Hot, Scorching, Door Open, Door Closed

Everyone has their own preferences for the types of stories they enjoy. Especially when it comes to romance! In all of the books you’ll find on the Romantic Fantasy Shelf, romance is an important element of the story, meaning that if you were to remove it, you would lose something significant from the story. Of course, that’s why we’re all here, right? But also knowing the “heat level” or “steam level” of a particular story (a measure of the intensity of the romance) may be a deciding factor on whether or not it’s a good fit!

What makes Strong Writing?

 Try focusing on strong verbs rather than adverbs or adjectives. Also, drop the TO BE verbs, as described on this page here.

Verbs, are the edge of your writing. That all said, here are some tools and thoughts to help you on your way.

Wake Wizards! November is Coming!

Wake...

...you shamans, you storytellers, you wizards who have created this world. Sleep no more.

Do you remember who you are? Do you recall your power? You and I, we have created Gods, and have frozen oceans. We filled jungles far and wide with beasts of great wisdom and terror.

We have conjured suns, and pulled moons from their orbits. We have snapped the cables suspending Heaven, just to hear the enraged coiling spiral and whine across the sky. We have bathed in moonlight, consumed star-shine, and washed the world clean with rain.

Do you remember? On our off days we created kings, crowned their heads, then removed those heads with guillotines -- just as and exercise, *a proof of concept* (... told you I could do it with cake, the next round is on you).

And when the God we created became unworthy, we made madmen of its followers, then executed the God.

Have you forgotten Lilith? Asheara? The poets of Sumer?

I can still hear their language in your laughter. You were always the one worthy of sitting beneath the Bodhi tree, with your pen twisting your hair as you composed the phrases, the namshuk, the stories that created dynasties, religions and nations. 

But you have slept too long, and the namshuks need to be rewritten. War is on the world, tearing the fabric of their lives apart, flaying the hope from their souls, and the skin from their bodies.

Wake

The Golden Verses Of The Stoic

Seneca and Epictetus refer to the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, which happens to provide a good framework for developing a daily routine, bookended by morning and evening contemplative practices.

Zeno of Citium, who founded Stoicism in 301 BC, expressed his doctrines in notoriously terse arguments and concise maxims.  However, Chrysippus, the third head of the Stoic school, wrote over 700 books fleshing these ideas out and adding complex arguments to support them.