Pre-Read The War Horn!

After much revision, my friend, Jake, has decided to publish his novel, The War Horn, and he needs your help.

How can you help? He needs pre-readers, people that read the novel before it's published and alert the author of any possible errors, awkward passages, et cetera.

If this is something you're interested in, visit his blog here. But I warn you: act now, because after February 3rd, your chance is gone.

Something from the Back Burner...

Heh, heh. I'm not sure how or why I forgot about this,

but here's the trailer for "The Hobbit" movie set to come out in December.

Enjoy!

Madness (or: Our Insane Weather Today)

Just the other day, we had snow. (See picture from yesterday's post). Today, it's 53 degrees. And windy. It was raining, but that stopped at about noon. Good-bye beloved snow. Hello Georgian winter. 

This afternoon, I noticed the wind picking up. Leaves skittered across the front lawn. The clouds looked...interesting. So I grabbed my camera phone and leaped out the front door. Barefoot (*facepalm*). The wind instantly assailed me, and the clouds moved absurdly fast.

This Doctor Who soundtrack (thank you, Murray Gold!) started playing in my head.

(Series Five: Words Win Wars)

I ran down the cold driveway, imagination transporting me to the story I'm writing.

Feet now numb, I ran back inside.

Then, a few minutes later ran back out (this time with shoes) and took these pictures:



Strange, no?

Now, it's getting even darker. And even more ominous. And colder, creepier.

I checked the weather forecast. Today: 50 Tomorow: 23 and snow.

There are thunderstrorm warnings.

Madness.

Utter madness.

Snow!

'Nuf said.

I Write Like...

I found this website on Jake's blog. 

Basically, all you do is copy a couple paragraphs of

something you've written

(a blog post, essay, a chapter of a book you're writing, et cetera),

and paste it in the big white box, then click "Analyze".

Then, it shows you the famous author that your writing style is closest to.

I entered a short story I wrote recently, and this came up

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I entered a few more. Poems, chapters, short stories, and one of my blog posts.

And got six more different authors.

James Joyce.

J.K. Rowling.

L. Frank Baum.

Cory Doctorow.

David Foster Wallace.

Ray Bradbury.

I can look at this two ways:

1. I have an inconsistent style, or        
2. I'm good at imitating different styles

Anywho, for the website, just click here.

What authors do you write like?

2012: Beginning in a Promise

Ah, yes. Another year. 2012.
"A fresh start," as I heard often this morning at church.
So far, it feels fresh. It actually feels a lot like 2011:
50 degrees and rainy. (At least, that's how it was for us Ohioans.)
On the way home from church, it was raining. (In January!)
The clouds were beautiful, the sunlight streaming through...
I glanced out the passenger side window and saw the most magnificent rainbow I've ever seen.
It looked as though someone had taken the world's largest paintbrush and the world's most vivid watercolors and painted, arc by arc, a rainbow.
Normally, it seems that rainbows end at the ground, or just trail off in the sky.
Not so here. Where it seems it should have stopped at the ground, the colors shone and shimmered on.

Magnificent.

Beautiful.

Painted by God.

That reminded me of a promise.
In Genesis chapter 9 Noah and his family exit the Ark.
God promises that he would never destroy the Earth by water again.

"I promise every living creature that the earth and those living on it will never again be destroyed by a flood. The rainbow that I have put in the sky will be My sign to you that I will keep this promise forever. When I send clouds over the Earth, and a rainbow appears in the sky, I will remember my promise to you and to all other living creatures....The rainbow will be a sign of that solemn promise."

You know, come to think of it, the rainbow also reminds me of something else: God is always here. He never leaves you. Always there. He stands by you, and loves you, and will help you, no matter what you're going through in life. No matter how harsh, how awful, how bad or horrible the storms you're going through right now (and the storms to come), He'll be there.
What a promise. What a reminder. What a Master Artist.

What a God.