Hear Kurt Vonnegut’s advice on how to write a short story.
7. Write to please just one person (…) [or] your story will get pneumonia.
Hear Kurt Vonnegut’s advice on how to write a short story.
7. Write to please just one person (…) [or] your story will get pneumonia.
(Painting by Jean-Léon Gérôme, Selling Slaves in Rome, 1884)
I’m working on a couple of books set in the Victorian period (1837-1901) so I’ve been researching a lot about what Victorians knew about sex and how they were educated on the subject.
Fortunately, most of these books are now online and accessible to anyone who wants to peruse them. Unfortunately, they are not as many as I would wish.
From my research, and just to start, I recommend the following five books to anybody interested in the subject:
I’ll pursue this subject in a later post.
*If you are researching for a novel set in England in the Victorian Era, keep in mind that the notions and terms used might be different from country to country, and sensitivities might have been somewhat distinct.
This week I’m finishing a novelette set in Victorian England.
My inspiration for the heroine’s face is Maude Fealy, an American actress from the Victorian era.
Maude seems to have led a pretty full life, specially taken in consideration the times she lived in and the fact that she was a woman. I guess being an actress was already a path outside the normal career as a mother and wife, which was what most women ended up being in Victorian times.
She starred in silent films, wrote plays, performed on stage, taught acting, and was married three times.
Maude was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1883, and died in 1971, when she was 88.
(Photo credit: Linnea-Rose colouring based on a victorian photo of Maude.)
Time! I need more of it.
Right now I’m torn between four open stories and it’s driving me crazy. I wish my mind could split into “multiple desktops”, like on a computer. That way I could work on them without having to put some back in the drawer. Crap.
Since after launching Naked about a week ago, and approving the final paperback proof this week, I have been split: I want to finish these four stories that I’ve started but I can’t choose.
Well… That is a bit of a lie.
I think I’ve already chosen what I’m going to work on next. It will be the story of Lucy Mills, Liz Harper’s cousin in Naked. I chose this one because it’s a story that I wanted to tell ever since Lucy Mills came to be—as the firecracker, red-haired, free-love supporter, faux-starving-artist cousin of ‘preppy’ Liz.
I didn’t have a clue what that story would be until after I released Liz’s book. Then, I found out the story I’ve been mulling over for about a week was Lucy’s, and I don’t want to let it go, so I’ll be doing that.
That doesn’t mean I’m finishing Lucy’s book next, which is unfortunate. But whichever I finish next, I know I will love it because I love it all—the stories, the characters, the angst, the process.
Damn it, writing is awesome!
I’m happy to finally have all my work together in the same site.
Here you can find my books, some of my photography, and even some of my graphic design work.
If you’re looking for my personal blog you can find it here.
You can also access my Amazon Author Profile, Goodreads page, Facebook page, or follow me on Twitter.
Feel free to poke around in my new online home and if you have a question or comment, contact me.
Bear with me while I move the furniture around…