March 23, 2026 · 6:00 am

Worldbuilding – Calendars and Maps #writing

I discovered early on that creating a calendar and a map for each novel gives me a realistic view of my plot arc. A mushy timeline stands out. I don’t want my readers wondering how my characters managed to cram a week’s worth of running around into only two days.

Writing craft, creating the world.Think about it. Errands take time. Shopping for groceries takes time. If I go to a friend’s house, chat for an hour, and drive back home, I have spent at least two hours, possibly more.

The weather and time of year affect how long errands take. Walking in rain and wind vs. a mild sunny day will take longer and feel worse.

No matter the genre of your novel, it helps to know which season your events take place in. Foliage changes with the seasons, and weather is a part of worldbuilding.

And there are other reasons for making a calendar of events for your novel, whether you are writing romance, sci-fi, fantasy, military thrillers, etc. Time should not be fluid UNLESS a core plot point of your novel is the ability to alter the flow of time, such as Harry Potter’s Time Turner device.

The Gregorian calendar is the modern calendar in use today, via Wikipedia.The calendar is a visual reference that helps with pacing and consistency. In conjunction with a map, a calendar keeps the events moving along the story arc. It ensures you allow enough time to reasonably accomplish large tasks, enabling a reader to suspend their disbelief.

They ensure you don’t inadvertently jump from season to season when describing the scenery surrounding the characters.

So, why worry about calendars in your fantasy worldbuilding? It’s just fantasy so anything goes, right?

No.

Fantasy must look and feel like reality, and fantastic elements must be organic and natural to that world. Inconsistency and mushy elements discourage readers. Springtime, summertime, winter, or fall, each season (or lack thereof) has to be consistent within itself, even if the plants and scenery are otherworldly.

image showing the timeline of Neveyah by bookAs you are writing a story, you might need to know what day of the week it is. Some things do take time, such as walking from one town to another. If you aren’t on top of things, you could have people breaking the sound barrier in their mad dash to the village forty miles away.

The distance a person can walk in a day varies depending on their health, terrain, and weather. A healthy person could travel from two to thirty miles. I would say that, on average, in varied terrain, a walk of forty miles might take a healthy person two days.

They should be prepared to spend one night camping alongside the road or hope to fine a roadside inn.

Much of my output is fantasy, and one might think a fantasy calendar with fantasy names for everything would lend a foreign atmosphere to the worldbuilding.

Not necessarily so.

When it comes to calendars, I suggest you stick with what is familiar, and here is why.

While creating my first world in 2008, a special calendar seemed like a good thing. The storyline and world of Mountains of the Moon were originally conceived for an anime-style RPG that was never built. When the project was scrapped, I still had the rights to my storyline, maps, and calendars.

My calendar for that world was (and unfortunately must remain) a hot mess.

In the game as we envisioned it, the calendar wouldn’t have been a problem, as the days of the week were only mentioned in terms of when a shop was open. In stories set in the world of Neveyah … it’s a problem for me as a writer.

In Neveyah, a year has thirteen months, each with twenty-eight days. That’s doable, no problem. Thirteen months are easy to work with because they are on paper. The extra month at the end of the year is called Holy Month.

Yes, a 365-day year and standard twelve months would be less confusing. Please have pity. A newbie author invented this, unaware that one little story would evolve into a series. It seemed so “fantasy” at the time.

Unfortunately, the months are named after astrological signs. Capricas, Aquis, Piscus, etc. This is a problem because few people know which time of year Taurus or Capricorn is, unless they occasionally read their horoscopes or know their own sun sign.

I added one extra day at the end of the year, which ends on the Winter solstice. (Sure, whatever. No problem.)

The winter solstice is called Holy Day, belongs to no month, and marks the beginning of the new year. Every four years, they have a two-day holiday and a big party. (Sounds fun, so no problem.)

The names I assigned to the dates and months were exceedingly uncreative and awkward: Lunaday, Tyrsday, Odensday, Torsday, Frosday, Sunnaday, and Restday. (Oh, you noticed it too! Sunnaday is the sixth day of the week, which lends itself to serious confusion.) Restday is fairly explanatory, but why OH why didn’t I give the other names a bit more thought?

Every story I write set in that universe has its own calendar of events, and each is labeled with the year number that the story is set in. They feature different characters and skip around in the timeline. I update that calendar as I write to make sure no one is walking at the speed of light.

I create the calendar in Excel, but you can use anything to make your calendar. There are plenty of blank templates for creating 365-day calendars out there, and they cost nothing. I just like fiddling with mine when I’m stuck, as it usually helps me figure out how to move things along.

In 2008, I had no idea just how awful the Neveyah calendar would turn out to be. And now, eighteen years later, I’m stuck with it. Please, take my advice and keep it simple.

Just sayin’. This is why ALL my other books are plotted using the modern Gregorian calendar.

But what’s this about maps? Next week, we will explore maps and why they are important during the writing stage.

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March 16, 2026 · 6:00 am

Planning a series #writing

I’m a fan of book series. I’m like every other avid reader in that I hate to see the story end. Also, if it’s a really compelling series, I will wonder how it all started.

Most authors don’t plan for their novel-in-progress to become a series, but by the time they reach the conclusion of the story, they discover that it isn’t really the end, that the characters have so much more to say. Most cozy mystery, fantasy, and sci-fi series begin this way.

Sometimes, a first novel finds its niche. Readers love the engaging characters, and the plot moves along to a satisfying conclusion. Readers say they want more, and so the series begins.

However, there are times when an author knows at the outset that the story is too big for one book. They know it will take two or more novels to tell that story.

Regardless of whether or not you plan for your novel to become a series, the novel that opens the series must have a complete story arc, a finite, satisfying ending, and be able to stand alone.

I say this because writing a novel takes time. Readers nowadays are impatient and vocal about it on social media, often heaping criticism on the offending author.

Yet they don’t want AI slop. They just want YOU to spew it forth in as little time as possible.

Very few of us are able to write two to four novels a year, as Stephen King does.

First, you must remember that a projected series is a universe unto itself, even if it is set in the real world. It is the story of that universe, explored across several books.

Speaking as a reader, if you are writing a series, you should think about the overall structure well in advance. Every book in the series needs its own plot and must end in a way that doesn’t leave the reader wondering what the hell just happened. They like a satisfying ending and HATE cliff-hangers.

There are two kinds of series, episodic and continuing, or as I like to think of them, finite and infinite.

The episodic series is like a television series. Each novel features an established set of characters, and each episode is a new adventure. There may be a lingering mystery in the background that unites them and is resolved in a later book, but each episode must resolve the problem at hand.

In some ways, an episodic series is the easiest to write because each book features established characters in an established world and society. (Sorry about the repetition there.) Many cozy mysteries and fantasy series are episodic. They feature standalone stories that bring us closer to the protagonist, and I love them all.

In another type of series, the installments might jump around between characters or to widely different eras in that universe’s historical timeline. Think Terry Pratchett’s Discworld or L.E. Modesitt Jr.’s Saga of Recluce series.

Some installments in an episodic series may introduce a new protagonist, or even explore the other side of the story from a less antagonistic point of view. It may show that the opposition is not intrinsically evil, that both sides are striving for the same thing but with radically differing methods.

The continuing series requires some advance planning. It is a finite multi-volume series of books covering one group’s efforts to achieve a single epic goal. While each book may be set in an established world, it might feature an entirely different set of characters and their storyline.

The story usually has a strong theme that unites the series. It might be the hero’s journey or coming-of-age. Or it might follow the life of one main character and their sidekicks as they struggle to complete an arduous quest. Robert Jordan’s (and Brandon Sanderson’s) The Wheel of Time series is a prime example of the continuing series.

An episodic series is easier to plan, as each quest is resolved in a single novel. The worldbuilding was accomplished in the first novel, so all one has to do is build on it in the later novels. Each installment should leave no loose ends. If the author stops writing in that series, nothing is left hanging.

A continuing series must have a complete plot arc for each book. PLUS, it must add to the series’ overarching plot arc. Each novel is only a section or chapter of the larger story, all with the goal of meeting at the end for the final battle. Speaking as a reader, please keep track of the subplots via an outline. I say this so you don’t leave loose ends, but also to ensure the subplots come together at the final battle.

  • Sequels happen when an author is in love with their characters, and those characters and their stories resonate with readers. Sequels are how trilogies become series.
  • Companion novels occur simultaneously alongside the main story but feature side characters doing their own thing.
  • Prequels are one of my favorite kinds of novels. I am always curious as to how the whole thing started.
  • Spin-offs might feature side characters or the protagonist’s descendants.

How does an author manage the character arc for one group over the course of a series? I suggest storyboarding. I do my storyboards in Excel, but you can make them any way that works for you. A notebook, sticky notes, Scrivener, it’s all good. Feel free to find your own happy place.

Then,

  • Write a synopsis of what you think the Big Picture is, the entire story.
  • Write it out, even if that synopsis goes for 5,000 to 10,000 words.
Screenshot of author's storyboard.

Sample Storyboard.

If that storyboard alerts you to the fact that the story is too large for one book, separate the sections into however many novels of reasonable length it will take, and plan how to end each installment in a way that won’t make readers quit the series.

Outlines help me decide on the structure of the larger story. By making one, I have a better idea of how each plot will unfold.

Once you have figured out the entire arc of the series, make an outline of book one. This allows your creative mind to insert foreshadowing. This will happen through clues and literary Easter eggs that surface as the series progresses.

What if you are writing your first novel, but you suddenly realize the characters still have adventures waiting for them, I suggest waiting to outline the next book until after book one is finished and ready for the final edit. Plots constantly evolve as we write. Book one is the foundation novel of the series, so it must be completed before you begin building the rest of the story.

Maps and calendars are essential tools for the author, no matter what genre you are writing in. Regardless of how you create your stylesheet/storyboard, I suggest you include these elements:

  1. A GLOSSARY is especially important. I suggest you keep a list of names and invented words as they arise, all spelled the way you want them.
  2. MAPS are good, but don’t have to be fancy. All you need is something rudimentary to show you the world’s layout.
  3. A CALENDAR of events is especially important.

Outlining the next novel should be simpler if you keep a record of all the changes that evolve when writing the first novel.

  • A stylesheet/storyboard is a good tool for fantasy authors because we invent entire worlds, religions, and magic systems.
  • We often invent names and don’t want to contradict ourselves or have our characters’ names change halfway through the book.

Next week, we will look at creating a calendar for stories set in a speculative fiction world. We will look at some of my failures and see why simpler is usually better.

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March 13, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Revisiting “In the Harbor” by Adolf Kaufmann

Adolf_Kaufmann_-_In_the_HarbourArtist: Adolf Kaufmann (1848–1916)

Adolf Kaufmann: In the Harbor

Date: by 1916

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: Height: 75 cm (29.5 in); Width: 102 cm (40.1 in)

What I love about this painting:

This image first appeared here in 2021. It shows us the working harbor in a fishing village, with men and women unloading the catch and selling it on the docks. The day is gray, as days by the sea often are, but it’s warm enough for the workers to labor without coats. This was, and still is, dirty, smelly work, but a good catch meant food on the table and coins in their pockets.

The colors are muted, with rusts and browns predominant. It’s a messy scene, with sails and nets piled everywhere and teeming with people.

This is how harbors really were and, in many places, still are.

About the artist, via Wikipedia:

Adolph Kaufmann (15 May 1848, in Troppau – 25 November 1916, in Vienna) was an Austrian landscape and marine artist. In 1890, he decided to settle in Vienna and opened a studio in the Wieden district. In 1900, together with Carl von Merode [de] and Heinrich Lefler, he opened an “Art School for Ladies.” He continued to visit Paris frequently and, when he painted there, signed his works with the pseudonym “A. Guyot”. Other names he signed with include “A. Papouschek”, “G. Salvi”, “A. Jarptmann”, “R. Neiber”, “J. Rollin” and “M. Bandouch”. Why he did this is unclear, although his choice of signature often reflects stylistic differences.

His landscapes were influenced by the Barbizon school and the style known as “paysage intime” (French for “familiar landscape”), both of which he was exposed to in France during the 1870s.

He was a frequent exhibitor and won numerous awards; notably at the Exposition Universelle (1900). From 1890 to 1913, he was a member of the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts; representing them at exhibitions at the Glaspalast in Munich and the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung. He became a full member of the Vienna Künstlerhaus in 1909. His travels continued until they were cut short by the beginning of World War I.

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Adolf Kaufmann – In the Harbour.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Adolf_Kaufmann_-_In_the_Harbour.jpg&oldid=1034365316 (accessed March 12, 2026).

Wikipedia contributors, “Adolf Kaufmann,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Adolf_Kaufmann&oldid=1339412024 (accessed March 12, 2026).

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March 9, 2026 · 6:00 am

Successful revisions #writing

I always think that in some ways, books are like machines. They’re comprised of many essential components, and if one element fails, the book won’t work the way the author envisions it.

My writing life.So, what are these parts?

Prose, plot, transitions, pacing, theme, characterization, dialogue, and mechanics (grammar/punctuation).

As an editor, I’ve seen every kind of mistake you can imagine, and I have written some travesties myself. I need my writing group, people with a critical eye who see my work first and give me good advice when I’ve gone astray.

I don’t want to waste my editor’s time, so once I have completed the revisions suggested by my beta readers, I begin a self-edit.

I use Microsoft Word, but most word processing programs have a read-aloud function. I place the cursor where I want to begin and open the Review Tab. Then, I click on Read Aloud and begin reading along with the mechanical voice. Yes, the AI voice can be annoying and doesn’t always pronounce things right, but this first tool shows me a wide variety of places that need rewriting.

screenshot of the read aloud functionI habitually type ‘though’ when I mean ‘through,’ and ‘lighting’ when I mean ‘lightning.’ These are two widely different words but are only one letter apart. Most misspelled words will leap out when you hear them read aloud.

  1. Run-on sentences stand out.
  2. Inadvertent repetitions also stand out.
  3. Hokey phrasing doesn’t sound as good as you thought it was.
  4. You notice where words like “the” or “a” before a noun were skipped.

This process involves a lot of stopping and starting, taking me a week to get through the entire 90,000-word manuscript. At the end, I will have trimmed about 3,000 words.

image of scissorsThe next phase of this process is where I find and correct punctuation and find more places that need improvement. Sometimes I trim away entire sections, riffs on ideas that have already been presented. Often, they are outright repetitions that don’t leap out on the computer screen. (Those are often cut-and-paste errors.)

Open your manuscript. Break it into separate chapters, and make sure each is clearly and consistently labeled. Make certain the chapter numbers are in the proper sequence and that they don’t skip a number. For a work in progress, Baron’s Hollow, I would title the chapter files this way:

  • BH_ch_1
  • BH_ch_2
  • and so on until the end.

Print out the first chapter. Everything looks different printed out, and you will see many things you don’t notice on the computer screen or hear when the AI voice reads it aloud.

  1. Turn to the last page. Cover the page with another sheet of paper, leaving only the last paragraph visible.
  2. Starting with the last paragraph on the last page, begin reading, working your way forward.
  3. Use a yellow highlighter to mark each place that needs correction.
  4. Put the corrected chapter on a recipe stand next to your computer. Open your document and begin making revisions as noted on your hard copy.

Repeat this process with each chapter.

This is the phase where I look for what I think of as code words. I look at words like “went.” In my personal writing habits, “went” is a code word that tells me when a scene ends and transitions to another stage. The characters or their circumstances are undergoing a change. One scene is ending, and another is beginning.

weak versus strong words. We try to move is weak. We move is strong.Clunky phrasing and info dumps are signals that tell me what I intend the scene to be. In the rewrite, I must expand on those ideas and ensure the prose is active. I must cut some of the info and allow the reader to use their imagination.

Let’s look at the word “went.” When I see it, I immediately know someone is going somewhere.

But in many contexts, “went” is a telling word and can lead to passive phrasing.

Passive phrasing does the job with little effort on the author’s part, which is why the first drafts of my work are littered with it. Active phrasing takes more effort because it involves visualizing a scene and showing it to the reader.

I ask myself, “How do they go?” Went can always be shown as a brief, one-sentence scene. James opened the door and strode out.

Confusing passages stand out when you see them printed. Maybe it’s the opposite of an info dump. Maybe the lead-up to the scene wasn’t shown well enough and leaves the reader wondering how such a thing happened.

The most confusing places are often sections where I cut a sentence or paragraph and moved it to a different place. These really stand out if they create a garbled scene.

image of a stop lightHINT: If your eye wants to skip over a section of the printout, STOP. Read that section aloud and discover why your mind wants to skip it. Was it too wordy? Was it muddled? Something made your eye want to skip it and you need to discover why.

By the end of phase two, I will have trimmed about 3,000 more words from my manuscript.

At this point, the manuscript might look finished, but it has only just begun the journey. Now it is as ready as I can make it, and it goes to my editor, Irene, who gives it the final polish.

Context is everything. I am wary of relying on Grammarly or ProWriting Aid for anything other than alerting you to possible comma and spelling malfunctions.

If you don’t know anything about punctuation, don’t feel alone. Most of us don’t when we’re first starting out, but we learn by looking things up and practicing.

If you are looking for a simple guide to commas that will cost you nothing, check out my post, Fundamentals of Grammar: 7 basic rules of punctuation, published here July 7, 2021.

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March 6, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood by John Singer Sargent 1885

Artist: John Singer Sargent (1856–1925)

Title: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood

Depicted people: Claude Monet, Alice Hoschedé

Date: 1885

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 54 cm (21.2 in); width: 64.8 cm (25.5 in)

Collection: Tate Britain

 

What I love about this painting:

This is the record of a pleasant summer’s day spent with friends, just relaxing and enjoying life. I feel sure a picnic basket lurks just out of sight, filled with good French food.

John Singer Sargent was a complicated man in so many ways, but his art came first. He was wholly dedicated to his art, and yet he had to earn money. He is most famous for his (sometimes scandalous) portraits of famous people of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, all of which are outstanding and worthy of a closer look.

While his portraits paid the bills, his best work was done when painting scenes of ordinary people going about their daily business. Claude Monet is a legend in our time, but he was just another painter friend, albeit a respected one, in Sargent’s time. Thus, portraying his friend as he worked was absolutely Sargent’s idea of painting for fun.

The influence of the French impressionists on his work is clear, and yet he remained committed to a style of realism that was uniquely his own.

About this painting, via Wikipedia:

Sargent spent much time painting outdoors in the English countryside when not in his studio. On a visit to Monet at Giverny in 1885, Sargent painted one of his most Impressionistic portraits, of Monet at work painting outdoors with his new bride nearby. Sargent is usually not thought of as an Impressionist painter, but he sometimes used impressionistic techniques to great effect. His Claude Monet Painting at the Edge of a Wood is rendered in his own version of the Impressionist style. In the 1880s, he attended the Impressionist exhibitions, and he began to paint outdoors in the plein-air manner after that visit to Monet. Sargent purchased four Monet works for his personal collection during that time. [1]

About the artist via Wikipedia:

About The Artist via Wikipedia:

John Singer Sargent (January 12, 1856 – April 14, 1925) was an American expatriate artist, considered the “leading portrait painter of his generation” for his evocations of Edwardian-era luxury. He created roughly 900 oil paintings and more than 2,000 watercolors, as well as countless sketches and charcoal drawings. His oeuvre documents worldwide travel, from Venice to the Tyrol, Corfu, the Middle East, Montana, Maine, and Florida.

Born in Florence to American parents, he was trained in Paris before moving to London, living most of his life in Europe. He enjoyed international acclaim as a portrait painter. An early submission to the Paris Salon in the 1880s, his Portrait of Madame X, was intended to consolidate his position as a society painter in Paris, but instead resulted in scandal. During the next year following the scandal, Sargent departed for England where he continued a successful career as a portrait artist.

From the beginning, Sargent’s work is characterized by remarkable technical facility, particularly in his ability to draw with a brush, which in later years inspired admiration as well as criticism for a supposed superficiality. His commissioned works were consistent with the grand manner of portraiture, while his informal studies and landscape paintings displayed a familiarity with Impressionism. In later life Sargent expressed ambivalence about the restrictions of formal portrait work and devoted much of his energy to mural painting and working en plein air. Art historians generally ignored society artists such as Sargent until the late 20th century.

With his watercolors, Sargent was able to indulge his earliest artistic inclinations for nature, architecture, exotic peoples, and noble mountain landscapes. And it is in some of his late works where one senses Sargent painting most purely for himself. His watercolors were executed with a joyful fluidness. He also painted extensively family, friends, gardens, and fountains. In watercolors, he playfully portrayed his friends and family dressed in Orientalist costume, relaxing in brightly lit landscapes that allowed for a more vivid palette and experimental handling than did his commissions (The Chess Game, 1906). His first major solo exhibit of watercolor works was at the Carfax Gallery in London in 1905. In 1909, he exhibited eighty-six watercolors in New York City, eighty-three of which were bought by the Brooklyn Museum. Evan Charteris wrote in 1927:

To live with Sargent’s water-colours is to live with sunshine captured and held, with the luster of a bright and legible world, ‘the refluent shade’ and ‘the Ambient ardours of the noon.’

Although not generally accorded the critical respect given Winslow Homer, perhaps America’s greatest watercolorist, scholarship has revealed that Sargent was fluent in the entire range of opaque and transparent watercolor technique, including the methods used by Homer. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Claude Monet Painting by the Edge of a Wood by John Singer Sargent, 1885.  P|D 100.  File:Sargent MonetPainting.jpg – Wikipedia. Accessed March 5, 2026.

[1] Wikipedia contributors, “John Singer Sargent,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=John_Singer_Sargent&oldid=1337829485 (accessed March 5, 2026).

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March 2, 2026 · 6:00 am

Microsoft, you are p**sing me off, and other random rants #writing

Look, Microsoft. I have been using your products since 1994. I’ve stuck with you through screens of death, through Windows ME and Vista, and through Windows 8.

I adored Windows 10. I use your product every day, often for six to ten hours at a stretch. I write books and sometimes edit other people’s work. I listen to a terrific playlist while I do that, mostly epic JRPG fantasy game soundtracks. I also use it for gaming.

I’m just gonna lay this out there like it is. With every update, your current version of Windows 11 has become more of a shit show.

On the good side: While I utterly despise the mandatory inclusion of AI (CoPilot) to “assist” my writing, I am glad you allow me to turn it off. YAY for that blessing!  It is the most gawd-awful example of “fixing what ain’t broke” that I have recently encountered. In the default application, it insists on giving unasked-for advice, attempting to rewrite my prose to comply with modern business practices. Thank you for allowing me to shut it off, even though I had to Google the instructions.

Don’t screw that up, please. (Instructions for turning off CoPilot at the bottom of the post.)

Frustrated cartoon monkey at a computer, via Microsoft Word.

courtesy Office360 graphics

And now the negative: since the most recent updates, my audio has been acting up. Even better, I couldn’t connect either of my two (2) computers to my printer! That was a pain, as I like to print out my revised chapters and read them out loud to make sure they say what I intended. I had to pay a tech to come in and fix my printer problem. I don’t want to have to do that for the audio.

I live in fear of updates.

And yes, I have updated all the drivers and also ensured I have the most recent Realtek updates.

It’s still randomly droning and hanging up on certain sounds and words with M’s or N’s, even with the new drivers installed. Sometimes it goes all day with no problems. Other times it’s so bad I have to restart the computer two or three times in one day.

And this occurs on both my desktop AND my laptop.

Why should I have to go through this? The desktop PC is old, purchased in 2020, but this laptop is less than two years old, and if this keeps up, it’s gonna be a boat anchor because the random buzzing and stuttering is making me nuts.

I have no desire to purchase a Mac. My first computer was a Mac, and the office in my last job was equipped with Macs. So, while I have used them before, I prefer a PC.

Besides, my son-in-law works for you. I want to keep him employed!

Fix your product and let me get back to work! Otherwise, I will have to consider jumping ship. Don’t make me go to the dark side. Don’t do it.

And now for the sad news of the week: On the first day of February, I made the mistake of purchasing living plants, a miniature rose, and a potted tulip to brighten the eternal gray of winter in the Pacific Northwest.

I know better than this. Greg was the plant person, not me. Nevertheless, from the moment I brought them home, both Rose and Tulip were important members of the household. Rose, in her lovely pink petals and Tulip in her red were champions, fighting back the Northwest gloom.

Jan Brueghel the Elder - Flowers in a Vase with a Clump of Cyclamen and Precious StonesUnfortunately, both Rose and Tulip have passed away. Their two weeks of life in my neglectful care were meaningful and made a difference during the darkest days of winter.

Whatever it was that finally took them, at least they went into that dark unknown together.

One day, they were sitting in my window, waving to traffic as it passed by, and the next, they lay draped over the edges of their respective pots. They were good plants, beloved by all who met them, and I’m sure they are now in plant heaven.

Truthfully, I prefer houseplants that are dishwasher safe. I usually stop at the Dollar Tree and get the kind that you can put in the top rack every month or so for a good cleaning. I just run the rinse cycle (with the dry cycle turned off). It gives them a good wash and they look like new. I’ve never had a plastic plant die, no matter how I neglected it.

Now on to my next rant. I was recently forced to change health insurance so that my husband could be cared for by the doctor who makes monthly house calls to the Adult Family Care home where he is living. Suddenly, I was faced with the fact that while my husband was able to be cared for well, I could NOT find a doctor in my town that accepted new patients with my insurance.

But HUZZAH! After two months of struggle, searching, and worry that I would have to drive 70 miles north to the Seattle area to find a doctor that accepts new patients with my insurance, I have connected with a doctor who more than suits my needs. I am now on proper blood pressure meds, and hopefully everything will stay smooth sailing.

If Microsoft patches its current problems anytime soon, my blood pressure should return to somewhere near normal.

One can dream.

And finally, as promised above, here is an image showing how to turn off CoPilot in MS Word, as shown by my Google search. Feel free to right-click and save it to your desktop.

You can disable Copilot in Word to remove AI assistance and maintain a distraction-free editing environment. The process differs slightly between Windows and Mac. Windows Open Microsoft Word and click the File tab. Select Options from the sidebar to open the Word Options window. Click Add-ins in the left-hand menu. In the Manage dropdown at the bottom, choose COM Add-ins and click Go. Locate the Copilot add-in (e.g., Microsoft Word Copilot) and uncheck its box. Click OK to confirm. Restart Word to apply the changes.

 

 

 

 

Credits and Attributions:

“IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Jan Brueghel the Elder – Flowers in a Vase with a Clump of Cyclamen and Precious Stones.jpg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Jan_Brueghel_the_Elder_-_Flowers_in_a_Vase_with_a_Clump_of_Cyclamen_and_Precious_Stones.jpg&oldid=1168023989 (accessed March 1, 2026).

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February 27, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: A closer look at “The Peasant and the Nest Robber” by Pieter Bruegel the Elder 1568

The_Peasant_and_the_Birdnester_Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_1568Artist: Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1526/1530–1569)

Title:  “The Peasant and the Nest Robber”

Date: 1568

Medium: oil on oak wood

Dimensions: 59.3 × 68.3 cm (23.3 × 26.8 in)

Collection: Kunsthistorisches Museum

What I love about this painting

I first featured this painting in September of 2024. It made me smile then and still does. I still love the sarcastic wit that Pieter Breughel the Elder instilled in it. He was a man with a sharp eye for the humorous and the ability to wield allegory and symbolism like a knife. He cuts to the heart of things, pointing out the hubris and vanities of people from all walks of life.

Most painters at the time painted either religious scenes or portraits for the wealthy. Pieter Brueghel the Elder painted plenty of religious scenes which sold well, but his favorite subjects were the common people of his village. He was earthy and honest in his depictions of village life as he saw it. Brueghel the Elder celebrated the ups and downs of the human condition.

Today, his art is an important source of evidence about the social mores and values governing the life of ordinary people during the 16th-century.

This painting details his favorite subject, human frailty, but he’s taken a different approach, narrowing his usual cast of thousands to just two.

In this case, he is pointing out that people are opportunists. We either have the knowledge and nerve to take what we need or the knowledge and sly desire to point out the failings of others.

Both men in this scene are taking the opportunity to advance themselves. One gains eggs and a good meal, and the other gains a sense of moral superiority.

Neither man feels guilty.

About this painting, via Wikipedia:

This unusual subject apparently illustrates a Netherlandish proverb:

Dije den nest Weet dijen weeten, dijen Roft dij heeten
He who knows where the nest is, has the knowledge, he who robs, has the nest.

The painting presents a moralising contrast between the active, wicked individual and the passive man who is virtuous in spite of adversity (a similar theme appears in his drawing The Beekeepers)] And lastly it could be suggested that the pointing man is making judgement on the robber whilst not aware that he is nearly stepping into the water in front of him.

It has been suggested that, with his knowledge of Italian art, Bruegel intended the peasant’s gesture as a profane parody of the gesture of Leonardo‘s St John. [1]

About the Artist, via Wikipedia:

Pieter Bruegel (also Brueghel or Breughel) the Elder c. 1525–1530 – 9 September 1569) was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker from Brabant, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genre painting); he was a pioneer in making both types of subject the focus in large paintings.

He was a formative influence on Dutch Golden Age painting and later painting in general in his innovative choices of subject matter, as one of the first generation of artists to grow up when religious subjects had ceased to be the natural subject matter of painting. He also painted no portraits, the other mainstay of Netherlandish art. After his training and travels to Italy, he returned in 1555 to settle in Antwerp, where he worked mainly as a prolific designer of prints for the leading publisher of the day. Only towards the end of the decade did he switch to make painting his main medium, and all his famous paintings come from the following period of little more than a decade before his early death, when he was probably in his early forties, and at the height of his powers.

Around 1563, Bruegel moved from Antwerp to Brussels, where he married Mayken Coecke, the daughter of the painter Pieter Coecke van Aelst and Mayken Verhulst. As registered in the archives of the Cathedral of Antwerp, their deposition for marriage was registered 25 July 1563. The marriage itself was concluded in the Chapel Church, Brussels in 1563.

Pieter the Elder had two sons: Pieter Brueghel the Younger and Jan Brueghel the Elder (both kept their name as Brueghel). Their grandmother, Mayken Verhulst, trained the sons because “the Elder” died when both were very small children. The older brother, Pieter Brueghel copied his father’s style and compositions with competence and considerable commercial success. Jan was much more original, and very versatile. He was an important figure in the transition to the Baroque style in Flemish Baroque painting and Dutch Golden Age painting in a number of its genres. He was often a collaborator with other leading artists, including with Peter Paul Rubens on many works including the Allegory of Sight.

Other members of the family include Jan van Kessel the Elder (grandson of Jan Brueghel the Elder) and Jan van Kessel the Younger. Through David Teniers the Younger, son-in-law of Jan Brueghel the Elder, the family is also related to the whole Teniers family of painters and the Quellinus family of painters and sculptors, through the marriage of Jan-Erasmus Quellinus to Cornelia, daughter of David Teniers the Younger. [2]

Credits and Attributions:

[1] IMAGE and Quote about this picture: Wikipedia contributors, “The Peasant and the Nest Robber,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Peasant_and_the_Nest_Robber&oldid=1265248481 (accessed February 26, 2026).

[2] Wikipedia contributors, “Pieter Bruegel the Elder,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder&oldid=1340544806 (accessed February 26, 2026).

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February 23, 2026 · 6:00 am

Exploring Depth #writing

We often talk about the story arc and its component parts and features. But to explain depth, we must put all the parts and pieces back together and examine the story as a whole.

A story is like a pond filled with layers and meanings.So, what is depth, exactly? It is the component of the narrative that supports and informs the story’s arc. It is also comprised of layers.

When you look at a pond, you see the surface. It could be calm, or if a storm is brewing, it will be ruffled and moving. But it is deep and conceals many things beneath that calm surface. A narrative also comprises several layers.

Layer One is the surface layer. It is the Literal Layer; the what-you-see-is-what-you-get layer. The components of the story’s surface are:

  • the setting
  • the action
  • the visual/physical experience of the characters as they go about their lives.

When the reader sees something, they recognize it. Trees are trees, a bus is a bus, and we all recognize those aspects of worldbuilding. The surface layer also shows the characters’ actions in real time, so readers immediately feel they know what is going on.

The reader sees it when a figure steps from behind a tree. A gun was drawn and fired. What happened was clear and easy to understand.

Some authors play with the surface layer, choosing realism, surrealism, or a blend of the two.

  • Realism is serious, a depiction of what undisputedly is.
  • Surrealism takes what is real and warps it to convey a subtler meaning.

Layer Two: The layer below the surface is an area of unknown quantity. It is the Inferential Layer. This is the layer where inference and implication come into play, hints and allegations.

We show why the gun is drawn. Clues and hints imply reasons for the characters’ actions. The author offers ideas to explain how the shooter arrives at the point in the story where they squeeze the trigger, and the reader makes assumptions.

Authors drop clues and hints but allow the reader to draw their own conclusions.

In a murder mystery, the path to the moment the trigger was pulled is complicated. Perhaps no one knows exactly what led to it, but the author’s task is to include enough clues, hints, and allegations without an info dump.

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important question. Authors insert clues that imply something to the reader, hints that may be red herrings. One meaning is displayed on the surface, but by using hints and clues, we enclose the secrets within the narrative. The message (inference) in the story is conveyed to the reader, but only if they pick up on the clues.

The author has to do their job well because we want the reader to feel as if they have earned the information they are gaining. They must be able to deduce what you imply. A reader can only extrapolate knowledge from the information the author offers them.

Serious readers want this layer to mean something on a level that isn’t obvious. They want to experience that feeling of triumph for having caught the meaning. That surge of endorphins keeps them involved and makes them want more of your work.

This middle layer is, in my opinion, the toughest layer for an author to get a grip on.

Below and sort of intertwined with the middle layer is Layer Three, the Interpretive Layer. This layer will be shallower in Romance novels because the point of the book isn’t a deeper meaning. It’s interpersonal relationships on a surface level. However, there will still be some areas of mystery that aren’t spelled out completely because the interpersonal intrigues are the story.

Books for younger readers might also be less deep on this level because they don’t yet have the real-world experience to understand what is implied.

Layer three is comprised of:

  • Themes
  • Commentary
  • Message
  • Symbolism
  • Archetypes

Symbolism in the matrix is shown by meaningful names and objects in the environment.This layer is sometimes the easiest for me to discuss because we are dealing with finite concepts. Theme is one of my favorite subjects to write about, as is symbolism. It is an aspect of the narrative I haven’t talked about lately, nor have I really discussed conveying messages. Archetype is another facet I haven’t discussed recently, and yet it is a fundamental underpinning of character building.

For the purposes of this post, commentary is the word that describes the expression of opinions or explanations about an event or situation. Perhaps you are writing a narrative that explores current real-world morals and hypocrisies. If so, this is an important aspect of your work.

I am looking forward to gaining a deeper understanding of the subtler, more abstract aspects of writing as I explore narrative depth. As always, when I come across a book or website with good information, I will share it with you.

In the meantime, a good core textbook is “Story” by Robert McKee. If you haven’t already gotten it, you might want to. It can be found second-hand at Amazon.

Another excellent and more affordable textbook for this is “Damn Fine Story” by Chuck Wendig. Chuck delivers his wisdom in pithy, witty, concise packets. If you fear potty-mouth, don’t buy it. However, if you have the courage to be challenged, this is the book for you.

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February 20, 2026 · 6:00 am

#FineArtFriday: A second look at “Gathering Wood for Winter” by George Henry Durrie 1855

Title: Gathering Wood for Winter

Artist: George Henry Durrie (1820–1863)

Date: 1855

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: height: 26 in (66 cm); width: 36 in (91.4 cm)

Collection: Private collection

Why I love this painting:

I love the comforting hominess of George Heny Durrie’s works. in fact, I love everything the snobbier critics hate most about his work – it is meant for ordinary people (like me) to enjoy.

I thought about this painting because winter has lingered this year. Long ago when I was holding down two jobs and living through Reaganomics, I lived in a house that was heated with a woodstove. Every year it was a struggle to buy or cut enough wood to last through the winter.

In this painting, Durrie shows us a day in late autumn. His characteristic use of reds and browns juxtaposed against lighter shades of white portrays the stark beauty of late autumn in New England.

The first snow has fallen, and the season is turning to winter. It’s more important than ever to gather as much wood as possible. Fortunately for our wood gatherers, a giant has fallen victim to a storm, snapping off halfway up.

This is not necessarily the end of the tree. Leaves still cling to the branches below the wound and will continue to provide shade and habitat for as long as it can. Someday, it may be cut down, as the fact it broke in half shows that it is nearing the end of its life and may present a hazard to those who walk beneath it.

Regardless of the tree’s future, the farmer and his son are taking advantage of the bounty so close to their home. They will stack it in the woodshed in “cords” and allow it to dry out or “season” before they must burn it, hopefully not before the end of spring.

The more wood they gather now, the warmer they will be when winter’s grip tightens.

And one cord of wood won’t do it. When I was heating my house, it took five to seven cords to make it through a mild winter. And we were not cooking with it, only heating a small house.

A “cord” of wood is a standard measurement of split and stacked logs that measures 4 feet high × 4 feet wide × 8 feet long. How Big is a Cord of Wood? Exact Measurements & Visual Guide 

About the author, via Wikipedia:

George Henry Durrie (June 6, 1820 – October 15, 1863) was an American landscape artist noted especially for his rural winter snow scenes, which became very popular after they were reproduced as lithographic prints by Currier and Ives.

For many years, Durrie made a living primarily as a portrait painter, executing hundreds of commissions. After marriage, he made frequent trips, traveling to New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey,  and Virginia, fulfilling commissions and looking for new ones. His diary reveals that he was an enthusiastic railroad traveler, in the early days of the railroads. Durrie also painted what he called “fancy pieces”, whimsical studies of still lives or stage actors, as well as painting scenes on window-shades and fireplace covers. But portrait painting commissions became scarcer when photography came on the scene, offering a cheaper alternative to painted portraits, and, as his account-book shows, Durrie rarely painted a portrait after 1851.

Durrie’s interest shifted to landscape painting, and while on the road, or at home, made frequent sketches of landscape elements that caught his eye. Around 1844 Durrie began painting water and snow scenes, and took a second place medal at the 1845 New Haven State Fair for two winter landscapes. Although he had some training in portrait work, Durrie was self-taught as a landscape artist. He was undoubtedly influenced both by the American Hudson River School, and also by European artists, by studying exhibitions of their work at the New Haven Statehouse, the Trumbull Gallery, and at the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford, as well as in New York City. Durrie himself exhibited regularly, both locally, and in New York City at the National Academy of Design and the American Artists’ Union, and his reputation grew. Durrie was especially known for his snow pieces, and would often make copies or near-copies of his most popular pieces, with modifications to order.  The landscapes painted by Durrie offered a more intimate view than the panoramic landscapes painted by the Hudson River School, which was the leading school of American landscape painting. Colin Simkin notes that Durrie’s paintings took in a wide angle, but still “close enough to be within hailing distance” of the people who are always included in his scenes.

Currier and Ives

Durrie’s early landscapes were often of local landmarks, such as East Rock and West Rock, and other local scenes, which were popular with his New Haven clients, and he painted numerous variations of popular subjects. As his portrait commissions declined, Durie concentrated on landscapes. He wanted a wider audience, and he seemed to have a good sense of what would sell. Durrie realized that his paintings would have a wider appeal if he made them as generic New England scenes rather than as identifiable local scenes, retaining, as Sackett said, “a sense of place without specifying where that place was.” The New York City lithographic firm of Currier & Ives knew their audience; the American public wanted nostalgic scenes of rural life, images of the good old days, and Durrie’s New England scenes fit the bill perfectly. Lithographic prints were a very democratic form of art, cheap enough that the humblest home could afford some art to hang on the wall. Durrie had been marketing his paintings in New York City, and Currier and Ives, who had popularized such prints, purchased some of Durrie’s paintings in the late 1850s or early 1860s, and eventually published ten of Durrie’s pictures beginning in 1861. Four prints were published between 1861 and the artist’s death in New Haven in 1863; six additional prints were issued posthumously.

The popularity of Durrie’s snow scenes received an additional boost in the 1930s, when the Traveler’s Insurance Company began issuing calendars featuring Currier and Ives prints. Starting in 1946, the January calendar always featured a Durrie snow scene. Historian Bernard Mergen notes that “84 of the 125 paintings attributed to him are snowscapes, more than enough to make him the most prolific snow scene painter of his time.”

In Durrie’s time, winter landscapes were not popular with most curators and critics, but nevertheless, by the time of his death, Durrie had acquired a national reputation as a snowscape painter. Durrie died in 1863, at age 43, probably from typhoid fever, not long after Currier and Ives began reproducing his paintings as prints.

Durrie was dismissed by critics as a popular artist, an illustrator rather than a fine artist. Although Durrie’s Currier and Ives prints were popular, his name was still relatively unknown. But a revival of interest in Durrie began in the 1920s with the publication in 1929 of Currier and Ives, Printmakers to the American People, by collector Harry T. Peters, Sr., who called Durrie’s prints “among the most valued In the entire gallery [of Currier and Ives prints]”, and says that Durrie was known as the “snowman” of the group. [1]

Credits and Attributions:

IMAGE: Gathering Wood for Winter by George Henry Durrie 1855. Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:George Henry Durrie – Gathering Wood for Winter.JPG,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:George_Henry_Durrie_-_Gathering_Wood_for_Winter.JPG&oldid=853995324 (accessed May 1, 2025).

[1]Wikipedia contributors, “George Henry Durrie,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Henry_Durrie&oldid=1282714933 (accessed May 1, 2025).

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February 16, 2026 · 6:00 am

Building strength as a writer #writing

This last week, I edited a paper that my grandson had to submit to his literature class at his college. That experience sparked the realization that many people make it all the way through school without learning even a few of the more common rules for punctuating written English.

"All good writing is swimming under water and holding your breath." Quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald.Yet many of these people have stories they are bursting to write. But they are embarrassed to share them. Or perhaps they shared their first attempt with someone who either brushed them off or was harshly critical.

Many authors just out of school know they lack knowledge of punctuation mechanics but feel unworthy and a little traumatized. They don’t know where to get the information they need. If that is your situation, I have compiled a list of 7 easy-to-remember rules of punctuation, which was posted on May 26, 2025.

Feel free to bookmark that post and refer back to it as needed.

I have learned a great deal by reading the Chicago Manual of Style. It’s a behemoth of a book. Just the thought of reading, much less understanding this doorstop, is daunting to a new writer, and the price for the latest hardcover version is steep.

However, if you learn the seven basic rules discussed in my May 26th post, your work will be acceptable to most people. I will add links to several other good, affordable books on craft at the end of this post.

First of all, good writing conveys the most information with no unnecessary words. Bad writing is not a sin, if we understand that many problems can be resolved in the second draft, the stage known as revisions.

Passive phrasing, skipped punctuation, and garbled cut-and-paste issues are all codes for the author. The overuse of modifiers and descriptors are first-draft signals that tell us what we need to rephrase or show more clearly.

For example:

  1. The tree was actually covered in red leaves.

This is a simple, passively phrased sentence, but it is properly punctuated. The sentence begins with a capital letter, as it should, and ends with a period (full stop). However, it is an example of bad writing, the kind of thing we lay down in the first draft when we are just trying to get the whole story down.

It is passive rather than active, and the word “actually” isn’t necessary.

  1. Red leaves covered the tree.

The revision expresses the same idea, using many of the same words. It is active, and by rephrasing it, we conveyed the same idea with fewer words. The author moved the noun and its descriptor (red leaves) to the front of the sentence, followed by the verb (covered) and the subject of the sentence (the tree). The author also removed the words “was” and “in” because they aren’t needed and would have fluffed up the word count.

  • Using too many words to convey an idea leads to run-on sentences. It confuses the reader and makes what could be good scenes uninteresting.

The order in which you place your words changes the tone of the narrative. When I begin revisions, I do a global search for “ly” words. I look at each instance and see how they fit into that context.

I also look for passive phrasing and the various forms of “to be,” such as was, were, and had been. They are needed in some places, but overuse of them weakens the prose.

If a word or phrase weakens the narrative, I change it to a simpler form or remove it and rewrite the sentence.

Many power words begin with hard consonants, such as backlash, beating, beware, etc.I DON’T recommend going through and getting rid of every adjective or adverb, although some gurus will say just that. They forget that words like bare are adjectives, and so is barely. Many descriptors and modifiers are power words.

  • If you take out the power words, you gut your prose.
  • Also, words like every and very are part of larger words, such as everything. Cutting those words via a global search will ruin your manuscript.

Context is everything. Take the time to look at each example of the offending words and change them individually. You have already spent months writing that novel. Why not take a few days to do the job well?

Sentence structure matters. Where you place an adjective relative to the noun they are describing affects a reader’s perception. Adjectives work best when showing us what the point-of-view characters see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. The following sentence is an example I have used before:

Sunlight glared over the ice, a cold fire in the sky that cast no warmth but burned the eyes.

In the above sentence, the essential parts are structured this way: noun – verb (sunlight glared), adjective – noun (cold fire), verb – adjective – noun (cast no warmth), and finally, verb-article-noun (burned the eyes). Lead with the action or noun, follow with a strong modifier, and the sentence conveys what is intended but isn’t weakened by the modifiers.

The above scene could be shown in many ways, but a paragraph’s worth of world-building is pared down to 19 words, three of which are action words.

William Shakespeare understood the beauty and strength that powerful words written with minimal fluff can add to ordinary prose. Consider this line from his play, As You Like It, written in 1599:

It strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room. — As You Like It, Wm. Shakespeare, 1599.

Some words that create an atmosphere of anxiety. Agony, apocalypse, Armageddon, assault, backlash, pale, target, terrorize.What brilliant imagery Shakespeare employed in that sentence. He used strong words with powerful meaning: strikes, dead, great, reckoning, and little. Those words have visual impact. They convey emotion, which is what we all hope to do with our work.

As your reward for reading this post, here is the list of my current favorite books on the craft of writing. I suggest getting these in hardback, as it is much easier to find what you need. They can also be found used on Amazon, an option for cash-strapped authors.

To learn the basics:

The Chicago Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Punctuation ($11.99 US for Kindle, $22.11 hardcover). Great reference material at much lower cost than the Chicago Manual of Style, which runs around $55.00 or more.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms: ($5.99 Kindle, $19.99 hardcover). Find the alternatives to crutch words and learn to use them to the best effect.

To learn ways to fine-tune your manuscript:

Activate: a thesaurus of actions & tactics for dynamic genre fiction ($7.99 Kindle, $23.99 paperback). Written by Damon Suede, this is a great primer to help you write lean, descriptive prose.

Damn Fine Story ($15.99 Kindle, $18.99 paperback). Written by Chuck Wendig, this book is filled with information about how stories are constructed to help you write a cohesive narrative.

Examine the 8 forms of the words "to be." Decide if they work in the context you are using them.

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