My laptop suffered a HD failure so I’m having to borrow one from a family member to check email, etc. Once I replace it, then I will be posting again.

Mar 17 2014

Snowing Again

Here we go again…

Mar 14 2014

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Matt Smith Being Crazy As The Doctor

Mar 13 2014

Ugh! More Snow!

Today they’re talking about more snow on the 16-17^th! That’ll make the 5^th storm this year, which is a high number for Virginia. In fact, I’m at the point where I’m getting tired of the snow and want spring. In one month it’s my birthday and we’re talking snow. Calgon! Take me away!

Mar 12 2014

Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl”

He was on MTV’s storytellers years ago and told the story of why he wrote the song. Jessie is a guy in the song, but really a girl. So, Jessie’s girlfriend was who he was lusting after when he wrote the song. It’s a neat little bit telling the story behind the music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsFy5UMzBvc

Mar 11 2014

Why AC/DC Is My Favorite Band

When I was in high school, guitar driven rock always ended up being my favorite type of music. Something with a great sound, bluesy feel and/or great solo always tickled my fancy and dominated my school of thought.

Then came Bon Jovi.

“You Gave Love a Bad Name” came out while I was in high school and became the big hit that kicked off the heavy metal craze of the late eighties. God, I head banged to the song many a night when it was on the radio!

After hearing that music, I started hunting for bands and one night on ‘The Headbanger’s Ball” on MTV (Yes they actually used to play music videos) they played the vid for “Who Made Who” by AC/DC and I fell in love with the song. That lead to me getting the album, and it was on like Donkey Kong.

I went out and bought “Blow Up Your Video” “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” “Fly on the Wall” and “74 Jailbreak” in short order. So, by the time I found out they were coming to Richmond in ’89 on tour, I already had a large collection.

Seeing them on tour was sometime else! The pure energy, and extremely loud volume, plus Angus’ energy made me a forever fan. Suffice to say I’ve been in love with them ever since-even though I haven’t seen them live since then.

For those who wonder why I listen, their live stuff on Youtube isn’t half bad but it doesn’t make up for the sound, etc that you get live. I challenge anyone looking for true rock and roll should check them out.

Mar 9 2014

Communicating Whether or Not Something is a Shout or Question

This is another issue that beginning writers-including I-have in the beginning. See, it’s easy to get confused about how to communicate something that seems more like a shout than a question. After learning more about the craft and how to put words together, it finally dawned on my about how to do this. So, here were go.

Ok, so your character is shouting something that could be a question too. This is a good way to write it:

“What did you do!” Talia snapped.

This is a question, but she’s yelling it at the same time. Now, in this case you have a choice between a “?” and “!” to work with. Grammatically, it’s incorrect to use both as like such: “!?” because it doesn’t make sense. So, this is where the words used in the dialogue and the particular tag solves that problem for you. By saying “Talia snapped,” it lets the reader know she was mad and allows us to trust that the reader will see in his/her head what we’re saying.

“What did you do?” Talia said (or Talia asked).

That shows how it’s a question. Note how you could use “Talia said” or “Talia asked” as your tag to get the point across.

The use of tags really helps things out, so don’t be afraid to use them.

I hope this helps.