Writing News
This week I finished up my Maya research. Well, sort of. I plan on finishing my last couple of descriptions of Mayan ruin photos today. I ended up finding six books out of the pile that dealt with the Mayans and were helpful. Some of them were about the Aztecs, and some of them were ancient children’s stories. You know the kind…don’t wander into the forest or the wild man will bewitch you and drag you away by the hair to live in a tree house forever while he licks your feet. I kid you not. Licks your feet! That one was not so helpful.
But Ancient Mexico by Maria Longhena was an absolute treasure trove. It has glorious (and large) photos of tons of Mayan ruins and even little maps of some of them so that when I have my characters stumbling around in some ancient ruins in the dark I don’t have to say things like: “Keziah sprinted towards some random crumbled building hoping to avoid the slavering fangs and meaty hair-pulling hands of the Enormo Gorilla of Destruction!” No no. I can tastefully say things like: “Keziah sprinted past the Temple of the Warriors hiding amidst the many skillfully carved pillars of the Hall of a thousand columns, and while she was stifling her gasps for air after running for her life from the slavering fangs and meaty hair-pulling hands of the Enormo Gorilla of Destruction she took the time to admire the beautiful bas-relief carvings of Mayan warriors in full wartime regalia dancing across the aforementioned pillars.” Much better don’t you think? Anywho…if you have an interest in such things this book is truly marvelous.
I also moved all of my previous mumblings from the “Bulletin Board” part of the site into this Blog. Obviously. I wrote down lots of quotes about Mayan life and have written several detailed descriptions of the aforementioned marvelous photos of Mayan ruins. Fun fun fun. Oh, have I mentioned that I am re-reading Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass. And this time instead of just reading it for fun and pointlessly dreaming, after every section I write on a sticky note one way that I can use the info in my next work in progress (WIP). It has been very helpful. I’ve found all sorts of new ways to terrorize my protagonist. Well, I better stop there. I almost started listing all of her many trials and tribulations and that would be giving away super secret, top secret, even private information! My protagonist would be most un-pleased.
