Classics Considered

Several months back, I mentioned I've been writing a pseudo-Victorian novel for 3 years.  I talked about the literary inspirations and characters - not to compare my writing with such greats (hardly that!), but to give you a gist of what the story's like. April is Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and my plan is to make a final push to finish the rough draft. (I know, I said that in November, but work life had other plans. )  Would any of you be interested in reading the rough draft?  By "rough," I mean lightly edited and fully readable.  However, because I wrote it for NaNoWriMo (word-count marathon), some parts are overly wordy and others parts are admittedly corny.  :P It'd be quite motivating for me to complete the ending if there were readers waiting for it.  More importantly, I'd be grateful for your comments, especially honest, constructive criticism.  At this point, I've spent so much time with this project, it's los...

Reading Something not immediately evident from this blog is that I'm a recent "fan" (for lack of a more precise word) of Soren Kierkegaard 's writings.  His book Works of Love changed my life in 2016, but being so profound in topic, it was not a book I felt comfortable writing a review on.  I did review Fear and Trembling , though once again, not delving too deeply as I felt myself inadequate of completely analyzing it.  I approach philosophy as outsider, not from the "ground up," so many cross-references are a bit lost on me.  However, there's something addictive about Kierkegaard in particular that makes the struggle worthwhile.  It's like listening to the ramblings of a friend who would be incredibly obnoxious if he weren't so incredibly brilliant, even obviously to outsiders like me.    The Concept of Anxiety has sat on my bookshelf for a while.  Right now I'm going through a great deal of anxiety (though not the worst I've ...

Thanks to all who expressed interest in my NaNoWriMo project!  The challenge officially starts at midnight, tonight, but I probably will start tomorrow afternoon.  My goal is not necessarily to reach 50k words, but to finish my long-running novel in progress. Tales of Calantha is the code name for the novel - a story that originated in my head about ten years ago and which I've been seriously writing for the past couple of years.  Lately I've described it as half-spoof, half-serious combination of different Victorian tropes and themes, especially from Gothic novels.  In this post, I thought it would be fun to go over different elements of the story and some real Victorian novels that inspired it. Setting Brimshaw - Inspiration:  Thornfield Hall from Jane Eyre An old house situated on a cliff in an isolated forest.  Inside, it's a mishmash of Baroque architecture, collectibles, and curiosities...plus the obligatory secret passage!   ...