I'm totally the bomb with cornerspeak now...for a suburban white girl. You feel me?(I'd better stop. Linguistic earworm.) Who knows? The book tanks, I may have a future in "freelance pharmaceuticals"...nah. Don't like the retirement plan. I feel pretty Best.Description.Evah. Smart is sexy.

That's a good point, Susan. If someone picks up a book or story, they've at least shown an interest in the tropes.

Anne, mine evolved out of a class I took at the local community college. And there are several critique groups within my RWA chapter--that's how I met my critique partner who also writes Regencies. So I'd say look for writing classes or join a writers organization.

I tried the library. That group sucked.

Hey.

I am fine with long, elegant sentences, preferably broken in mid-thought by the judicious use of the semi-colon; it allows the reader a very quick breath.

I have no trouble with description. It's a thing. But I try to write periods in which I have some familiarity. I don't necessarily agree with "write what you know", but "know what you write" makes some sense to me.

Oh, look who's back. How were the trips?

I don't necessarily agree with "write what you know", but "know what you write" makes some sense to me.

Love this.

mine evolved out of a class I took at the local community college

This was basically how I found the great group I was a part of back in SF.

Oh, look who's back. How were the trips?

Well, I'm no longer puking my guts out, and neither is Nic, which is a good thing, since we put over 1000 miles on the fucking car this weekend.

Trip was fine. Bookstore ran out of copies of FFoSM and had to buy three of mine, which they got at a discount, and for which they paid cash. Nic called it the purest example of "will write for food" he'd ever seen; we took the money and had dinner with it.

I am not, however, particularly "back". Our house and lives will be in complete chaos for another week; the floors are being done and the house is the seventh level of hell right now.

This week's topics is opposites? Huh. Good topic. Will consider when awake and functional.

We actually have an empty chair in my twice-monthly writers group at the moment, since one of our writers, Ken Howard Wilan, had to move back to Boston and is now part of the online segment only.

I wish I had done that...actually talked to Hottie Poet Physics Guy...invited him to, uh, enjoy my criticism. He was so gorgeous, and wrote these beautiful poems about quarks.