Hmm…

Author: harmamae

  • Thoughts of Mr. Knightley, A Missing Chapter From Emma

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    harmamae
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    And now for something completely different…     Author’s Note: I do not pretend I can write like Jane Austen. Aside from the fact she’s a genius at writing courtship novels, I could never write in that exact style of English, because the language’s changed since then. All the same, I’ve been obsessed with Emma…

  • The Trouble With Modern Romance

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    harmamae
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    The trouble with modern romance novels is that our culture sees no reason for two people who are in love not to be together. This significantly cuts down on the potential for conflict in the novel. In comparison, Jane Austen had it easy. I’m going to use Jane Austen as an example for a second,…

  • Blah Days

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    harmamae
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    Five Reasons Today is Blah, and, Is There Any Hope For the Future?  Yes, I get these too. Far too often, probably. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, after five and a half weeks of excitement in Brazil, that I’d have a blah day once in a while when I got home again. Still, blah…

  • Things You Might Not Have Known About Brazil

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    harmamae
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    One last post on Brazil, now that I’ve returned to North America (and experienced a touch of reverse-culture-shock). Here are a few things about Brazil that I found interesting: Brazilians like things very sweet: You may have been able to guess this one, since Brazil is known for growing lots of sugarcane. Still, I was…

  • My Typical Day in Brazil

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    harmamae
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    I thought I’d give my faithful readers some idea of my life in a different culture, since some sort of explanation as to why this blog isn’t being updated as often might be nice! I wake up in the morning around 7:30 (thankfully my fellow Canadian, Esther, has an alarm clock, or I’d never know…

  • Possibility of Blog Post Scheduling Interruptions! Oh, the Horror!

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    harmamae
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    I mentioned in a previous post that I decided to stay in Brazil three weeks longer. The good news is, that means I like Brazil! (Also, none of the things in 3 Things that Scare Me About Traveling to  Brazil actually was a problem!) The bad news is, I may not be posting as often.…

  • Getting It Right the First Time

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    harmamae
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    To Revise Or Not To Revise, That Is The Question… Recently, I’ve been hearing a barrage of arguments from two different points of view – those who believe a good writer will efficiently produce a clean draft on the first go, and those who believe in multitudes of revisions. They both make good points, but…

  • Things You Shouldn’t Do (In Brazil)

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    harmamae
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    On Doing Them Anyway Before you go off to a tropical country, people give you all kinds of advice. Advice from doctors on how not to get sick, advice from your parents, advice from other travelers… there’s a load of things you should or shouldn’t do. Of course, half of them you find yourself doing…

  • A Meaningful Universe?–Defining Fantasy

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    harmamae
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    Fantasy, according to Crawford Kilian, takes place in a morally meaningful universe, and that is why readers like it so much. “In fantasy, meaning is not something we slap on from the outside, it’s built right into everything from the rocks and trees to the political system.” I do love fantasy, possibly because I believe…

  • Half a Million Words of Garbage

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    harmamae
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    They say every writer has half a million words of garbage in them, and you need to get most of them out before really establishing a writing career. This makes me glad I started writing early. (My earliest memory of writing is sitting at the kitchen table, asking Mom to spell each word out individually…