#@dduane
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Mr. Morwood, I have enjoyed your blog for quite a while and I have a question.
I have been writing since I was a kid and it's always been the only part of my life that I never stress over. Maybe the story is good; maybe it's not-- the important thing is that I had fun writing it. Even writer's block was rarely a problem. I could either take a break and wait it out or just Write Something Anything, and the words would start to flow like always.
For almost the past year, the words won't come. I can come up with ideas, sure, but when I sit down at the keyboard the sentences are clunky and my brain feels like a cat being given a pill. That's the worst part-- I'm fine with writing badly but this just isn't fun like it used to be. I've tried all the classic tricks, tried giving it time, tried finishing old projects, starting new ones, different font. Same result.
Since you're an experienced writer I hope I'm not out of line in asking, what do you do to break writer's block? How do you call the words back?
I wish I knew, but the state of my own WIP folder is an indication that I don't, and your comment (bolded) is one I can appreciate.
That's the worst part-- I'm fine with writing badly but this just isn't fun like it used to be. I've tried all the classic tricks, tried giving it time, tried finishing old projects, starting new ones, different font. Same result.
Confronted with all The Usual Suggestions, I can add the one which isn't there: have you tried reverting to pen / pencil / notebook and writing in longhand "for spontaneity"?
I'm somewhat acquainted (heh!) with a much better, more experienced writer than me, so I'm going to tag @dduane in on this.
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How did my dash know this was actual canon dialogue from The Search For Spock?
(As always, @adestroy's cartoons are a gift)
#star trek#star trek tos#leonard mccoy#spock#spones#bones mccoy#the search for spock#star trek iii#star trek iii: the search for spock#adestroy#subversivegrrl#dduane#beastlyanachronism#cw swearing
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After seeing it on tumblr for years now, I finally joined the ranks of hundreds? thousands? of people who have made @dduane's Aggressively Garlicked Lamb.
It's really good! Different from other lamb dishes I've had before. Rather than disguise or lighten the, shall we say "robust" flavor of the lamb with acids, crusts, or complex herbs, the garlic simply rises up and enters a full-on cage match with the lamb. I used 2 bulbs and I could have used 3. The result is not at all subtle, but delicious and comforting. Bring the strongest Cabernet you have to the show for a savory, hearty tavern brawl in your mouth. Perfect for a cold winter night.
Honestly I'm prolly gonna have to go buy The Door Into Shadow now just to enjoy the fictional version of this real-life treat.
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I was so cool and fine and normal about Dairine Callahan at age ten (I was NOT, I was SO NOT NORMAL, and I have never become normal about her, she is a childhood blorbo and I have been rotating her like a 90’s windows screen saver for twenty-two years)
#my art#young wizards#dduane#DAIRINE 4LYFE#i love her so much#i wanted to be a wizard so bad#SPACE WIZARD SPACE WIZARD SPACE WIZARD
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I just wanted to say thank you for your post about horses and the knowledge gap, because 1) it was super knowledgeable and easy to understand, and as a historical fiction writer helps to make my job easier which makes it a lovely tool to have, and
2) there was a tidbit about people with fat bodies still being able to be fat and accomplished riders, and I can't tell you how much it warmed me to my soul to read that. I don't know if it was directly your intention or not to combat the constant barrage of fatphobia we human beings are exposed to in many societies, but it is so hard to convince people that a truly healthy body can be fat and strong and athletic. As a fat liberation activist in my spare time, it was so refreshing to read in a piece that wasn't directly related to fat acceptance or liberation, and dealt with in such a casual, no-big-deal kind of way. It really made my day!
Plus, I got to read all about HORSIES! I've tried to do a lot of research about the human-horse relationship for my work, but there were some things I'd never come across, like the fact that horses can't throw up. That's one of those "things you'd only know if you know the thing" facts that really informs how I shape the details–and I see that you're a writer yourself, so no wonder you understand how to craft useful information for writer and reader alike.
Anyway, I loved this post for all sorts of reasons, and I hope your day is going well.
Thank you so much! And I did indeed include the comment about "fat people could be excellent horse riders" to clap-back at fatphobia.
The only major factor about a person's body weight when riding a horse is whether the rider's weight is more than 30% of the horse's, and that weight limit only applies to weight applied directly onto the horse's spine; they can handle A LOT more weight when they're pulling it, like a carriage, rather than carrying it flat on their backs. Most standard-sized breeds of horses can't handle riders that weigh more than about 250-300lbs, but that's only due to the size of the breed of horse. We mostly had Quarterhorses at the ranch, which are kinda like the standard all-rounders of the horse world in the US; they're good riding horses, not tremendously expensive compared to other breeds, good specialist horses when needed, and generally have pretty even and mellow temperaments vs. other breeds, but they're also mid-range in size and not good for fatter riders purely because it can injure or kill the horse, not because anyone wants to shame you for your weight.
If you're fat and you want to ride? Then the size of your horse can be matched to your weight in order to maximize both your safety and the horse's. The only time I was ever forced to tell a fat person they couldn't ride at the teaching ranch I worked at was when the person's body weight exceeded what the horse's size could handle, and if we could, we'd just pair the person with a larger horse that could handle bigger people in the saddle. However, there were a couple of people that were so big that we literally didn't have any horses in-house that could carry them (again, the 30% weight ratio rule), and had to refund their money and turn them away with a sincere apology and a recommendation to other places to try that had larger breeds.
And yes! You could still be visibly fat AND in amazing riding shape! Fat equestrians have been A Thing for thousands of years! Even Henry VIII was considered to be one of the best equestrians of his time and even specialized in dressage! Just like with professional weight lifters, body fat =/= unhealthy in riders. It's just that so much of the real workout in riding takes your entire body that rather than dropping a bunch of weight from riding to put on muscle in A Place, your body is building muscle underneath your body fat in All The Places, so there isn't a lot of visible weight loss in a lot of riders. If anything, you may gain a little bit of weight just from the muscle you're putting on from learning to ride. It still means you're getting exercise and putting on healthy muscle! Anyone who looks sideways at you if you're fat and a regular horseback rider is seriously just being fatphobic and has 0 understanding of realistic horseback riding. Fuck 'em. Love your curves like you love your horse: you both deserve it.
Writers, this also means that your scene depicting your main protagonist riding with the secondary protagonist on the same horse IS NOT REALISTIC. Horses usually CANNOT carry more than one adult rider (carrying a small child or baby is different) for long without serious injury, or even getting a broken spine. Horses also cannot handle the shock of you "jumping" into the saddle from a tall height (example: Robin Hood: Men In Tights). If you were to try to jump from a high spot and land in a horse's saddle, not only would you probably break your hip and seriously damage Everything In Your Crotch, but you can also snap the horse's spine and kill it in a horrific, godawful way.
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I was so tired I didn't realize these were two separate posts
I was just like wow...your bedroom is huge...
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@dduane idk you but this happened on my Tumblr dash and I was like "huh well that's not right"
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(snickering) What…? Seems obvious.
DIANE AND PETER PLEASE
#star trek#star trek novels#@petermorwood#@dduane#and just imagine what the commercials on the intragalactic entertainment feeds would look like#😏
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I'm in the middle of reading one of the star trek tos pocket books, this one is by Ms dduane and has been wonderful so far! She's captured the feeling of a tos episode in the unique aliens, characterization, and intriguing plot beautifully. This is the cover for any interested parties
I noticed something peculiar about the art here, it's a very small detail but still present!
What's this I see? Why, I believe those are the braids of the second in command! But wait a minute...
Bones' long sleeve uniform has different braids, as he's in charge of his department but not in the direct chain of command (kirk, then spock, then scotty). He may be fourth but that's not the point
My theory is that the artist for this cover used a still from one of the episodes as a reference for the pose, which is completely fair when you're trying to capture realistic detail like hand position and cloth folds. And, since spock is also in blue, it would be easiest to use a pose where spock is sitting in the command chair
I couldn't find the exact pose they used, but this is the most visually similar. Entirely possible they made some minor adjustments to small things! And such a minor detail as command rank braids isn't necessarily on an artists mind when their making a piece (aware of the show but not a fan, I believe that's how James Blish was when he began the novelization of episodes)
It's just a fun little thing I noticed and thought would be fun to share 😊
#200 iq play is the concept of 'kirk putting bones in charge means his rank has jumped temporarily and he has to change his shirt#'#which would be so fucking silly i love#star trek#tos#the original series#spock#kirk#bones#mccoy#star trek novels#pocketbooks#dduane
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well that's brownies sorted at least.
#my posts#tumblr#dash did a thing#I don't think sreegs spider is a good substitute for any of the other things though#dduane#continuants#legitimately#sreegs
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To honor the beginning of our friend's Johnathan's misfortunes, I made some paprikash. (Mind you, I usually pair them with knedliks from slightly different region, because my family really loves them).
Happy Dracula daily to those who celebrates!
#dracula daily 2024#Yes i now get intense yearning for that dish in the early may#Best of luck to those who joined for the first time#Prepare yourselves#Feel free to ask for recipe#Though dduane also posted one
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Ask Diane Duane, it's likely she wrote it. Seriously!
One thing that's funny about "ancient" fandoms, is when newbies are very confused about how certain new lore apparently weaves into the story with "no foreshadowing" so they try and write up these really deep theories about why these things happen using the more well known instalments. And then some old Enoch-mofo comes along and is like "Actually that part of the lore was explained 20+ years ago in some throwaway line, they mentioned it like twice back then, and it's still canon even if no one fucking remembers that lore-origin. But they occasionally still build on that part even if it was never explained again." it's funny, old and new meeting. : D Also made me realise how much hidden knowledge old fandom folk have, because some 20+ fandoms might have a lot of lost media in some form or other.
--
I'm suddenly reminded of lierdumoa's post about that Vulcan from First Contact.
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..,.,.oh fuck me, JANUARY is gonna have to be the Month Off Of Words, huh
#text#personal#writing#RIP me :(#i think ive suspected this for a while#and i think ive deconditioned myself from big fast typing (on top of. yknow. office job again.)#but i didnt type last year and i havent put driscoll revisions in En Masse in. years.#anyway. its taking longer than i thought it would (like everything fucking does).#AND dduane just reblogged something relevant about it and im heavy sigh in my cube 😂😭#winter does suck for creative things for me. idk. i want to write :(#i want to have Optimal Writing Conditions in which to write.
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dduane is a yank, her husband, petermorwood, is irish. they live in ireland and she holds dual citizenship.
cool!!!!
#thank you person who reblogs dduane enough i thought i was following her when I wasn't#also cant remember when why or how i followed you you've just always been on my dash
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At my air gate, will have contact with yall for a little while yet
I got my pocket trek
And bones has come in with the mood of the century
An absolute mood Ty @dduane
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Genuinely, if you follow me on here there's a good chance you like the same kinds of things I like, and one thing I can tell you is that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THE WRITING OF DIANE DUANE. The Young Wizards series is everything a fan of urban fantasy could possibly want. Also a character heavily implied to be the Doctor shows up for all of one scene in the third book, which is great.
As we continue tweaking prices at the store, and in the wake of the recent price change on the "All The Wizardry" bundle, it made sense to adjust (downward!) the price of the 9-volume New Millennium Edition box set.
So we've done that, reducing it to USD $24.99. (Yay!)
Don't need all the wizardry we've got, but just want the first nine books in the main sequence? The link above is what you want.*
And as the nice men in the commercial used to say, "Thank you for your support!"
(PS: please note that since Kindles don't take Amazon's old .mobi format any more—they've finally finished switching over to the industry-standard .epub format—that's what our Kindle box set now contains. Just in case you were wondering. But if for some reason you prefer to have .mobi files, we can still supply those: just drop us a note via the store's support email.
*Assuming you're not in the UK, as—unfortunately—due to Brexit-related BS, we can't sell directly to you any more. Details are here.
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