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Cherie Claire
- Jan 24, 2018
- 2 min
What I learned from squirrels
My office overlooks a bird feeder and I cherish watching my birds fly in to enjoy the treats I leave for them. In the winter, the goldfinches arrive in mass. In the summer, baby cardinals are fed by their moms. It's a joy I treasure. And then there's those dang squirrels. I bang on the window, I yell at them, I threaten to put them in a gumbo (you know I really won't) but to no avail. I swear sometimes they turn and give me the bird, pun intended, then continue eating everyth
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Cherie Claire
- Dec 1, 2017
- 2 min
Where do you get those names?
Do you ever wonder where writers come up with names? I like to choose names with meaning. In my current Viola Valentine mystery series, I chose Viola’s name from Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night.” In this comedy of errors, Shakespeare's Viola survives a shipwreck and lands on a strange shore longing to locate her twin brother, Sebastian. She dons man’s clothing because a woman isn’t safe traveling through unknown countries and falls in love with a man who’s in love with a woman w
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Cherie Claire
- Apr 1, 2017
- 2 min
Writing 101: Creating great characters
My favorite part of writing is creating great characters, giving them unusual, quirky and fun traits. Using regional dialects. Making them do interesting things. How many times have you read a story and felt like you lost a friend at its conclusion? Those are great characters! Here are some examples I've found of wonderful fictional character descriptions. “He leaned across the table, his massive face compressing his neck into a series of ripples that fell in a mudslide into
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Cherie Claire
- Mar 25, 2017
- 1 min
Writing 101: Reining in Your Writing
“Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.” — Henry David Thoreau “So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.” — Dr. Seuss Half the work of writing is cleaning the manuscript afterwards. Writers tend to write long and use way too many words (I could have omitted "way" right there, as an example). So once you hit the lovely "The End," your job is not done. It's time to put on the editor
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