Hats, Boots, & Chocolate

      Welcome back! Today I'm starting yet another new series, this time about various different herbs, why I love them and think they're cool, and a few different ways they can be used.     Today's spotlight is the stinging nettle, Latin name Urtica dioica.       I know. Since when did anybody  like stinging nettles?     But as careful as I am when considering the nettles growing in my sister's herb garden, when I started doing research into them for story purposes, I couldn't help but fall in love.     So what do nettles do, anyway?     According to Herbs and Old Time Remedies  (lovingly and somewhat mockingly called 'Elia's favorite book' by my sister, because I reference it so often), nettle is a valuable source of food. When used as a pot herb, or steamed and added to a salad, the nettle's stinging hairs get softened by the hot water so they can't sting you anymore, making it much more convenient to acc...

    Welcome back to my Clean Books series! Here are another five entries to help you along your reading journey! Entry #1:  Minor Mage,  by T. Kingfisher.     It's not as good as the other book I recommended from this author, and it has surprisingly dark themes for being a middle-grade fantasy novella. But I enjoyed it, and the armadillo is hilarious, and it's definitely worth reading. Entry #2: The Rush Revere  series, by Rush Limbaugh     Want to learn American history? Pick up a history book.     Want to learn American history without falling asleep in the process? Pick up these books.      Another non-fantasy entry on my list of fantasy books (sorry), these books are amazing and I highly recommend them for any young readers.     Although, I could probably classify Liberty as fantasy...     No further spoilers; go look it up and read it for yourself. Entry #3: The Girl Who Drank the Moon , by Ke...

      It has come to my attention that there are authors in this world who do the bare minimum of research into their stories, and no more. This is not necessarily a bad thing, particularly if you want to get a book out fast and care more about story and character than accuracy (which is in itself no bad thing); however, when someone more educated on the topic comes along, there are a great many outbursts of frustration, irritation, and straight-up amusement and hilarity.     Thus, I am beginning a new series: Writer's Random Facts. In this series, I will be discussing various topics on which I have some information. I am not an expert in any of these topics, but I've watched enough YouTube videos from people who are  experts to have picked up a thing or two--which is more than the author who prompted this post acquired before writing their novel.     Today's Random Facts post has to do with corsets, because that is where this author's most egregi...

The Artist's Sight      “Master, I wish to be your pupil.”      The old man raised his eyes from the bare patch of dirt in front of his seat and considered the young woman standing before him. “I see.”      She was silent a few moments, as though wondering if he would say more, but the old man had learned long ago that silence was frequently the easiest way to get a person to talk.      “I brought my portfolio,” she said at last. “With my finest pieces.”      “I see.” This time the old man did not look up, instead picking up a stick and beginning a sketch in the loose soil between his feet.      “Would you—” She hesitated, clearly unsure of herself, and went on, “Would you like to see them?”      The old man continued sketching with his stick. “You may pull two out of your portfolio, if you wish me to see them,” he said.      He heard a breath—a sound very like ...

    Hi there!     Part of the reason I started this blog is because I love to write, and part of it is because I love encouraging other people to write. So today, I have some writing advice--and some writing resources--for any young authors like myself who might be out there.     If you're not yet a published author, I'd say all of this advice can apply to you; however, don't take anything I say too seriously, because what works for me might not work for you. There are as many ways to write as there are writers, and trying to say that there is only One Way To Write, and that this Way is the only Way that can ever work for anybody, or that this Way will work for everybody... Yeah, that's a massive fallacy. Don't let yourself indulge in it; it'll only bring you grief. Just a tip. ;)     If you've already published some books, congratulations, because you're farther along in the process than I am, and what are you doing looking to me for advice? Of c...

The Patchwork Fiddle      Once upon a time, there was a man who had traveled far and wide, and had seen a great many things in the world.      One day, this man was traveling to a region he had never been to before, and along his way, he found a fiddle on the ground.      Now, this was no ordinary fiddle. This was a broken fiddle, more worn and damaged than any he'd seen before. And this fiddle had seen a great many things, just like the man who stood over it.      It had seen rain. It had seen snow. It had seen days so hot the ground itself steamed.      It had seen animals, too; rats that nibbled on its scroll and pegs, squirrels who stuffed their nuts into it through the gaping cracks it bore, mice who came and nested inside it, living off the nuts the squirrels had left.      As you can imagine, the fiddle was in pretty bad shape. When he saw it lying there on the ground, the man's heart w...