So we have threads on why people read and how people find stuff to read, but what do you read?

Fiction or non (or a mix)?

Particular genres?

Any specific themes or subjects that engage you?

And do your preferences in reading show through in your writing?

And anything else you would like to say about your preferences in reading material.

Quote by Ping

Well, crap on a stick.

Iconoclastic Canadian Comedian, Norm MacDonald passed away today after a private, nine year battle with cancer.

And sounds rough with that dog. Vibes on having to tell the owner. Hope you find a way to keep it from being too hard.

COOKIE THIEF!!!!

I got to use my patio table as an office. On a nice afternoon, it's a great way to get some fresh air. Have kind of stopped now, though. Getting too rainy and the wasps have been harassing me.

Watched this on the weekend. Makes some interesting points about different, equally valid, approaches to world-building.

So, basically, soft world-building is where you create enough to make the story work, but leave lots to the imagination. Hard world-building is where you flesh out the world, creating histories, languages, cultures, and so on to provide a context for the story. The examples used are Miyazaki's fantasy films for soft and Tolkien's Middle Earth for hard.

And I like the idea in principle. As the video eventually concedes, there's a bit of a continuum there. Some writers take a soft approach early on but get "harder" as the write more in their world and develop things further. Others won't go in without a well-structured universe in place.

For my own work, "Night of the Wind" universe (as I am thinking of it for now) is leaning hard. I actually have a fair bit of the world worked out in the form of notes in a OneNote notebook. However, I'm leaving a lot of space there which I or the reader's imagination can work with. And, of course, with only a couple published stories in that universe, it's currently fairly "soft" but intended to be "harder".

On the other hand, the new fantasy story I am working on has its own world and I am just introducing enough in it to support what is happening. There was a dark lord, he had an army of the undead with which to terrorize the world, an alliance was formed against him, his daughter murdered him and destroyed his palace while the alliance fought his army outside (not a spoiler, happens right in the prologue). And that's about it. No mention of who was in the alliance, or what nation the events take place in, or how magic actually works (in depth, there's a general sense of it being about pacts with spirits). Even the daughter's mother is only hinted at in the daughter's desire for revenge on her father. Not to say I couldn't expand on the world, or even merge it with my other world, but for now it remains just a few key points of backstory for the plot and characters of the present work. So definitely soft.

Been watching Canada : The Story of Us. Came out for the 150th anniversary of Confederation in 2017. Starts with the arrival of the European and their relationships with the indigenous nations and continues up the postwar period. Perhaps a bit too focussed on the idea of Canadian history being about entrepreneurs and business, but that's ultimately truthful to a great degree. The fur trade drove a lot of the early European activity, including trade with the indigenous nations. It at least portrays the indigenous people in a positive light as civilized people with agency and intelligence rather than a stereotypical "noble savages" portrayal. Too short to really deal with anything in depth would be the main complaint, though, I think.

Strawberries. Not fond of bananas, at least raw.

Home office or go to the office?

Well, better get the coffee brewing then. And a big pot of Irish Breakfast tea for the tea drinkers.

Going to the office today, a habit I would like to get back into. We shall see, though, how things go.

Quote by Verity

I just have a quick question if I may. On the old site we had a button that downloaded our stories into one of those zippy things. I can't see it on here. Am I looking in the wrong place or has it gone for good? Thank you. Regards, Verity

Kettle is on for an afternoon mug of green tea to go with some zoo animal cookies. Back to my current writing project.

Quote by Survivor

I will try to play a role if my body allows it. I woke up this morning and my entire body was sore from the audition we performed yesterday. I am feeling much better now that I am up and around with some coffee.

Stormy weather hitting my neck of the woods this afternoon. Had to turn lights on it got so gloomy. Mostly just rain but I have heard a bit of thunder.

Guess my exercise will be on the ole stationary bike tonight.

Good morning. Fresh coffee is brewing, kettle is on, and a new week is launching, at least for us 9-5'ers.

Molly the monkey is pretty popular around here, too, me thinks.

Surviving a muggy day. Keep hoping we have reached the end of this weather and then it reappears.

Kettle is on and there's some herbal and low caffeine green teas out. And I will have a bear and a snake (snake is my animal in the Chinese zodiac).

Cloudy muggy

Quote by Courgette

It's quite simple. Those of us who are civilized and stick our pinkies out whilst drinking tea use courgette and aubergine. My user happened while Violet was talking me into joining and we were joking around about vegetables. I'll leave it at that. lol 

(In fact, I drink my tea In a coffee cup, which is probably another rung lower on the civilization scale.😎)

Quote by Ping

Has anyone asked about or commented on the missing word counts from poems and stories?

I briefly scanned the other posts. I may have missed it. Can anyone see word counts? If so, where are they?

Thanks.

Quote by DenimAngel

Yikes no coffee...not even gonna try to use the coffee maker but I know how to use the tea kettle ..

Grass cut and trimmed. Making some progress on a new story. Could be a long one but there's a nice break point where I could separate it into chapters.

Quote by JustAnotherSapphic

...so idk if this is a bug or not but I'm posting just in case. 

Anyway, the birthday thing on profiles seems a bit wonky - I actually had to set it to the day after my birthday to get it to show the proper date.

Quote by DenimAngel

*giggles at the image of cats wearing pajamas*

 

Hope the doc gets you back into shape, Sara.

Good afternoon. Another week rolls to a close. Time for cookies and tea. ☕

Good morning writers and readers alike. And anyone else who happens to hang here. Coffee is on, kettle is boiling, some nice Kenya Tinderet tea is in the big pot.

Lovely day in my neck of the woods. Slight chance of showers but mostly sunny. I am toying with a new story. I have the beginning written and the ending in my head. Needs some work in between the two though. However, a weekend looms so we shall see what happens.

Quote by elizabethblack

What a wonderful question! You certainly deserve roses and sunbeams after your ordeal.  But, it will only take a day at most to understand why a second child is born.  My best to you and your family. Hope big brother or sister is delighted.

Quote by gillianleeza

Tomorrow is a planned power interruption. Oh, joy, yesterday's outage was just a one-off? Power is supposed to be out from 8 am-4 pm. I am not amused. I'm getting cranky in my old age. Maybe I'll ditch all my responsibilities and start on my stack of books for my beach vacation early. 

Good night, all.

Quote by CuriousAnnie

Root canal ... I dream of root canal. 😕 Not really, just that lets just say I needed a blood transfusion after an emergency C-section Tuesday night. All is good now; baby got stuck and is well despite that, mother is improving 👌 

I am having trouble publishing a poem about late babies (or more accurately one late young man in particular) which I wrote Saturday. Cant work out if it is a bug or that I am stupid... Okay, don't answer that. 

But for all the mums out there I do have a question: How come second children are born? 

Good morning, everyone. Bit grey here. Survived a trip to the dentist for a cleaning and checkup. No teeth were harmed this time.

They are "eggplant" and "zucchini" in this neck of the woods, though I cooked eggplant last night from a British cookbook that called them aubergines.😀

Crickets chirping

Quote by gillianleeza

A combination of the work of moving lines underground and builders of new houses hitting electrical lines.