Writing with an Irish Lilt

Writing Lesson:

Kevin Hearne wrote a nice Irish-oriented book -- Hounded, the first part of his Iron Druid Chronicles trilogy -- a well conceived fantasy.  His druid uses magic to work iron into his spells while he plays with the Tuatha De Danaan.  Maybe that's why this last of the druids has managed to survive 2000+ years.  

Don't get me wrong, Hearne has a firm grasp of Irish mythology, much better than many writers I've read.  He really manages to make the god characters fit in the modern world while, at the same time, they don't understand our foibles.
  

His set up of the druid is just as knowledgeable.  No new-age druid knock-offs for him.  The magic his protagonist uses fits seamlessly into the plot while he's trying to save his wolfhound's life as well as his own.  Each appearance of a god may seem idyllic -- until all hell breaks out and the tension winds tighter.  The best part?  Hearne managed to tie up all the loose ends and give the reader a neat forshadowing for the next book.  --  Any time spent studying his chapter arcs will be time well-spent.

And, what a nice feeling, it was, to see the book on my grocery store bookshelves -- an actual big publisher book by a blogger [Writer's Grove] I read and comment at regularly. But that doesn't make me biased.  I would have put the book on my trade pile and not mentioned it, if I didn't like it.  I liked the Irish voice and the Irish setting [in Arizona, for a good logical reason without belaboring the back story] a lot.  

Web Links:

I'm sure I use Twitter the wrong way lots of times when I tweet.  Nathan Bradford gives a run down on how to tweet correctly to give the most exposure to your comments:  How to Use the Twitter @Reply.  

Guess I'm in a Twitter vein.  Thanks to the AW Water Cooler Promotion forum, I found the new blog LKWatts Confessions.  She has a piece: Marketing Useful Tips.  Since I picked up an idea from her, I thought I'd share it.  On the same page, she talks about Twitter too.  If you're puzzled by hashtags [#], you should give her a click.

Since Twitter is a prime networking site, let's talk about another type of Networking.  Tamela Buhrke at Chiseled Rock blogged about networking with critiquers and agent/editors.  Interesting.  As I often said, good critiquers are worth their weight in gold ... or is that royalties?

 Progress:

I've managed to beta and critique a couple people's manuscripts.  Still, have some more stuff to go.  I'd use this as an excuse for being late in posting the blog, but I can't.  I wasted a whole day when my old man had cataract surgery [which, while not serious, is still a pain in the a*&@].

It's not all bad.  I only have four more chapters of Demons to edit.  Hope to have it done over the week-end.  But then, I thought that last Friday.

Trivia:

I found a new hobby -- as if I didn't have enough drags on my time -- bad haiku.  I'll be posting them on Facebook and Twitter ... and archive them here if I can figure out how to set up the page.  But, first ...  I have to get the fan page link for the Far Isle Half-Elven up on my website.

Sigh, a writer's work is never done.