The time has come to say farewell to 2006 and usher in 2007! YAY! 2006 was a rough year for us and I can't wait to kick its arse out the door.

Sticking with tradition I've concocted a list of New Year's Resolutions. I find that if I use the word 'will' instead of 'I'll try' etc. and keep things doable it's easy to obtain most if not all of your goals.

So for 2007 I WILL:

Spend more time with positive friends and family members
Support hubby in his artistic endeavors
Work more with the kiddos
Do my best editing job on Apparitions and get it out to you
Find a home for Night Wing
Have Windigo done by November
Continue to learn and grow in my chosen fields
Work out regularly so I can be around to write for a good long while

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About the Author -
Raven Bower is the author of the upcoming horror novel, Apparitions (ArcheBooks April 2007)

Apparitions Blog

Merry Christmas!

The Christmas season is here and we're close to heralding in a new year! Such a grand time of year!

We're going to be doing the family thing and visiting a dear friend of mine that I haven't seen in two years. And she's pregnant with her first baby. How wonderful is that? I can't wait to see the belly!

In other good news my second novel, the first in a fantasy series -- Night Wing -- is finally done!!! YAY! Due to a hectic year in our family most notably the deaths of three dear family members, it took me a lot longer to complete than I had planned for. But it is now done and the final reader is red-penning it. After that I'll print it, go through it in hard copy again and make corrections. Then it'll be ready to go!

Which means I might have time to actually read a novel over Christmas holidays! I'm so excited! I haven't read a novel since Koontz's last Frankie came out.

Anyway, have a Merry Christmas! Enjoy your company, enjoy the food and drink! The season isn't about worrying about your waist line!

Cheers!
~Raven

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About the author -

Raven Bower is the author of the upcoming horror novel, Apparitions (ArcheBooks April 2007)

Apparitions Blog

I believe...

That the term 'ignorance is bliss' is way off mark. I happened across this link at Writer's Market -- take a gander.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/07/books/07pync.html?_r=1&ref=arts&oref=slogin

I find it truly astounding that the article against McEwan ever found its way to print. Plagiarism is indeed vile and should be stomped ruthlessly when found. However, there is a vast difference between plagiarism and the results of research and proper writing of procedures.

Writers research everything from police procedures to hospital procedures and so on. If the topic is touched on in the novel chances are the writer has spent time researching it. That said, there are realistically only so many ways things are done in this world. Must writers have to incessently find 'new' ways to describe them? If so then not only would our fiction read like tripe but it'd confuse the hell out of readers -- particularly those who do know how things work in a given field.

In this instance, Mr. McEwan is accused of plagiarism because he describes the techniques that a period hospital uses. Without creating such absurdities such as 'He jumped twice, turned in circle, doused the bandage in fuel from an alien ship and then smacked it on his patient' there truly are only so many ways you can apply a bandage.

I find this modern plague of finger pointing and court trials over such flimsy cases of plagiarism disturbing.

Face it folks, nothing 'original' or 'authentic' has been written since the bible and if we include verbal storytelling…nothing new since we learned how to speak. Since days untold writers have been building off of the research and imagination of other writers. Nothing is created from a vacuum and that certainly includes fiction.

____________________

About the Author -

Raven Bower is the author of the upcoming horror novel, Apparitions (ArcheBooks April 2007)

Apparitions Blog