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Steampunk self-pub | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/07/31/steampunk-self-pub

First things first: my fifth NaNoWriMo win! This one’s not as exciting as the last four because my word count goal of 30,000 was significantly lower than the traditional 50,000 words, and the book is not finished, so I’ll have to keep writing it beyond the end of Camp NaNoWriMo. But whatever, I still get my winner banner! In writing this book, I wasn’t so worried about meticulous accuracy or subtle storytelling. I just had fun with it and reveled in everything strange and fun about Victoriana and ste...

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The social benefits of writing, or, The writing benefits of being social | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/the-social-benefits-of-writing-or-the-writing-benefits-of-being-social

The social benefits of writing, or, The writing benefits of being social. Before this week’s post I want to give a shout out to one of my writing buddies, Margaret! You should go check out her blog. Because it’s awesome. Her “About Me” mentions “ science fiction, fantasy and anthropology. 8221; – a winning combo in my book. Following on that, this week I’m going to talk about the importance of community in having a writing life/habit/hobby/career. Image credit William Stolley. And tagged Camp NaNoWriMo.

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Millennials know what they’re doing | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/09/17/millennials-know-what-theyre-doing

Millennials know what they’re doing. Well, at least as much as any generation before us. This week’s post is a call for sanity: can we please, please, stop bashing millennials. Generation Y, Digital Natives, the Me Generation, call it what you will, it’s a common target in the news media and elsewhere. I don’t object because I’m offended. I object because it’s lazy writing and irresponsible journalism. Hey, he could write for the New York Times! For example, take this article in the New York Times. That ...

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First lines | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/11/05/first-lines

8216;s a how-to, and here. 8216;s a how-not-to.) Some novels’ first line. Are so famous that more people know them than have actually read the book they come from. We’re five days into National Novel Writing Month, and I’m still on target with my progress. Obviously NaNoWriMo is about anything BUT editing–it’s all about raw production, just getting the word count onto the page. But I started thinking about first sentences, and wondering how mine measured up. Do you recognize any of these first lines?

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A steampunk by any other name | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/06/11/a-steampunk-by-any-other-name

A steampunk by any other name. Castlepunk, aka plaguepunk, dungeonpunk, middlepunk, candlepunk, etc. This week, I bring you a creative experiment. Let’s create a new world together the world of stonepunk. There’s a tendency in media writing now to call any non- literary book set in a historical period something-punk. It began with steampunk, itself a reference to cyberpunk. Now there’s also sandalpunk. Here are some categories to get you started:. Here’s my take on it:. Main character: a Rebellious Maste...

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The library cave | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/02/19/cave-17

In this post, I’m going to walk through an example of the weird ways inspiration comes when writing a book. Writing historical fiction obviously entails a lot of reading and research. Being a PhD student (which I am) also entails a lot of reading and research. In the course of both, I often run across bizarre stories or interesting characters I couldn’t have invented on my own. I’m clearly not the only one — this process was also employed by the writers of Foyle’s War. When the Japanese invaded Burma&#46...

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Perpetually Perfect Makeup, and other tropes | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/10/01/perpetually-perfect-makeup-and-other-tropes

Perpetually Perfect Makeup, and other tropes. The trope of “manpain” has already been covered extensively by other bloggers and critics. My favorite take on it so far is this essay. And this hilarious video. By the same author). The essay also includes a list of links to related pages on TV Tropes. Or dead little sisters. Or moms, etc. — often a female character “must” be sacrificed in order to move the male protagonist’s story forward, and the focus of the story is on. It’s all too easy to find ex...

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Jammiest bits of jam | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/04/30/jammiest-bits-of-jam

Jammiest bits of jam. Today, I leave you with a list of Victorian slang words that we really should revive. Can you guess the meanings? My, James Carville has a top notch. The cheerleaders at the game were really the. Jammiest bits of jam. Girl, to go traveling around the world by herself. Well, now he’s. We won’t see him down the pub anymore. They all got nibbed by a bunch of mutton shunters, and now they’re in a vamp! Good luck with that last one. (Courtesy of Mental Floss. Not a good solution. Century...

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Post-normal science and the Victorian love affair | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/03/26/post-normal-science-and-the-victorian-love-affair

Post-normal science and the Victorian love affair. Craniometry (the measurement of skulls) is still a part of anthropology, but it has a dark history. This picture illustrates the science of phrenology. Better hope you don’t have a criminal skull shape! I’ve referred before on this blog to the modernist outlook of the Victorian world. One of the defining characteristics of the intellectual life of the time, its zeitgeist, was a love affair with science (p. 435 of A.N. Wilson’s. 8212; Tony McMichael,.

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Year One | Relative Chronology

https://elizabethsberger.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/year-one

It’s New Year’s Eve, and before I go off to prepare some tiny hots dogs and put the bottles of bubbly in the fridge, I wanted to dedicate this post to a brief review of the first year of Relative Chronology. Still one of my favorite Victorian images ever: faux hawk. Paisley. Enough said. See this post. First, THANK YOU to all my followers, commenters, and casual readers! It’s been so much fun to share my ideas and my writing journey with you. As I’ve written about before. WordPress has helpfully provide ...