Tag Archive for: #writingcommunity

Figures of Speech

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Figures of Speech

by Saralyn Richard

An English major in college, I was required to take courses in Chaucer/medieval lit, Shakespeare, Milton, 18th and 19th century literature, and American literature, among others. Of these, the dreaded subject was Milton, mainly because the brilliant poet and author of Paradise Lost took full advantage of the vast body of history, philosophy, religion, politics, and literary criticism of the day, and analyzing and interpreting even a few lines of his work could send a person down a rabbit hole for eons.

I had read excerpts from Milton’s works in high school, and I’d found them dry and uninteresting, but when I arrived in my Milton class junior year in college, I had a whole different experience. Call it an awakening, a challenge, a puzzle—whatever—I delighted in the intrigue and purpose of Milton’s language, and I couldn’t get enough.

After the semester, I decided to continue studying Milton by undertaking two semesters of work, researching and writing an honor’s thesis. My focus of study was figures of speech.

Most people understand the function of figurative language and can identify and explain similes, metaphors, personifications, and analogies. Few, however, realize that these represented only a miniscule number of the figures of speech available for Milton and other writers of the Elizabethan and Puritan eras.

I could write treatises—or an honors thesis—about what I learned from books, such as George Puttenham’s The Arte of English Poesie, or Henry Peacham’s The Compleat Gentleman, but for this blogpost, I’ll say that I was astounded by the more than 456 figures of speech used by Renaissance writers of poetry and prose.

The literary devices included repetitions, inversions, comparisons, and rhetorical devices to tickle the ear and tempt the mind. Some of the more obscure, but popular, figures of speech were anastrophe, litotes, and anadiplosis.

Once I learned about them, I had fun hunting for them in Milton’s verse. Each find unlocked a bit of the magic that made Milton’s writing so memorable.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and I was teaching creative writing to students aged 55 and older at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. I introduced a unit in figures of speech, and we dug into definitions and examples of a variety of the lesser-used devices. I challenged learners to use some, like synecdoche and metonymy in their writing, and the results were amazing.

Also, when I read a work of fiction by an author like Poe, Tartt, Kingsolver, or Irving, and I find a turn of phrase that is particularly appealing, I love to deconstruct the language. Do you do the same? What is your favorite figure of speech, and which author do you think is especially adept at using figurative language?

Saralyn Richard writes award-winning humor- and romance-tinged mysteries that pull back the curtain on people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses and disadvantaged urban high schools. Her works include the Detective Parrott mystery series, two standalone mysteries, a children’s book, and various short stories published in anthologies. She also edited the nonfiction book, Burn Survivors. An active member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing and literature. Her favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you. If you would like to subscribe to Saralyn’s monthly newsletter and receive information, giveaways, opportunities, surveys, freebies, and more, sign up at https://saralynrichard.com.

 

Focus by Debra H. Goldstein

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Focus
by Debra H. Goldstein

Photo by Chase Clark on Unsplash

Focus. From a writer’s perspective, the word embraces a simple but necessary concept – concentrating on the task at hand. It sounds easy: pay attention and the idea will be conceived, executed, eventually published, and promoted. But, that’s not how the real world works. Life offers each of us major distractions. How we handle them and retain our focus determines if an individual will be a wannabe or an author. Have you had things or issues disrupt your focus?  How were you able to get back on track with your writing?

 

Judge, author, litigator, wife, step-mom, mother of twins, and civic volunteer, are all words used to describe me. My life and writings are equally diverse. I’m the author of Kensington Press’ Sarah Blair mystery series. Sarah, like me, is a cook of convenience who might be scorched if she gets too close to a kitchen. One Taste Too Many, published in January 2019, was picked as a Woman’s World Book of the Week. The next three books, Two Bites Too Many, Three Treats Too Many, and Four Cuts Too Many were each named as Silver Falchion finalists. The fifth book in the series, Five Belles Too Many, released on June 28, 2022.

I am an active civic volunteer in Birmingham, Alabama and have served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, as well as being past president of the Southeast Chapter of Mystery Writers of America and Sister’s in Crime’s largest chapter, The Guppies.

After the Hurricane

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By Barbara J Eikmeier

The Wood Stork lifts off from the edge of the pond. His long slightly curved beak points the way like a menacing weapon, and his shaggy head droops, in sharp contrast to his elegant body. My hostess calls him The Professor.

Wood Stork – image from stock photos

From the lanai I also see the Great Blue Heron, and the Tricolor Heron, his white belly flashing us as he takes flight. I’m impressed with the perfectly still, dark feathered Cormorant standing on the rock, with his wings fanned out. My hostess shrugs and says, “Oh he is quite common.”

I’m teaching for a week in Southwest Florida. In Ft Myers to be exact. The same Ft Myers where Hurricane Ian made landfall on September 28, 2022. I’m staying with my friend Bridget and peppering her with questions about the hurricane and its aftermath. The writer in me can’t help it.

If creating a setting or writing a dramatic scene featuring catastrophic weather, I’m not sure I could write a convincing hurricane. I can do flood waters from the creek rising after torrential rains. I can do a monsoon. I can do a tornado warning and get my characters to shelter before the funnel cloud touches down. I can even do a tidal wave warning. But my knowledge of hurricanes comes strictly from the weather channel.

Going to and from class today my driver toured me around Ft Myer, pointing out the canals that bring the water inland creating waterfront properties. Many homes and businesses are still draped in bright blue tarps. The palms lining both sides of McGregor Blvd are missing palm fronds, but otherwise are standing tall, new growth sprouting high above the ground. Three months of cleanup have already taken place. But then there is the marina and the topsy-turvy pile of yachts and smaller boats, twisted among huge chunks of broken up dock, bringing home the truth of what happened here. I saw a sailboat trapped at the base of a bridge; its silver mast tangled with the black post of a streetlight as if braided together. Another sailboat rested on its side, the mast pointing inland, the sails shredded to ribbons, fluttering in the breeze.

Restaurants are closed. Beaches are closed. A little island, seen from the bridge, has been stripped of vegetation.

Today the calm of my friend’s pond, is a different view from the story she tells of that day when she watched the water rise, saw it churn one direction, then change directions as the eye of the storm passed overhead. She exclaimed, “The wind, oh that awful wind that continued for hours, or rather for days.” And she describes the surprise of seeing whitecaps on her little pond.

I’m keenly aware of the devastation that happened here, but I’ve also seen the spirit of Southwest Florida in the people I’ve met. Seasonal residents have returned. Year-round friends greet them and immediately ask how their places fared in the hurricane. They are rebuilding and supporting each other.

Originally, I thought I’d make this trip part work, part vacation – after all, its Florida in January! Hurricane Ian changed things, but I still came. It turns out that I didn’t need that trip to the beach, and I didn’t need an excursion to Sanibel Island, but I did need to see the amazing strength of Southwest Florida in the people I met. After all it’s the human spirit that defines a place.

Image from Ft Myers tourism

Barbara J. Eikmeier is a quilter, writer, student of quilt history, and lover of small-town America. Raised on a dairy farm in California, she enjoys placing her characters in rural communities.

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Hurray for In-Person Events

by Saralyn Richard


 

When the pandemic hit hard in March, 2020, I had just
released A Palette for Love and Murder, and I had a full calendar of
events for promoting it. Launch parties, bookstore talks, organization meetings,
book clubs—all had been carefully lined up, taking many hours of contact,
follow-up, baking, and swag-shopping.

Then, one by one, in an exorable, painful march
through the calendar pages, each event was canceled. The book came out with a
sigh instead of a bang, and it had to find its readers through different,
mostly virtual, channels.

I’m not complaining. As Bogey says in Casablanca, “It
doesn’t take much to see that the problems of [one little book doesn’t] amount
to a hill of beans in this crazy world.” Like everyone else, I learned to
pivot. I jumped on Zooms, Skypes, and FaceTimes to beat the band.

                           


A Palette for Love and Murder
found its audience, and so did A Murder of Principal, which came out the
following year. Again, Zoom was my best friend, and by then I’d learned a lot
of hacks for having a successful virtual book launch.

Fast forward another year, and I’ve been vaccinated
three times. I have a stylish array of masks for every occasion. Taking baby
steps, I’ve graduated from small, masked gatherings held outdoors to larger,
masked gatherings held indoors. This week, I actually went to my first indoor
gathering where no one was wearing masks.

I thought I might freak out, because I’ve become
somewhat of a germophobe, and the threat of the omicron variant is raising
those same old fears. But when I arrived at the Bay Oaks Country Club and saw
the elaborate table settings, the skirted book-table where I was to autograph
books, and especially the fifty-one smiling ladies welcoming me as a guest
speaker, a particular joy bubbled up inside me, and I wanted the afternoon to
keep going on forever.



Virtual meetings are great. I wrote a post about them several
months ago. They break down barriers of time and space and allow for valuable
human interaction. I taught and enrolled in classes, attended book clubs, and
went to conferences virtually. I enjoyed these so much that I truly repressed
the fact that they are a pale substitute for the real thing.

I’m grateful to Sheryl Lane of the Bay Oaks Country
Club Women’s Group for inviting me to speak at their December luncheon meeting.
We had this engagement booked for more than a year before we could actually
make it happen. Sharing book stories with people who love books is something
akin to heaven.

Of course, we all need to be mindful of and practice
healthy habits and mitigate risks wherever we go, but right now, I’m clinging
to the thought that more joyful reunions like this one will be in my future.

Wishing everyone a happy, healthy, and safe holiday
season and new year.

 

Award-winning and
best-selling author, Saralyn Richard was born with a pen in her hand and ink in
her veins. Her humor- and romance-tinged mysteries and children’s book pull
back the curtain on people in settings as diverse as elite country manor houses
and disadvantaged urban high schools.

A member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery
Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing and literature at the
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and continues to write mysteries. Her
favorite thing about being an author is interacting with readers like you.

Visit Saralyn here, on her Amazon page here, or on Facebook here.

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Write What You Know

by Saralyn Richard

Back in the day, there were certain rules a writer had
to observe. Show, don’t tell. Always use complete sentences. Write what you
know.

The logic behind these rules was impeccable, and, all
innovation to the contrary, most writers still observe them today, at least
most of the time.

When my Detective Parrott Mystery series, including
MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT, and A PALETTE FOR LOVE AND MURDER, was published,
readers assumed I was a part of the country’s top one percent. Otherwise, how
did I know so many of the details surrounding how the rich and powerful
dressed, ate, drank, and partied?

Truthfully, I did attend an elegant party in Brandywine
Valley, and that inspired the party in MURDER IN THE ONE PERCENT, but all of
the details about the one percent came from research. (Sorry to disappoint,
but, no, I do not have fifty pairs of Christian Louboutin heels in my closet.)


Image by <a href=”https://pixabay.com/users/clker-free-vector-images-3736/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=295093″>Clker-Free-Vector-Images</a> from <a href=”https://pixabay.com/?utm_source=link-attribution&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=image&amp;utm_content=295093″>Pixabay</a>


How did I portray all of the books’ characters and
home interiors so authentically? I observed, I asked questions, and I shopped
online at all of the most exclusive stores (without spending a dime).

I’ve been asked many times how I was able to depict
Detective Oliver Parrott so genuinely, since I am neither young, male, nor
African-American. That must have been a real departure from writing what you
know, right? Wrong.

As an urban high school educator, I’ve known hundreds,
maybe thousands, of young African-American males, many of them as intelligent,
ambitious, hard-working, and down-to-earth as Detective Parrott. I’ve known
their struggles, their families, and their dreams. I’ve celebrated their joys
and grieved their sorrows. I’ve listened to them speak and watched them perform.



Detective Parrott is an amalgamation of many fine
young men who have taken their places in society and who strive to make a
difference with their lives. He is definitely an example of writing what I
know.

Similarly, I drew from my experiences as a teacher,
administrator, and school improvement consultant in urban high schools to write
the upcoming release, A MURDER OF PRINCIPAL. Although the story is fictional,
it pulls back the curtain on the joys and challenges within a large school
community, and the issues of gangs, grievances, sexual harassment, and race are
ever-so relevant today.

Whether I’m writing about billionaire playboys or disadvantaged
football players, whether I researched or remembered, I’m writing what I know. And
I hope my characters will resonate with you, too.

What
books have you read that transported you out of your own experience?

 

Award-winning mystery and children’s book author, Saralyn Richard has
drawn from her experiences as an urban high school educator to write A Murder of Principal. Her previous
books, Naughty Nana, Murder in the One Percent, and A Palette for Love and Murder, have
delighted children and adults, alike. An active member of International
Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative
writing at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and continues to write
mysteries. Reviews, media, and tour schedule may be found at http://saralynrichard.com.



A maverick principal comes to Lincoln High School with a student-centered agenda. Trouble ensues, and killing the principal is just the beginning. A MURDER OF PRINCIPAL is available for pre-order at https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Principal-Saralyn-Richard-ebook/dp/B08KWLZ9JP/ref=

 

 

What Makes Excellent Writing?

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What
Makes Excellent Writing?
by
Saralyn Richard

I’ve taught creative
writing off and on for years. It was an elective for upper class students in a
large suburban Chicago high school. Part of our curriculum was to produce a
literary magazine each year, and we entered our work in a National Council of
Teachers of English contest. Oftentimes we won awards for our content or
layout, and quite a few of my students went on to become successful writers.
Now I teach creative
writing to adults aged 55 or older at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.
I’m finding the learners to be extremely motivated. The problem for them is not
choosing what to write about, but choosing which of many ideas and experiences
to write about first. My learners are serious, thoughtful, observant,
experienced, and well-read. Their responses to assignments are creative and
clever, worthy of being submitted for contests or publication.
I’m often asked what
makes excellent creative writing, and when I consider possible replies, I find
the same things apply to both high school writers and adult writers.




The first element of fine
writing, in my opinion, is the ability to imagine and bring to life one or more
relatable characters. These characters do not have to be alter-egos of the
author who creates them. They don’t even need to be the same gender, race,
creed, or age. They don’t need to be perfect; in fact, perfection would be a
detriment to being relatable for readers.
How do authors come out
of themselves enough to paint a realistic word-portrait of characters who are
unlike them? The process for me is similar to what an actor does in assuming a
role for a play. When I’m writing about a character, I immerse myself into the
body and mind of that person. I lose my own identity as I write the scenes
where my character speaks and thinks and acts.


Another fine point of
excellent writing is awareness of theme. I use the term “theme” to mean the
overall purpose for the story. When the author consciously crafts the writing
based on a specific purpose, all of the narration, exposition, description, and
dialogue fall into place, unifying the readers’ experience. I’ve read many sagas
that took me across generations and geographical locations without tying the
chapters and sections together, and they’ve left me wondering about the
author’s intent. My favorite tales lead me to some truth, some higher awareness
about life or people.
Of course there are many
other important strategies and methods in a writer’s toolkit. As a creative
writing teacher, I encourage my students to practice them all. As a writer,
myself, I strive to do the same. The two books in the Detective Oliver Parrott Mystery
series, Murder in the One Percent and
A Palette for Love and Murder, have
thoroughly imagined characters and (hopefully) articulated themes.

I’m excited to discuss
these and other topics with the Stiletto Gang readers. Whatever questions you
have about creative writing, I’m interested. 



 


Award-winning mystery and children’s book author, Saralyn Richard, is a
writer who teaches on the side. Her books, Naughty
Nana, Murder in the One Percent,
and A Palette for Love and Murder,
have delighted children and adults, alike. A member of International Thriller
Writers and Mystery Writers of America, Saralyn teaches creative writing at the
Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, and continues to write mysteries. Reviews,
media, and tour schedule may be found at http://saralynrichard.com.

Follow Saralyn at:


 “A compelling story of worlds in collision, A Palette for Love and Murder plumbs the depths of love and the
human heart.”

                                                         —William
Kent Krueger, author
of This Tender Land

“Delightful! Saralyn Richard weaves a deeply twisty mystery around
vibrant characters that will leave readers looking forward to more.” —LynDee
Walker, Agatha Award-nominated author of Front
Page Fatality

“Smart, stylish and sexy, this art world caper
delights with its verve and wit. The character studies are wonderful, and
Oliver and Tonya Parrott are an irresistible pair.”                                           – Ausma Zehanat Khan,
author of A Deadly Divide