Hmm…

Author: harmamae

  • A Call for New Classic Christmas Carols

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    harmamae
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    Every year, people complain about how sick they’re getting of hearing the same Christmas carols over and over. The obvious solution to this would be to write some new carols. Unfortunately, the vast majority of new Christmas-themed music that comes out every year is hard on the ears. I’m trying to think of the most…

  • Writers Repeat Themselves (says F. Scott Fitzgerald)

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    harmamae
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    “Mostly, we authors must repeat ourselves—that’s the truth. We have two or three great and moving experiences in our lives—experiences so great and moving that it doesn’t seem at the time that anyone else has been so caught up and pounded and dazzled and astonished and beaten and broken and rescued and illuminated and rewarded…

  • Happy Endings vs. Sad Endings

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    harmamae
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    And Everything In Between Endings are one of the hardest things for me to write. Obviously, I feel the weight of the readers’ expectations—hey, if anyone is reading this, they’re trusting me to end this satisfactorily! And I’ve read so many books where a so-so ending kept the book from becoming great. But both happy…

  • Diana Wynne Jones, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien – What a Combination!

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    harmamae
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    “When I was a student at Oxford, both C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien were lecturing there, Lewis magnificently and Tolkien badly and inaudibly, and the climate of opinion was such that people explained Lewis’s children’s books by saying ‘It’s his Christianity, you know,’ as if the books were the symptom of some…

  • The E-Publishing Experiment

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    harmamae
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    Update: Times have changed, but this short story is still available – in my bookstore. Or if you’re a member of the Edmonton Public Library, you can check it out here. You can read my updated thoughts on the ebook industry at “Reasons for Declining Ebook Sales: My Update on the Ebook Industry, and Musings…

  • Why You Read, Why I Write:

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    harmamae
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    “To some degree, we thrust ourselves into the hands of a storyteller, trusting that he will deliver us safely from a daydream that swiftly turns into a nightmare.” (The Passive Voice, quoting David Farland) What should stories do – teach us something about reality, or allow us to escape from reality? Those that are more…

  • A Thought From Anne of Green Gables

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    harmamae
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    I just have time to put up a quote: “I’d like to add some beauty to life,” said Anne dreamily. “I don’t exactly want to make people KNOW more. . .though I know that IS the noblest ambition. . .but I’d love to make them have a pleasanter time because of me. . .to have…

  • Why It’s Harder to Write a Term Paper Than a Blog

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    harmamae
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    Some people might think blogging is pretty scary – putting up stuff for all the world to criticize, and maybe to use to your disadvantage when you run for President someday (fortunately, there’s no chance of me doing that). However, I realized these past two weeks that writing academic papers scares me more. Then I…

  • Un Bon Mot – Language Learning is Hard…

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    harmamae
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    No language is justly studied merely as an aid to other purposes. It will in fact better serve other purposes, philological or historical, when it is studied for love, for itself. – Tolkien, English and Welsh  I’m thinking this is true, as my Spanish and Portuguese “fluency” languishes… It’s tough to learn languages, and I…

  • The Case for Ugly Romantic Interests

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    harmamae
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      Good-looking romantic interests can be fun (and too-good-looking-for-their-own-good romantic interests can be even more fun). But I’d like to suggest an ugly romantic interest for a change of pace. This post was inspired when I recently read a book describing the romantic interest as having “mushroom-coloured skin.” The book didn’t turn out to be…