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Author: harmamae

  • Interview with the Author of ‘Prince Charming’

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    harmamae
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    Curious about my latest ebook, Prince Charming? Head over to the Amrah Publishing House website to see my interview and find out what it’s all about. Stay tuned to the website for updates on promotions and giveaways too! Or just read the description here (though seriously, the interview’s pretty neat too): The prince is an…

  • A Fighter or a Philosopher? Achilles Ponders

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    harmamae
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    “One and the same lot for the man who hangs back and the man who battles hard. The same honor waits for the coward and the brave. They both go down to Death, the fighter who shirks, the one who works to exhaustion.” – Achilles, The Iliad (Book 9, 385-388, translation by Fagles, 1990) Like…

  • Unicorns in the Streets: What is Genre, Anyway?

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    harmamae
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    J.K. Rowling just released her latest book yesterday, and surprise, surprise, it is not about wizards. Or magic. Or unicorns. She has firmly departed her old stomping grounds of children’s fantasy, and forayed into what might be called contemporary adult fiction. Which got me thinking – why do we draw such hard and fast lines…

  • Read The Iliad!

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    harmamae
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    “Sing to me, Muse, of the wrath of Achilles…” – Homer, The Iliad I was blown away by how good The Iliad is. I’ve read classics before and wondered why they were considered classics, but I have no doubt as to why The Iliad managed to survive for thousands of years. And I’ve never been…

  • Is it a Language or a Cultural Problem?

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    harmamae
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    “A speaker of variety A who is dismayed or annoyed because speakers of variety B do not talk like the folks back home does not have a linguistic problem but a cultural one, which can only be solved if one is genuinely willing to work to develop the ability  – which does not come naturally…

  • Real-life Romance: The Scholarly Professor and Edith

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    harmamae
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    Real life is better than fiction sometimes. More unbelievable than fiction too, but that’s another topic. This post is the second of four to mesh two of my favourite blog topics: romance and history. Because I realized, when I thought about it, that I knew at few stories from history that were eventful enough to…

  • Real-life Romance: Elizabeth Barrett Browning

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    harmamae
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    Real life is better than fiction sometimes. More unbelievable than fiction too, but that’s another topic. This post will be the first of four to mesh two of my favourite blog topics: romance and history. ‘Cuz I realized, when I thought about it, that I knew at least four stories from history that were eventful…

  • Beware the “Self-Appointed Language Arbiter”!

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    harmamae
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    “The view of language as a variable system is at odds with the notions expressed in traditional grammars and adopted by teachers who insist that there is only one “correct” way to speak the language… Though unsupported by any scientific evidence, such notions are propagated by a host of self-appointed language arbiters who proffer inept…

  • Surviving a Language Immersion, in 3 Steps

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    harmamae
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    I write about languages because I’m interested in them. So yes, this post is kind of a general interest post, rather than a writing post, but I will start by putting in a plug for writers to learn a little of the languages of the countries they are writing about. After all, you wouldn’t want…

  • The Dog Days of Summer

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    harmamae
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    These are the dog days of summer. No, that’s not really a quote from anywhere (though you can feel free to quote my phrase as much as you want, as long as you attribute it to me 🙂 ). It’s just such a common description of these dead, hot summer days, and it just made…