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Updates Made by Deren Hansen
Wednesday, February 18, 2015 5:55:33 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled The Alyscrai - Chapter 2: The Queen of Heaven:
Deren said, "Chapter 2: The Queen of HeavenThree Years LaterAlysseren, her hair spreading like dark fire over her snowy robes, stood with the other initiates at the head of the throng gathered around the broad sheep field below the newly finished church at New..." more
Tuesday, February 17, 2015 6:45:27 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled The Alyscrai - Chapter 1: Fflwdw-llynwyn:
Deren said, "Chapter 1: Fflwdw-llynwynThe thought of being so wicked had been thrilling, almost intoxicating.The reality was uncomfortable and dull.It had been easy enough for Alysseren to slip under the pews at the end of the common service while everyone else..." more
Wednesday, February 11, 2015 5:13:05 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Dunlith Hill Announces The Alyscrai:
Deren said, "“Rumors about a war machine, a self-propelled metal tower bristling with guns and tentacles, were the stuff of nonsense.”Dunlith Hill is pleased to announce that D.H. Aidan's The Alyscrai, Book I of The Looking Glass of Souls, is now..." more
Wednesday, February 4, 2015 7:02:48 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Surviving the Writing Life Set (Nearly) Free:
Deren said, "The ease with which an e-book may be revised and released is one of the powerful features of the new electronic publishing platforms.Surviving the Writing Life, the first Dunlith Hill Writers Guide, provides an introduction to the series. The..." more
Wednesday, January 28, 2015 5:05:59 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Dunlith Hill Writers Guides Collections:
Deren said, "The Dunlith Hill Writers Guides were originally conceived as a series of concise e-books, each focused on a single topic. As I developed the guides, it became clear that some of the e-books belonged together. In conjunction with the release of..." more
Wednesday, January 21, 2015 5:55:24 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Artisan Publishing:
Deren said, "Artisan PublishingWhy to Choose the Road Less TraveledArtisan Publishing“May you live in interesting times,” is an old Chinese curse, and sounds tame, as curses go, compared to ones that call down withering diseases, plagues of vermin, and the..." more
Wednesday, January 14, 2015 6:18:38 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled What Ever Happened To…:
Deren said, "Planetary alignments are portentous events. Project alignments just mean everything takes longer.This lonely corner of the net has been silent not because of inactivity but its opposite.Writing, while one of many modes of making, is still one of my..." more
Friday, February 28, 2014 12:08:24 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Ideas: Random Name Generators:
Deren said, "A question commonly asked of writers is, "How do you come up with names for characters?" The technique for finding names presented here is a good example of the general habit of wondering how the things you notice came to be that way--which seems..." more
Friday, February 28, 2014 12:08:24 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Ideas: How to See Something Special:
Deren said, "I once heard a rabbi, speaking to a mixed audience, say, "You know the story of the Burning Bush and how Moses turned aside to see it. I like to believe that Moses wasn't the first to see the burning bush, but that he was the first to turn..." more
Friday, February 28, 2014 12:08:24 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Ideas: Strength Through Association:
Deren said, "You've likely heard the spiritual, Dem Bones, and know that the toe bone's connected to the foot bone, and the foot bone's connected to the ankle bone, and so on. It's both an anatomy lesson, of sorts, and reference to the Biblical prophet..." more
Friday, February 28, 2014 12:08:24 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Ideas: Don't Trust the First One:
Deren said, "I've encouraged you not to stop with one good idea. Implicit in that advice was the assumption that you started with a good idea. Being certain that you have a good idea is much harder than recognizing when your idea falls short of good. The..." more
Friday, February 28, 2014 12:08:24 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Ideas: The Hallmarks of a Good Idea:
Deren said, "It seems only proper, after encouraging you to distrust your first idea, that we should look into the question of how you know you have a good idea.Of course, it's not possible to be certain you have a good idea until you test it on others. If it..." more
Friday, February 28, 2014 12:08:24 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Ideas: Think Differently:
Deren said, "Like the old beer commercial where people argued whether the best thing about the brew was that it, "tastes great," or that it's, "less filling," writers persist identifying themselves as, "plotters," or "pantsers."If we must have distinctions, I..." more
Wednesday, September 11, 2013 8:29:39 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Ideas: Don't Stop with One Good Idea:
Deren said, "Animator Patrick Smith, writing at Scribble Junkies, shared some of John Lasseter's advice in a post on the 7 Creative Principles of Pixar.The first principle is, "Never come up with just one idea."Here's how John explains it:“Regardless of..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:26 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Politics and Narrative Conflict:
Deren said, "One of the truisms of storytelling is that your protagonist is only as good as your antagonist. If, like the Monty Python sketch about the self-defense class, your antagonist threatens everyone with (wait for it) a banana, and your protagonist uses..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:26 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled James Patterson Mourns the Passing of our National Literary Culture:
Deren said, "Several weeks ago James Patterson placed an ad in the New York Times Book Review and in Publishers Weekly asking why the federal government "has stepped in to save banks, and the automobile industry, but where are they on the important subject of..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:26 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled What Matters Most: Readers:
Deren said, "The notion that the national book culture we once enjoyed—a consensus about the books everyone who considers themselves literate should have read—is withering under the assault of disruptive businesses and technologies isn’t simply an exercise..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:26 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Traditional Publishers are Actually Trade Publishers:
Deren said, "Whether we call the new mode of publishing self-, indie, or artisan, the most consistently used label for the formerly dominant publishing model is, “traditional.”As people who work with words, we understand how important it is to use the right..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:25 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled The Essence of Writing: Saying What You Mean:
Deren said, "In Fowler's Modern English Usage, (H. W. Fowler, Second Edition, Oxford University Press, 1965) he explains that ambiguity "... misleads the reader only momentarily, if at all, but makes him think the writer a fool for not being able to say what..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:25 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Mind the Gap:
Deren said, "Confession: I've never been to London. But I understand that the Underground is filled with signs encouraging passengers to, "Mind the Gap."It turns out that this subway signage is particularly good advice for writers.By Arz at WikimediaJeanette..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:25 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled The Single Most Important Author Characteristic Insofar as Readers are Concerned: Confidence:
Deren said, "There's an amusing old episode of Red Dwarf in which Lister, the space bum, catches a mutated flu that brings his confidence and paranoia to life as distinct individuals: paranoia as a sniveling hypochondriac and confidence as an American-style..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:25 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Writing Intentionally: Gardners:
Deren said, "Continuing last week's theme on writing intentionally, what do you do if you're a discovery writer? How do you write intentionally if you can't really figure out your intentions until you've written the story and can look back over the ground..." more
Thursday, September 5, 2013 7:07:25 PM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled Writing Intentionally: Architects:
Deren said, "As I mentioned last week, there's a general belief that writers fall into one of two camps: outliners or architects, and discovery writers or gardeners. I'm not convinced that the distinction is real. In fact, I argue that the camps are simply..." more
Thursday, February 19, 2015 7:07:40 AM
Deren Hansen wrote a blog post titled The Alyscrai - Chapter 3: The High Service:
Deren said, "Chapter 3: The High ServiceReverend Dodgson conducted the common service in front of the Queen, the Reverend Lords Griffin and Tuttle, Reverend Master Tlaloc, and an overflowing crowd. Alysseren had never seen the reverend so self-conscious—and..." more