creating monsters in her basement. She does live in Madison, Wisconsin where she makes up weird things for fun and profit. She is also a featured writer in the June issue of Apex Magazine.
Learn More about Anaea on her website.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Flower necklace DIY
 |
| flower necklace DIY |
 |
| shoes Elio Fiorucci for OVS industry |
Today I made a flower necklace inspired to my new pair of shoes. If you've been reading this page for a while you may recognize the fabric from the flapper dress DIY. This is again a quick project you can make with little fabric scraps so you can have no waste and more diy fun! Here's how I made it.
Oggi ho realizzato una collana ispirandomi al paio di scarpe che ho appena acquistato. Ecco un altro veloce fai da te che potrete realizzare utilizzando piccoli pezzetti di stoffa che avete in casa valorizzando al massimo le rimanenze.
You need: fabric scraps (this is georgette fabric) - a piece of rope - scissors - needle and thread
Avrete bisogno di: stoffa (questa è georgette) - un cordone - forbici - ago e filo
Fold the fabric in half, fold it again in the opposite direction, measure 3 cms on both sides, cut it
Piegate a metà la stoffa - Piegatela ancora nella direzione opposta - Misurate 3 cm ambo i lati e tagliate un arco di circonferenza
Piegate a metà la stoffa - Piegatela ancora nella direzione opposta - Misurate 3 cm ambo i lati e tagliate un arco di circonferenza
You've cut a circle - Keep it folded and block it with a stich or two and then sew it onto the rope - Keep adding petals.
Avete così tagliato un cerchio - Mantenetelo piegato e bloccate la stoffa in posizione con un punto o due, Trovate il centro della corda e cucite il petalo - Continuate ad aggiungere petali
When you finish a row overlap another one or two. Add a clasp at the end and you've done!
Terminata una fila di petali sovrapponetene un'altra. Aggiungete un moschettone e la collana è pronta!
Terminata una fila di petali sovrapponetene un'altra. Aggiungete un moschettone e la collana è pronta!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Send to Military
Musa Publishing and Penumbra eMag wish to thank those serving in our military this Memorial Day Weekend.
If you are or know someone serving and would like to send them a free copy of our eMag in PDF format please fill out the form below.
We will make sure they know who it came from with a special note from you.
Penumbra is the speculative fiction eMag published monthly by Musa Publishing. At Penumbra, the Muses are clustered in the part of the psyche caught between the darkness and the light. Whether that results in hardcore science fiction or fantasy humor, psychological horror or a Steampunk poem with a twist is out of the Muses' control.
That control is in the hands of the author.
Penumbra publishes speculative fiction that always culminates in something unexpected - a flash of humor in the darkest tale or a fantasy piece that goes against the tropes - always something that hovers right on the periphery of the eclipse.
To Stay tuned of what is happening with Penumbra please follow our blog.
If you are or know someone serving and would like to send them a free copy of our eMag in PDF format please fill out the form below.
We will make sure they know who it came from with a special note from you.
What is Penumbra?
Penumbra is the speculative fiction eMag published monthly by Musa Publishing. At Penumbra, the Muses are clustered in the part of the psyche caught between the darkness and the light. Whether that results in hardcore science fiction or fantasy humor, psychological horror or a Steampunk poem with a twist is out of the Muses' control.
That control is in the hands of the author.
Penumbra publishes speculative fiction that always culminates in something unexpected - a flash of humor in the darkest tale or a fantasy piece that goes against the tropes - always something that hovers right on the periphery of the eclipse.
To Stay tuned of what is happening with Penumbra please follow our blog.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
See It Before You Write It, Then Get Busy Daydreaming
by Robert Lowell Russell
Every writer has his or her own way of starting a story, so with the caveat that what works for me isn't going to work for everyone, here's how I do it (fair warning, I'm a "pantser").
My stories usually start with a single visual scene in my head, and when I have the scene fixed in my mind, I add a second scene. My job then becomes making sense of the two scenes. It may seem easy to get characters to go from point A to point B, but I often have no idea who my characters are at this stage, and there may be no obvious connections between points A and B.
There are probably certain advantages to starting with characters, then building a world around them. But I like building my world first, then plunking the characters into it and letting them fend for themselves. I also think starting with visual scenes makes it easier to "show" rather than "tell."
With Path of Stones **spoiler alert**, I deconstructed Hansel and Gretel. I started by visualizing a trail of white stones running through a fairy tale forest, then added a scene of a man sitting in a bar, staring at one of the stones in his hand. The challenge was then explaining how the man fit into a story about a couple of kids, and how I got from a fairy tale world to a modern day setting. It was an interesting process. The story started at 1.6K words, ballooned to 6K, was pared to 4K, and was finally condensed to 3K. During the rewriting process, I lost the original bar scene, the Empire State Building, Charles Darwin, Annie Oakley, a sexy witch, and bunch of other stuff.
One advantage of the "plotter" style may be that a writer doesn't end up with as many unusable parts when he or she is finished with a story (Though I tend to recycle my best story fragments. Sexy witches = writing gold!). But I like getting messy, and I like getting weird. My two starting scenes usually serve as corner pieces of an elaborate jigsaw puzzle, and with those scenes in my head, I daydream about my story, twisting and turning the middle pieces, deciding what fits and what doesn't. This lets me "work" even when I'm not sitting with an outline in front of a computer, and I've learned to trust my instincts when I write.
However, if you're going to write this way, you need to be able to track a lot of things in your head simultaneously, and make sure you have solid critics reviewing what you write. Our brains work to fill in the gaps of what we perceive, so you need more than one set of eyes to spot the inevitable gaps.
Some final words of advice: bang it out, polish it, fire it off, then cross your fingers. And if you're not having fun, you're probably doing it wrong.
Robert Lowell Russell once aspired to become a history professor, but found working with the real world too constraining. His works in progress, a series of short stories and a novel, incorporate elements of his previous research in Native American history and culture.
For links to more of Rob's stories (or to see him dressed like a ninja) visit his blog.
Every writer has his or her own way of starting a story, so with the caveat that what works for me isn't going to work for everyone, here's how I do it (fair warning, I'm a "pantser").
My stories usually start with a single visual scene in my head, and when I have the scene fixed in my mind, I add a second scene. My job then becomes making sense of the two scenes. It may seem easy to get characters to go from point A to point B, but I often have no idea who my characters are at this stage, and there may be no obvious connections between points A and B.
There are probably certain advantages to starting with characters, then building a world around them. But I like building my world first, then plunking the characters into it and letting them fend for themselves. I also think starting with visual scenes makes it easier to "show" rather than "tell."
With Path of Stones **spoiler alert**, I deconstructed Hansel and Gretel. I started by visualizing a trail of white stones running through a fairy tale forest, then added a scene of a man sitting in a bar, staring at one of the stones in his hand. The challenge was then explaining how the man fit into a story about a couple of kids, and how I got from a fairy tale world to a modern day setting. It was an interesting process. The story started at 1.6K words, ballooned to 6K, was pared to 4K, and was finally condensed to 3K. During the rewriting process, I lost the original bar scene, the Empire State Building, Charles Darwin, Annie Oakley, a sexy witch, and bunch of other stuff.
One advantage of the "plotter" style may be that a writer doesn't end up with as many unusable parts when he or she is finished with a story (Though I tend to recycle my best story fragments. Sexy witches = writing gold!). But I like getting messy, and I like getting weird. My two starting scenes usually serve as corner pieces of an elaborate jigsaw puzzle, and with those scenes in my head, I daydream about my story, twisting and turning the middle pieces, deciding what fits and what doesn't. This lets me "work" even when I'm not sitting with an outline in front of a computer, and I've learned to trust my instincts when I write.
However, if you're going to write this way, you need to be able to track a lot of things in your head simultaneously, and make sure you have solid critics reviewing what you write. Our brains work to fill in the gaps of what we perceive, so you need more than one set of eyes to spot the inevitable gaps.
Some final words of advice: bang it out, polish it, fire it off, then cross your fingers. And if you're not having fun, you're probably doing it wrong.
Robert Lowell Russell once aspired to become a history professor, but found working with the real world too constraining. His works in progress, a series of short stories and a novel, incorporate elements of his previous research in Native American history and culture.
For links to more of Rob's stories (or to see him dressed like a ninja) visit his blog.
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
What's new and cool: 4 new shoe designers you need to know
 |
| Max Kibardin |
Max Kibardin started his carreer as a model but his passion for fashion was so strong that he gave up his studies in architecture to become a shoe designer. His inspiration comes from italians 60's movies and his ambition is to create shoes of a timeless elegance.
 |
| Gianvito Rossi |
Shoes are in his genes. Gianvito Rossi is the son of the famous Sergio Rossi. He started his own line in 2007. His shoes are modern, feminine, innovative but with a classic elegance.
 |
| Alejandro Ingelmo |
 |
| Jerome Rousseau |
Make some room in your heart for your new favorite shoe designer. These are some of the most talked about shoe designers of the moment. They're young with a strong sense of style. Their shoes are innovative but don't forget the importance of the classical style. Get excited about their creations (as I am) and start collecting them: they are the new must haves.
Giovani e pieni di talento, sono una nuova generazione di stilisti della calzatura destinata a fare breccia nel nostro cuore. Le loro creazioni, innovative e molto eleganti, sono già da tempo diventate le preferite di vip e collezionisti delle calzature.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
A Kiss in the Dark
by Michele Lang
I adore short stories, love to both read them and write them. I believe we are in the middle of a short story renaissance, and as a reader I’m a happy beneficiary of the times.
However, writing the short story has mystified as well as bewitched me. As a novelist, for the longest time my short stories turned into partials when I wrote them. When I did manage to finish them, I struggled to bring them in under 10,000 words.
There’s a time-bending element to short stories, a magic about them. How do short story writers manage to compress a world of unforgettable characters, and a profound change in that world, in 5,000 or even 2,000 words?
I wanted to learn that magic for myself. For a solid year, I wrote shorts that read like chopped off first chapters of novels. While I loved the characters and their worlds, I didn’t have the skill to grant them a resolution, the chance of a life after the story. My poor characters just kind of dangled, waiting for what happened next, off-stage, after the end.
I knew I needed to learn more. But I couldn’t grasp the essential difference between a short story and a novel.
They aren’t miniature novels, so what are they?
Last year, at an anthology workshop on the Oregon Coast, I got some advice from Denise Little, a brilliant editor, and she clarified the mystery for me. She told me to think in terms of musical composition:
A short story is like an instrumental solo;
A novella is like a duet between two instruments, say a viola and a flute;
And a novel is a fully orchestrated concerto, with a tripartite structure, complex harmonies, and a contained aesthetic.
A short story won’t tell you all about its world – it can’t. It can’t tie up all the loose ends, it can’t tell you the backstory of all the major characters. The major characters don’t overcome and transform essential flaws in their natures. There’s no room for all of that.
What a short story will do, in fact does do better than a novel, is portray a window into a moment. It captures the essential truth in the music of a single life. It’s a song sung without backup instruments, it’s a hymn, or a lullaby. And a short story can linger in your memory as long and as vividly as any novel.
Stephen King once said (and I’m paraphrasing) that a novel is like a marriage while a short story is a kiss in the dark from a stranger. And yet, there are kisses that reach across memory and transcend time, to change you forever.
And that is why I love short stories.
Michele Lang writes supernatural tales: the stories of witches, lawyers, goddesses, bankers, demons, and other magical creatures hidden in plain sight. She is the author of the LADY LAZARUS historical fantasy trilogy (Tor).
Learn more about Michele on her website.
I adore short stories, love to both read them and write them. I believe we are in the middle of a short story renaissance, and as a reader I’m a happy beneficiary of the times.
However, writing the short story has mystified as well as bewitched me. As a novelist, for the longest time my short stories turned into partials when I wrote them. When I did manage to finish them, I struggled to bring them in under 10,000 words.
There’s a time-bending element to short stories, a magic about them. How do short story writers manage to compress a world of unforgettable characters, and a profound change in that world, in 5,000 or even 2,000 words?
I wanted to learn that magic for myself. For a solid year, I wrote shorts that read like chopped off first chapters of novels. While I loved the characters and their worlds, I didn’t have the skill to grant them a resolution, the chance of a life after the story. My poor characters just kind of dangled, waiting for what happened next, off-stage, after the end.
I knew I needed to learn more. But I couldn’t grasp the essential difference between a short story and a novel.
They aren’t miniature novels, so what are they?
Last year, at an anthology workshop on the Oregon Coast, I got some advice from Denise Little, a brilliant editor, and she clarified the mystery for me. She told me to think in terms of musical composition:
A short story is like an instrumental solo;
A novella is like a duet between two instruments, say a viola and a flute;
And a novel is a fully orchestrated concerto, with a tripartite structure, complex harmonies, and a contained aesthetic.
A short story won’t tell you all about its world – it can’t. It can’t tie up all the loose ends, it can’t tell you the backstory of all the major characters. The major characters don’t overcome and transform essential flaws in their natures. There’s no room for all of that.
What a short story will do, in fact does do better than a novel, is portray a window into a moment. It captures the essential truth in the music of a single life. It’s a song sung without backup instruments, it’s a hymn, or a lullaby. And a short story can linger in your memory as long and as vividly as any novel.
Stephen King once said (and I’m paraphrasing) that a novel is like a marriage while a short story is a kiss in the dark from a stranger. And yet, there are kisses that reach across memory and transcend time, to change you forever.
And that is why I love short stories.
Michele Lang writes supernatural tales: the stories of witches, lawyers, goddesses, bankers, demons, and other magical creatures hidden in plain sight. She is the author of the LADY LAZARUS historical fantasy trilogy (Tor).
Learn more about Michele on her website.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Old Hollywood glamour
 |
| Kate Spade gold shoes - Gucci Green shoes - Accessorize clutch -Topshop maxi dress - Swarovski necklace |
 |
| Expensive - Sapphire bracelet (I used as a "carpet") Birks - Affordable crystal bridal cuff on the right Etsy |
 |
| Affordable On the right vintage emerald necklace Etsy - Expensive necklace on the right Chopard |
 |
‘The Luxor’ – Johanna Johnson’s decadent 2012 wedding Collection |
From minis to mid-lenght, we'll wear skirts of any kind. Only one will remain the most difficult to wear: the full lenght skirt in the form of an elegant maxi dress because nowadays there are fewer and fewer occasions to wear it! In days where jeans are often worn even in formal events, elegant gowns are only seen on red carpets. Right from Cannes red carpet we've seen celebrities wear beutiful yet very expensive outfits. Is it possible to create a look inspired to old hollywood glamour with a limited budget? We can start with a Topshop silk maxi dress and then add an Accessorize clutch and when it comes to jewellery we can search for it on Etsy. Prom or the next marriage you're invited will be the perfect occasion to show your elegance.
Dalla mini alla longette, ci capiterà di indossare gonne di tutte le lunghezze. Forse però la più difficile da indossare rimarrà quella che sfiora il pavimento magari sottoforma di abito elegantissimo poichè in tempi in cui si indossa il jeans anche in eventi formali per esso non esiste più nessuna occasione d'uso se non il red carpet (e il proprio matrimonio). Proprio dal red carpet di Cannes in questi giorni ci arrivano le immagini di attrici e modelle fasciate in abiti di alta moda di grande eleganza ed esclusività. Ma è possibile costruire un look che si ispiri all'eleganza hollywoodiana con un budget contenuto?
Si può partendo da un maxi dress di Topshop e una borsetta Accessorize da abbinare a della bigiotteria vistosa trovata su Etsy. Dove sfoggiare la mise? Il mese di Maggio inaugura la stagione dei matrimoni e sono sicura che un'amica o una cugina vi offriranno l'occasione giusta per mostrare la vostra eleganza.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)