From My Fantasy Writing Desk
Looking for a writing workshop to sharpen your skills?
I’m teaching a 3 session class called Intermediate Fiction Workshop. It’ll be online with the Piper Center for Creative Writing, Tuesdays, 5:30-7:30, October 13-27. I’d love you to join me. The upside of online is that anyone anywhere can participate.
In March, I shifted my planned class for Piper to online. It worked remarkably well. It became a lot more work for me to organize and develop in online mode than an in-person class, but the students were enthusiastic afterwards. They told me how much they’d learned. So my effort was worth it, and I’m glad to know how to pull off a good class in this context.
Here’s the course description: This three-session workshop is for writers currently working on a novel or short stories who want to sharpen their craft and participate in structured critique. The instruction will focus on deep point of view, character nuance and dimensions, and plot organization and pacing. We will integrate these topics into students’ practice through generating or revising short scenes within students’ manuscripts. We will discuss these scenes and model how to participate in a supportive, productive critique group. Students will also explore an excellent visual tool for laying out plot that can be adapted to any writers’ style and pantser/plotter inclinations.
Archaeology I Enjoyed
Art for the Ages from the Ice Age
Prehistoric people in the British Isles created artistic designs on rock as early as 15,000 years ago. A team of archaeologists analyzed markings made on a group of flat stones known as plaquettes, uncovered at Les Varines, Jersey. They believe these date from the late ice age. They represent the earliest evidence of artistic expression discovered in the British Isles. The excavation of the stones took place at a controlled site with excellent context to aid in the interpretation and dating of the stones.
The etchings on ten stones show hints of bovine, mammoth and human images, but are largely abstract.
One aspect of this art that intrigued me was the ephemeral nature of what the artists thought they were creating:
“The designs were only briefly viewed by their makers. Engraving soft stone creates a powder within the incisions that makes them visible. This swiftly disperses, meaning that the engravings are only clear at the moment of their making. ‘In this context, the act or moment of engraving, was more meaningful than the object itself.’”
This temporary quality also explains the partial and overlayered images that I see in the photos. Back 15,000 years ago, someone sat by their fire noodling around on a stone, making images, enjoying them, and then watching them blow away. But we get to look at them again now. Gives you shivers, doesn’t it? Click here for Archaeology News Network “Earliest Art In The British Isles Discovered”
Reconstructing the Temple of Bel
Five years after the destruction of the Temple of Bel in Palmyra, Syria, UC San Diego created a digital 3D reconstruction. They used the many photographs taken over the years. You will find this temple, one of the best-preserved examples of ancient architecture in the Middle East until it was blown up by extremists, definitely worth a digital viewing. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Destroyed Temple Of Bel In Syria’s Palmyra Digitally Reconstructed”
If you want to read a novel set in the lost world of Palmyra to go along with this visual recreation, enjoy Libbie Hawker’s, Daughter of Sand and Stone. (My review)