Happy Mardi Gras! And Lunar New Year! Cool these harbingers of spring fall on the same day this year. I’m having a bit of cognitive dissonance: my senses tell me it’s July and my calendar tells me it’s late winter. I’ve missed another day of blogging, but I had a bunch of housekeeping errands to run yesterday afternoon. And anything I do in the heat really zaps my energy.
Tariff Critiques
Speaking of errands, I journeyed to the post office to buy stamps and mail my postcards, only to learn that Barbados has no mail service to the United States. Yet another unintended (I presume!) consequence of the US tariff vagrancies. It has something to do with the de minimis rule. I guess I’ll mail these cards after I get to the US. So, you dear blog readers, are the only ones at home getting quasi real-time dispatches from the Caribbean.
Story Critiques
Yesterday morning the Wayward Wormhole writing retreat continued with group critiques for Premee Mohamed’s pod. Premee runs these sessions a bit differently than the more academic settings I’ve experienced in the past.
Traditionally, each member of the critique group talks about how the work itself adheres to or falls short on several commonly accepted principles of writing craft. It is not a critique of the author or their possible intentions or even how much you loved or hated the story. We are careful to not say, “you did this” or “what did you mean by that?” Other people might chime in, but generally you are supposed to respect other people’s time on the floor. The author of the piece being critiqued must keep their mouth shut until the very end, when they might ask for some clarification. I expect the main reason for this format is to avoid altercations.
Our critiques here at the Wormhole were a delicious story-craft nerdy discussion lead by the instructor, and the writers were free to ask and answer questions and contribute to the feedback. It was so collegial and informative.
Meanwhile, enjoy yourself with my latest novel, The Talking Cure.
“The Talking Cure is a marvelous story—an Agatha Christie-style murder mystery infused with a strong sense of the Weird… and a hearty dose of magic on the side. It’s ideal for all fans of the sinister, the surprising, and the strange.”
—Cherie Priest, award-winning author of Boneshaker
Find The Talking Cure at these fine locations:
Left Bank Books in St. Louis
Have you ever had a performance or piece of art critiqued by a group or partner? What methods would be most helpful? Comment on the blog.
If you enjoyed this blog about critiques, you might like to read about Writers Workshops.
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Wolfhearted is also available as an Audible audiobook, here.
Earlier this year, St. Louis Writers Guild published Weird STL, an anthology celebrate the strange, spooky, and just plain wonderful stories of our hometown. This volume of short stories, poems, a play, and essays includes a Sean Joye universe short story, “Big Magick.” Joseph Arwald, one of the baddies from The Big Cinch, tells us what really happened to the Ferris Wheel from the St. Louis 1904 World’s Fair.
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The direct link to review Wolfhearted on Amazon is here, The Resurrectionist, here, and Water of Life, here. Thanks in advance.