{"id":527,"date":"2011-07-19T21:25:46","date_gmt":"2011-07-20T04:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=527"},"modified":"2018-07-25T14:39:25","modified_gmt":"2018-07-25T21:39:25","slug":"reading-writing-and-webinars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/uncategorized\/reading-writing-and-webinars\/","title":{"rendered":"Reading, Writing and Webinars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much as I loved reading Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, which I posted about<\/a> previously, I’ve been delighted to dig into something completely different –\u00a0 \"\"<\/a>No Great Mischief <\/em>by Alistair MacLeod , a wizard with prose. I was particularly struck by the following passage, in which the protagonist talks about his brothers.<\/p>\n

“I would see my brothers rolling through the streets in whichever of the battered, rusted, reconstructed cars they were using at the time. In memory, it seems always to be winter, although I know it was not so.\u00a0 Yet they seem to ride most consistently through streets of muffled snow; to glide almost quietly, in spite of their imperfectly tuned engine, through the snow beneath the balding tires and through the flakes that slanted down, yellow and golden before the headlights.”<\/p>\n

Having spent over thirty years in Winnipeg and endured many a long winter, I can see\u00a0 the movie Alistair MacLeod has conjured up so brilliantly with his words. This novel is not a page turner, rather a book that entices you to savor the words in the story. And it’s not just the words that keep me enthralled, it’s the family he portrays here.\u00a0 The characters are so rich in detail; they come alive with all their sorrows and their joys.\u00a0 \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Although this photo to the right was taken on my recent cruise to Alaska, it was a fitting scene to ponder as I read No Great Mischief. <\/em>Let me just say, ice figures in the author’s story.<\/p>\n

As for my own writing, I’ve begun dusting off my first novel The Rubber Fence<\/em>, in hopes of seeing it published in the near future. Whether I go the traditional route or try self-publishing, time will tell.<\/p>\n

So, with tons of questions in mind, I tuned into a free webinar put on today by the Author Learning Center<\/a>. The topic was 7 Tips to Digital Publishing Success\u00a0 by literary agent, Laure MacLean. I was so impressed by her generosity. She spelled out clearly the steps a writer can take to get themselves known and how to take advantage of\u00a0 e-publishing opportunities. It was only an hour’s talk, but by the end of it, I was both encouraged and inspired.\u00a0 Now, I’m anxious to get started.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Much as I loved reading Stieg Larsson’s trilogy, which I posted about previously, I’ve been delighted to dig into something completely different –\u00a0 No Great Mischief by Alistair MacLeod ,… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[72,71,73,9,29,74],"class_list":["post-527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-writing","tag-alistair-macleod","tag-laurie-maclean","tag-no-great-mischief","tag-novel","tag-stieg-larsson","tag-webinar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-8v","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":136,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-novel\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":0},"title":"The Novel: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"24 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am currently engrossed in reading The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. At first, I wasn't sure about starting it, as I heard the film was extremely violent. But films and books are so different. I've rarely found a film work well from a book I've liked.\u00a0\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":224,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/ramping-up-the-tension\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":1},"title":"Ramping up the tension","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"28 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm just about finished reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest. I find it fascinating to see how Stieg Larsson ramps up the tension as he progresses through his story. He has so many balls in the air, so many characters and sub-plots that by the last eighth of\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":168,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/prologues\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":2},"title":"Prologues","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"3 \u0411\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0437\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In my second novel, I wrote a prologue. I've agonized over it, as it's not short. As an avid reader, I've had mixed feelings about reading prologues, sometimes enjoying them, and sometimes feeling it's taken the author too long to get going. So, I went online to see what others\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":493,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-battle-over-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":3},"title":"The Battle Over Words","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"14 \u041b\u0438\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Awhile ago, I wrote about Stieg Larsson's books, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and his sequels and how impressed I was with his ability to write a page turning novel. As many of his fans know, there's a battle now going on about who owns the words that were\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/film-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/07\/the-wife-with-the-angry-memoir1-300x195.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":147,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/the-ending-of-a-novel\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":4},"title":"The Ending of a Novel","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"26 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I finished reading Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon and was more than satisfied with the ending. The fact that it ended without tying up everything was a bonus. Real life isn't neat, even though we wish it was at times. It's curious as well, that immediately upon finishing\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/more-on-the-novel\/","url_meta":{"origin":527,"position":5},"title":"More on the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"25 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In\u00a0 discussing the Stieg Larsson's novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, with a friend yesterday, I was reminded about why I like reading this book so much. She mentioned the author's mingling of social commentary with his story. I've always regarded Sweden as this sexually liberal country that was\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}